I've just stopped using fixed blade knives to chop anything. Frankly, even in the field with an urgent need for shelter, I wouldn't "chop". The saw on my SAK will cut anything I need to use for shelter. Anything I need to use for a fire wouldn't need to be chopped. In routine situations I have a small hatchet or Kukri.

I have knives of numerous cost, material, edge geometry, etc. I just use them. I end up carrying a limited few which just feel right and work right, but strangely that seems to have nothing to do with any of the technical aspects I would have tested if I were a bladecrafter. So.. the only test I make of the knife itself is to take it along on numerous "safe and easy" trips, use it, and decide how I feel about it. Before I take it off into the wilderness.

I do, however, test the SHEATH or (if a folder) the pouch. I go out in the yard and try every way I can to bump, jostle, shake, and sling the knife system around. If it comes out of the sheath or pouch before I actually want it to... the whole system gets looked at again. Knives don't go with me until I satisfy myself that they will stay with me.. safely..(not stuck thru a sheath into my butt!)

I wonder: how many actual blade/edge failures vs.RETENTION failures? What do you guys think?