Not a big fan of mounting knives on the vest. In a hand to hand situation, retention becomes an issue, and like getting shot with your own weapon, getting stabbed with your own knife isn't too appealing.
I carry a Gerber LMF II mounted to my ruck/assault pack for "lost in the woods" situations or if Gerber can be believed, "cutting through a Black Hawk fuselage" if shit goes really wrong.
For protection, either a Gerber or Benchmade auto in my pocket and a Gerber Guardian backup knife discreetly mounted on my battle belt, drop leg, or some other place that is easy for me to reach but would be very obvious if a close up opponent was reaching for.
Obviously, I am satisfied with Gerber, despite the lack of love elsewhere on this thread. I think they are all very solid for the price. There are better blades out there, but not a lot of people want to $400 on a knife that probably won't get used very much when they can buy a pistol instead.
If you are into spending money, scroll though the KitUP archive. They seem to be doing a profile every week on a new guy who is hand forging custom steel in his garage.
