KA-BAR Tanto Knife
I've found tanto-style knife designs (in general) very strong and rugged enough to take the abuse I throw at them without issue.
With my test materials at hand I tried the KA-BAR Tanto out on string, twine, fishing line, nylon webbing, cotton and plastic rope and some old denim. It cut everyting with no issues. I also used it to hack up pieces of a five-gallon plastic construction bucket - and it did that with no problem - and then still cut the rope, nylon and denim cleanly. Since I had noticed the pommel I decided to use it and set up a tent, hammering the stakes in with the knife. No problem there either. Since I had hammered one of the stakes into what felt like a tree root, I had to then use the knife to pry that particular stake out. No problem with that - and I did have to put some torque on it.
I also did some light penetration testing using 1/4" plywood sheeting as well as another five gallon plastic bucket. It took a strong swing to get the wide blade through the plywood but I managed. The bucket was a lot easier. After ten such penetrations - five wood, five bucket - I went back to cutting some more. The nylon and rope were still easy to cut and the knife tip didn't show any damage from the penetration tests.
A Google search online found me several of these knives priced well under $70 which is a darned good price. So if you're in the market for a new field knife, I'd recommend you take a look at this one.
