For anyone looking for a good, basic, relatively low cost folding knife, my recommendations would be the Ontario RAT I or RAT II, or the Becker BK-40. These knives can’t be beat for the price, and they are some of the only knives that allow you to mount the pocket clip in four different orientations. The only thing that could make these three knives better is if they actually offered them in left-handed lock versions.

The knife that I use more than any other knife is *still* my Victorinox Rambler.

Otherwise, any fixed blade knife with a blade about 4-5.5” long made from a tough stainless steel. I like 420HC for this purpose, because it’s really tough, really stainless, and sharpens easily with field-expedient methods. It’s an inexpensive steel, so if you screw it up, it’s nothing to cry over, but it will get the job done.

All the other details about knives are more or less only important if you want to discuss specific task suitability. The knife I carry in the backcountry is a vintage Gerber Pro-Guide II Drop Point Hunter, from back when Gerber still made everything in the US. These used to go for a song on eBay, but I have been seeing some crazy prices recently.