Every few cuts he professionally ran the knife over the steel

I believe in this method also. I start with a sharp knife to begin with.

my dad always says son its not the knife its the grip of the knifer

Todd Orr Skybladein Montana makes a great knife from ATS-34 steel. I've used several of his knives on more than one (5) deer. Also there is a knife that I have called the pirahanna (sp) that has scapel blades and is replacable. Comes with 12 blades with the knife.

Paul

My wife bought me one of this guys knives for Christmas a couple of years ago and he does a wonderful job

http://knifemakersdatabase.com/CustomKnivesGalleries/CustomKnives/CustomKnivesDerr.html

Buck Zipper, good blade, has a gut hook.

Kershaw Knives are really sharp, and they have a lifetime warranty. Cant beat that.

I'd recommend most knives from Gerber. I have a few and love them. They stay sharp all the way through a deer and regain their edge really quickly as well.

I have had good results with Gerber and Marbles knives. And let me second the Chef's Choice electric sharpener. In about 15 seconds, it puts an edge on a knife that hours of playing with stones and sticks won't achieve.

There are no knives I have encountered that can get through an entire elk - from field dressing toskinning and quartering - - and still be sharp. I like to carry two or three knives already sharpened, so I can just swap them out as the task continues - and then worry about sharpening at home later.

Also, most people get too large of a knife for this purpose. A shorter blade with a gradual upsweep to the edge works very well.

I second this. My favorite skinning knife is just an old buck folding pocket knife.

Imight be a novice when it comes to bowhunting ( due to the fact that it's illegal in this country, so no practice
but when it comes to knives, I know some pretty goodcompanies:
http://www.boker.de/index.php

http://www.solinger.at/shop/index.php

http://www.messer-iss.de/

shame it's all in german
but the knives made or sharpened in the Solingen area or town are known throughout europe as the best.
like some of you said, a sharp blade is mostly produced with hard carbon steel, but the harder it is, the lower the angle of sharpening becomes and the quicker it gets dull. If you buy a sharpening set up like the one in the picture you can make the angle less and so your blade will last longer and still be sharp enough to do the whole deer. I always have two knives when processing bigger game, a small scalpel like small blade and a bigger one to do the bones and major fleshy parts, both a full tang blades with wood handle, carbon steel.
a sharpeningtool like the butcher is great but if you don't know what you are doing, you'll end up destroying the edge of your knife.