There are literally hundreds of options to go with as well as hundreds of opinions that will be given to what is the best. I carry different knives depending on the location I'm going out in. My normal carry is a heavily modified Rat-7, a SwissArmy Backpacker, and a Norlund Boyscout hatchet I rehandle to a straight handle. In western Canada a hatchet and a heavier blade comes in very handy, but next month I'm going camping in Arizona where a hatchet would be better replaced by the Ontario 12" machette I modified down to 9" and reshaped to fit me.
Total Costs: Rat-7 96.00$ and about 20 hours modifying
Backpacker 43.00$
Norlund hatchet 20.00 with about 5 hours rehandling and 10.00$ materials
Machette 25.00$ and 5 hours modifying

Everything I carry is under a hundred bucks and I could do most jobs with any one of them on their own. Bottom line is ask around and see what friends are carring, borrow it for a few hours and try it out, go to the knife shops and handle them. You can't know what will feel good in your hands from a picture.
Lastly, if a knife isn't exsactly how you like it, don't be afraid to try modifying it to suit you, a prodyction knife is made for the general public but with a few mods it can be made to fit you.

For those of you that have the Frosts Moras - are there any of these that float? I was thinking of getting one of the stainless models as a "kayak knife" for my friend who is a total water maniac. I see one of the models (I forgot it's number) has a hollow plastic handle, so there might be floating potential there. Anyone know?

Hey Crogan, thought you could sneak in without me noticing? Welcome to the fire, friend.

I had the great pleasure of spending Sunday afternoon by a fire in the woods with this chap. He's top-notch and his re-worked Ontario machete is SWEET.

-Blast

Welcome Newguy!!!

"...his re-worked Ontario machete is SWEET..."

Maybe he can post a pic???

Sunday was great and looking forward to doing it again Blast. I'll bring my laptop to work tomorrow and see about posting some pics of all my toys. Even got some pics of a few Moras I've rehandled. :-)

Can't wait...

Hi Crogan,

Welcome to the ETS Forum!

I am eager to see your re-handled Mora's, I am interested in changing the grips on a couple of mine.

Moke

So here are the Ontario and the Rat-7, The machette started out as a 12" D-ring handle with I chose cause the D-rings have a slightly thinker blade then the economy. I sanded the power coating off both and reshaped both blades to my liking. Machette got a new Paduk wood handle as well.
Next is a simple 15$ ColdSteel Finnbear I rehandled in Paduk wood and stoled the sheath idea from Bark River. It holds the knife, a small flashlight, and a space pen and sits right in my back pocket.
My first rehandled Mora in green linen micarta with a Leatherman attached to the kydex sheath I made for it.
Second one using same micarta only I sunk the blade in a little further to have a nice little plam knife.
This one for Blast. My Kukrihouse 10" Kukri that after dropping it had to rehandle it and happen to have some elk antler laying around, sheath was a idea hatched between me a local shoemaker.

The pictures don't do them justice, especially the Finnbar and accompanying flashlight/pen/sheath. How does the elk handle feel on your kukri? You didn't have it along on Sunday.

Oh, and you left out your hatchet!

-Blast