Your perfect fixed blade

Thanks for your opinions, gentlemen! They sure have been very enlightening, soplease keep them coming!
 
I have purchased knives that cost as much as many handguns and that purchasing odyssey has lead me to some unlikely favorites. I can't come down on any one of these so I'll list them all in no particular order:

Favorite FB "tactical" is the Ontario RAT-5. I like the blade design, the ergos, and the canvas micarta and expendability. I find 5" to be big enough without verging into unwieldy. The 1095 is good enough and easily resharpened. I do not hesitate to make this knife do anything.

Favorite all arounder is the Bark River Gameskeeper. Convex ground A2 that cuts like a laser and I like that I got to choose green fern fibermascus slabs on a full tang. A great bushcrafting knife, but a much different beast compared to anything else I own except other Barkies.

The one I can quite retire despite having "better" knives is a Jarvenpaa 10 cm carbon steel puukko. Cuts like the toughest box cutter ever made and by far my favorite winter knife for great blade control with gloves on.

Three very different knives, all below $150.00, and I couldn't pick just one because they are all great.
 
Boats said:
I have purchased knives that cost as much as many handguns and that purchasing odyssey has lead me to some unlikely favorites. I can't come down on any one of these so I'll list them all in no particular order:

Favorite FB "tactical" is the Ontario RAT-5. I like the blade design, the ergos, and the canvas micarta and expendability. I find 5" to be big enough without verging into unwieldy. The 1095 is good enough and easily resharpened. I do not hesitate to make this knife do anything.

Favorite all arounder is the Bark River Gameskeeper. Convex ground A2 that cuts like a laser and I like that I got to choose green fern fibermascus slabs on a full tang. A great bushcrafting knife, but a much different beast compared to anything else I own except other Barkies.

The one I can quite retire despite having "better" knives is a Jarvenpaa 10 cm carbon steel puukko. Cuts like the toughest box cutter ever made and by far my favorite winter knife for great blade control with gloves on.

Three very different knives, all below $150.00, and I couldn't pick just one because they are all great.
Click to expand...

I have one of the early Bark River Natchez style bowies along with some old Blackjacks. Those may have the best edge geometry of any factory knife made.
 
For my tastes, the "perfect" fixed blade would be a drop point hunter/camper, with a blade of D-2 or M-2, hardened to RC63-65, 6 inch blade, .200 thick, plenty of belly, straight grind at about 12-14 degrees, large, finger groove Kraton handles, or a good hard wood such as Osage or Red Oak 18LPI checkered like a rifle stock, a full tang, in a "drop down" cordura sheath that puts the knife on the side of the thigh, out of the way until I need it.

I like a good tool steel for it's edge retention. A 6 inch blade is a "little" short for a general camp/trail knife, and a "little" bit long for a pure hunter, but IMHO, an ideal compromise for an all around knife.

I like a grip made for utility, not looks, that I can hold on to when both my hands and the knife are covered with blood.

And I like cordura!:D :D I like both my pistol and my knife strrapped to my legs, riding low and out of the way until needed.
 
this ........ is seems to fill my needs well.

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Could you refine your question? A perfect fixed blade for what purpose? If one said: "for EDC"; I would want to know what you do EveryDay. Are you urban, suburban, rural ... the "if I had one knife scenario" etc.

For my situation, I live in the burbs and have land in the country. My knife oriented tasks include opening boxes, hay bales, home maintenance tasks, dressing deer, hogs and turkeys, cutting leather, and personal defense; and that includes zombie attacks.

Weather conditions in Texas can range from hot as an Iraqi check point to Blue Northers where you have a windchill of minus 20 degrees. So I may have sweaty hands or freezing hands; naked hands or gloved hands.

It's a pretty tall order to expect a knife to function at a high level in these noted conditions.

It is also sensible to carry a fixed blade that is legal in your area: for me that is up to a 5 1/2" blade.

Right now my fixed blade EDC is a Bark River Slither in a Sharp Shooter kydex sheath.
 
The knife that i really like is my Fallkniven S1.great ergos ,blade shape,materals.It just feels right to me.
though my D2 extreme ka-bar is a constant companion of mine and i've grown very fond of it too.
 
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