Re: What is your ultimate hunting knife?
Lots of good choices, I like a nice 4-5" blade drop point something of good mid level steel 440v, ats34, D10, etc. Fixed blade only for a single hunting/field knife. I used a 4.5" ATS34 drop blade kit knife from Rob Simonich that I bought and made micarta handles for quite a few years ago on my elk this year for skinning and in the past for skinning/gutting other medium game. A pocket sharpener is valuable as well, there are lots of great options for them now, though if you have a good quality blade and sharpen it properly it should easily go through a single animal. Good grip is important you don't want to be slipping when your hands are cold/wet.
That said for quartering nothing beats having a good bone saw, and I've found that having a 6-10" stiff blade fillet knife is the cats meow for boning meat out in the field. Knifes of Alaska makes a couple nice stiff fillet knives. Used one on my elk and it was amazing. I'd never go into the field without one in my kit again if I planned to bone meat out. Most of the "boning" knives I've used are too small on larger game to do a good/fast job in the field. Not much more than a paring knife, probably fine in the kitchen but in the field having something longer and faster is ideal.
What I'd love to see is a high end knife that would exchange blades, a nice 5" drop point, 8-9" stiff fillet blade, a 8-10" fine tooth bone saw blade, and a compact axe head. A few companies do cheap versions of such a kit but I haven't seen a quality version. The knives of alaska super pro pack would be close to perfect if they could design a quality handle that would exchange the blades securely, reducing a lot of the bulk and weight. Though I think the knives of alaska are good quality but overpriced for the quality of steel you get.
