For gutting I use a Gerber Gator. When skining and butchering I use the cheap white handle chef knives from Sams. These chef knives hold an edge great and sharpen quickly.

If I'm just skinning, I'll use an old KaBar or one of my Browning 3 blade folders (one of the blades is a gut hook). I don't field dress deer anymore, at least not specifically 'in the field'. I will sometimes gut them, into a gut bucket, when they are hung head down, and for that there's hardly anything better than the old KaBar with the 7 inch blade. The long blade lets you get to where the guts are suspended if you want to make that cut without getting your hands and sleeves messy.

I guess we all have our routine ways once we've shot and dressed out a bunch of deer. My Dad's routine was to get me to do it, with his knife, and then sharpen his knife. I used to grump about it, but I'd give anything to be able to skin one more deer for him.

You have to rip up the legs, etc and a sort of stilleto or ripping blade is great, then you need to gut the thing and peel off the skin. I'd think about two knives- a ripping blade and a skinning blade. If you can only carry one- that buck pathfinder is very good.

Knife

Buck 110 Folding Hunter Finger Grooved. Mom bought it for me in 1986. Don't know how many deer it's dressed over the years, 4 so far this year.

Havalon for the lighter work, Cutco for the heavier. I bought one of the new Lazer Lites by Outdoor Edge. It's like the Havalon, but with larger and heavier blades that are replaceable. My first experience with it was bad. I bought 4 of them, from Cabelas. Gave 2 to brother-in-laws, one for my son-in-law, and kept one. We were all dissappointed in how quick the blade dulled. I contacted Outdoor Edge and David Bloch, the owner, sent me an email and said they got some bad blades on their 1st run. 2 days later, I had a brand new set of blades for all the knives at he door from him. I think this solved the problem. I field dressed a deer today, (just gutted and emptied cavity, no bone) and when I cleaned it up, still shaved.

a sharp one

I chose knives with replaceable blades. Havalon with the big thick 60 A blades and a Gerber gut hook using box cutter blades. The only thing that bugs me is disposing of the stainless 60 A blades. Can't just toss them and expect them to rust, gotta put them in a bottle or something and trash them.

I also have a razor sharp Kabar USMC for the heavy lifting.

It just depends on what I grab. I have an old buck 110. Schrade uncle henry. Some swedish fillet thing. A cutco. A S Potts skinner. A Kershaw. A gerber gut hook and a folder.

I buy knives looking for the perfect one. This year I got to try a Outdoor Edge Swing Blade and I am impressed. Aus 8 steel was sharp and sharpened easily with a pocket sharpener. The gut hook aspect was nice to.
I went to the store to get my own and ended up getting the Outdoor Edge with the replaceable blade system. It was a lot cheaper than the Havalon and I like the shape of the blades better as they were more traditional and closer to the swing blade style. I cant wait to use it.

^^^^This

Mora 711 and the smallest knife in my cheapo S&W three knife kit. The Mora is cheap but awesome-only complaint (not really) is that the blade will rust if you even sweat close to it. The steel has a very high carbon content, so I wash mine in the hottest water I can get, dry it, and wipe it down with Crisco or veg. oil before it goes back in the sheath. the sheaths sort of suck as well and are mainly for storage.

Outdoor Edge Swing Blade.

Alaskan Outdoor Edge, and a few customs from here on the forum including the Fry boys knives. Also use Pancho's as well.

I usually use a Benchmade Griptillian (actually a variant of that by Doug Ritter, called the RSK Mk1). It's a fantastic knife: S30V steel, very easy one-hand operation, great size and shape blade for cleaning animals. I also have a couple of Cutco knives that are stupid sharp. They don't mess around. To each his own, though...