For hiking I avoid fixed blades. Even my small fixed blades are significantly heavier and the sheaths add more unwelcome weight. The sheaths collect grit that dulls the blade. There is no great method of carrying them. They are awkward, flap around and hang up on brush and boulders when moving through the landscape.

I wear a pack with a proper hip belt and there is no good attachment area there. They are too bulky and don’t tuck away well. My hip belt has small zippered pockets and that’s where my folding knife rides, securely tucked away. I’ll use it mostly for educational foraging and light food prep. It’s there for fire craft if ever needed but I’ll normally never have a fire. It doesn’t hardly ever rain here but I don’t leave my rain gear behind either. It’s a useful tool but I draw the line at anything larger than a Swiss Army knife. That’s the range I look for.

I do use fixed blades in the kitchen and my 2004 flat ground little Dozier cuts through chicken bones, carves frozen baking chocolate into quick fine pieces so it melts into the mix with little energy use and last week it made a fine secure ice pick. My San Mai carbon steel Traditional Santoku is the knife for 95% of the kitchen work.