I have bought a shit ton of random knives (Helvie, drake, GEC, flexcut, morakniv etc) based on recos from subreddits and youtube videos and I have to say despite how cool they are, I think my favorite go tos are a Victorinox tinker that I redid the edge on and a Remington whittler I bought on eBay because the price was right.
Believe it or not, old timer.
I know, after the brand went bust, they were crap. But they came out with a heritage" line that’s done in d2 here in the states. And they’re good. The generational line is over priced, but the heritage stuff is right at the sweet point.
The regular versions are still too poor edge retention to be a good whittler, but the heritage d2 has a great heat treat on it from the handful I’ve messed with.