Regarding Gerber ... they've made some great knives.

I used to be a big Buck knife fan, but I found them hard to sharpen. Then I became a big fan of Gerber knives - they sharpened real nicely.

I never found any fixed blade knives I liked. I didn't like the Bucks or the Gerbers. Almost 30 years ago I bought a cheap Mora knife at a Pamida in NW Iowa to use to dig/cut plants out of the ground during a botany class. I was shocked by how tough the knife was and how much abuse it stood up to (OK, I did abuse that knife, but I was much younger back then). It really wasn't until maybe 3-5 years ago, after finding Equipped.com, that I realized it was a Mora knife. That was actually my favorite fixed blade through many years. Sharp and tough.

I bought a Becker BK10, but found it just too heavy to carry around. Tough, but heavy.

Then Equipped.com introduced me to Doug's Benchmade knives and things have never been the same.