JeramyK

I also recommend Buck knives. I' ve had one passed down from my grandfather and it' s still a great knife. I won' t go in the woods without it.

Wolfken

I have made 30-35 knives myself, from scratch, and would also recomend finding a custom maker! I used to ask my customers what they wanted in a knife,long lasting edge or easy to sharpen, its kind of a give and take thing, for a knife to hold an edge it has to be hard, to sharpen easy, it has to be on the soft side.
I would also recomend buying a Lansky sharpener. I have had mine for 10 years and it has sharpened every knife i' ve made and done all the sharpening chores around our house, even had a little sharpening biz for peoples kitchen knives that i think paid for the thing. When people find out you can sharpen a knive they, hunt you!
The angle of the stone IS THE KEY to keeping a knife sharp and the Lansky is foolproof!
Good luck with you search!

trmaker

In my book there are only 3 knives. The Buck, Old Timer, and the Schrade. All 3 last a long time with one sharpening. I also recommend buying a Lansky sharpener. I have one myself that I use all the time. Its foolproof sharpening at its best. I still have an Old Timer knife that my father had when he was a boy. Not much of a blade left but after all the skinning that thing has gone through, its a wonder there is anything left at all. I have used it on everything from deer to muskrat. Hope this helps and good luck.

Wingbone

I had a cheap knife from Cold Steel. It was called an Elk Skinner. It had a Carbon V blade. I field dressed and/or skinned 6 deer with that knife before I had to sharpen it. I have Fallkniven A-1 with a VG-10 blade. I field dressed and skinned 3 deer with that before the first 1/4 inch of the tip got dull from driving it through the pelvis bone. My current carry is a BK&T Campanion with an 0170-6 blade, I' ve chopped through hardwood branches around my treestand, lopped off 1" diameter popple with one swipe, and field dressed and skinned one deer so far and it still shaves. I' d recommend any knife with those steels.

Striper Phil

Buck with the 4 inch fixed blade, love it, the next size bigger is good to if you like a heaver knife.

BIGSCRAPE

For gutting I use my 3" Zippo folding blade. I have tried other sizes but I like the small ones. I find I have much better control and can guide the blade with my fingertip when pulling out the heart, lungs windpipe without looking or worring about cutting myself.

For skinning I prefer a mush bigger knife. I use an Old Timer with a rubber handle and a 5" blade. Does the trick nicely.

wernerjd

buck 110

JagMagMan

I' ve used a Coleman/Western skinner for about twenty years now. It has a stainless blade and rubber handle. It holds a very good edge, is easy to sharpen, and is easy to hold. It did not cost much back then and is still cheap today. I' ve found it to be better than knives costing five or ten times more!

bearklr

I have to put my vote in for kershaw. Mine always hold a blade and take a beating. In fact my wife as a couple hundred dollar set of " chefs" knives and she still uses my hunting knife when she needs something really sharp.

trophyhuntr

I have an old timer and a Remington and both are great