The purist in most of us here tends to appreciate and prefer knives with plain edge blades. That is not to say that many of us do not also recognize the utility of a good serrated edge as well. My approach is to carry a plain edge blade as my primary knife, and also carry a fully serrated Spyderco Dragonfly. It's small, clips into the corner of my back pocket, and goes virtually unnoticed until needed. This method has served me well. The thought has occurred to me, however, that perhaps I came up with this justification just as an excuse to carry more knives, but I'm fine with that