Having looked at the part of the Penal Code that describes "illegal knives", it would seem to me that its legal to carry a fixed blade knife under 5.5 inches that is NOT as described below:
6) "Illegal knife" means a:
(A) knife with a blade over five and one-half inches;
(B) hand instrument designed to cut or stab another by being thrown;
(C) dagger, including but not limited to a dirk, stiletto, and poniard;
(D) bowie knife;
(E) sword; or
(F) spear.
If you look up daggers, dirks, stilettos, poniards, and others of that type, they have two sharp edges. They are usually "pointy". They are designed much more for stabbing than cutting (though I understand they would do that as well). As for a bowie knife, well, its also easy to go on-line (or open a book, if you have a library nearby) and see what one looks like. I posted before that I wouldn't carry the "baby" K-Bar that my wife bought me due to it looking sort of like a "bowie". So, I went and bought a knife that resembles NONE of the things in the list above.
I couldn't spend a lot, so I bought a Boker "Magnum Tracker". Its 440 stainless (yes, I know, it won't stand up to cutting down trees all day) but it seems like it takes a pretty good edge. It has a 3.75 inch long, .11 inch thick, hollow ground blade with a single sharp edge, a groove to help your hand not to slip onto the blade and a riveted black laminate wood handle. It seems like a hunting or utility knife to me. Here is a link to it:
http://www.boker.de/en/fahrtenmesser/ma ... YA100.html
Thoughts? BTW, once I have better "cash flow", I will replace this with something of better quality.