I'd recommend looking up knife carrying laws in your area. Some places are more strict about certain things than others. In my area, you can't have any kind of drop knife or knives that "flick out", you can't have "concealed" knives of a certain length (i think the limit is somewhere in the 3-6 inch limit in my area), and most importantly, you can NOT say you're keeping a knife for self defence. If you admit to a cop that the blade you're carrying is for self defence they immediately take it (if someone asked and I said I used it to cut apple slices or open packaging though, that would be fine). The laws are probably different in your area, so there are probably different things to consider when you get a knife, but using the sliced apple defence might be something to think about.

I've had Coast LX272/LX273 s (they're generally sold as a two pack) for a while, and I find them pretty easy to handle. The only other knife I've had as an EDC is a Gerber Ripstop 2, which is okay, but it has a weird grip.

My BF carried a combat knife with him to school because of freaks over there, but I doubt it's legal

wowza hearing about these knife laws is interesting- where I'm from there's not really limits on blade length or anything. I just carry a regular pocket knife with a 3.34" blade & a safe lock mechanism ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It's pretty helpful to carry around tbh, I've been asked a surprising amount of times to help open boxes lol