I second the Red River/Hudson Bay knives. I've been buying a small stock of them, reshaping the handles and sharpening them to give to friends who express an interest in carbon steel knives. The Carbon V is a good fine grained, tough steel that takes a very good edge. Pawn shops and such are fun to browse too, as I found an old 39 series carbon steel Western that was dark but had little wear, for $10. It sharpened up nicely too. Another decent knife that doesn't cost much are the Anza knifes made from files. I have a #4 I think it is, a nice little hollow ground 3in knife that was about $30. Although not the ideal shape for skinning it's also hard to beat the Mora knives for value, either the Frosts or Ericksson. The carbon steel models are usually RC60 and being kind of thin they're real sharp. In one store I saw an old traditional Mora knife for sale that had dried blood and stuff on it, which had evidently been used for breaking joints as the back of the blade was heavily peened from hammering. I'm guessing it was one of the laminated models. I'm looking at the Marbles too, maybe the Plainsman, as they look like a very good knife.
