What got me on this was the realization that I could probably trade my knife collection for enough bike parts for a pretty good chopper project.

A couple reasons I picked a good kitchen knife instead of a chopper is I have a cheap but effective Norsehawk. Also a good kitchen knife like a double Henkels french chefs knife also makes a great camp knife and a wicked fighter.
I have a carbon steel French peasants knife from lee valley that is pretty good and would look great with a primitive leather sheath. Also i don't use my DFLE
nearly as much as I do any of the ones I picked.

I kind of like the idea of which 3 knives.

For me it would be the ZDP chefs from Hattori , my new Skookum and my Caly3.
I don't actually have the hattori though.