The old hickory butcher knife
 

with a little tweaking

I like it, I have some old carbon steel knives that I've had so long and sharpened so many times, they look like fillet knives now.

That looks like it may make a good gutting knife. Maybe the false edge just a touch steeper. If you get the false edge at just the right angle it makes gutting a breeze and you don't have to worry about the tip digging in and puncturing the guts. Only one way to know for sure, try it out a few times.

I never really thought about gutting with it. Ive never even taken it in the field. I mostly use it around the house/camp to break down large chunks of meat like loin/sirloin into steaks or slice watermelon etc.

I gut everything with a swingblade and do my skinning with nessmuks like this

I have one similar to the lower one and I ground it down and put a drop point on it and buffed up the handle then put it in a spare sheath I had lying around. It was setting in our utensil drawer for year not being used. Now it will go to the woods with me as part of my muzzleloading gear.

I often split the pelvis, three ways to do this, either a saw, a serrated knife or a knife big enough to hack with. Only one way to know for sure is to try it a few times.

I tend to try for one tool (knife) that does it all. My current knife with a serrated blade gets the job done, but it is a pain.

I skin them at home mostly. I generally have them in the cooler/refer pretty quick with the hide on.

I never split the pelvis.

A friend of mine had an old hickory knife I used to butcher a couple deer and it stayed sharp longer then any knife I have used. After that I found a couple old ones on EBay, they are ok but not like his.

Might be the way he sharpens his. That can make a big difference.