After an interesting year full of hiccups and bumps in the road, I am finally going to try making my first knives from scratch. I was wanting to see what people recommended for a blade steel. I am going to make a couple of skinning / hunting knives. I figure they will be a good test as my whole family hunts. They are going to be made by stock removal and done by hand filing. I like the idea of a stainless for the obvious reason of rust resistance, but was not sure if a stainless like 440c wold be a good idea doing everything by hand or if I should go with something like 1084 instead and not worry about the stainless aspect for now. These knives will be sent out for heat treat regardless of steel. Thanks for everyone's input.