When I was a teen I spent days at a time down in swamps and river bottoms of South Carolina. I would leave on Friday and be out until late Sunday. My old WWII Enfield bayonet was my beater. God how I abused that thing, and it never broke. I would stick it in oak trees dig, pry and even killed an opossum with it once. I had an "expensive" $10 German bowie, and a boy scout knife, but back then all that old WWII stuff was cheap at the local surplus stores. I managed to break my bowie. Another useful tool was an old surplus USMC bolo machete. I did crack the handle, but a little tape and it was good to go. The only knife I had that was sharp and would actually cut was my Boy Scout knife, and I used it with care.