I carry a benchmade Pika, simple inexpensive not the easiest one hand open, but I dont intend to use it in self defense...
some of the higher end Benchmades are really easy to open and close one handed, go check out some of their knives with the axis lock.
I'd get another swiss army knife to carry... but I always seem to loose them... they need to make some with the clip on them, so they stay better attached to my pocket.
As for sharpening I like to put a convex edge on my blades, especially my big kukri, and since I got the stuff to do it for my kukri, I use it on most of my blades
http://home.nycap.rr.com/sosak/convex.htm
http://bill-hay.com/Convex/Convex.htm