Aw Jesus!
I would take a Japanese VG-10 paring knife, any manufacturer. Slicing the rib cartilage is easy and quick like cutting belly muscle, 2nd choice would be a KOA Jaeger Hunter in D2. I have done the gutting, skinning, quartering and stripping the carcass of a lot of deer with both. Very quick and easy.
I cannot for the life of me understand people using loppers, reciprocating saws, hatchets, axes, etc. for this work! I can and have many times taken a deer from just killed to stripped carcass in a little better than an hour with just a little knife like that. A Buck 110 will work about as well, but the steel is crappy and after one deer it's time to sharpen it again. I do use a reciprocating saw to cut up the bones to fit in the garbage. What the hell do you use a loppers, hatchet, saw gizmos and cleaver for? I sometimes use a big Santoku I had Dale Atkerson make for me out of very thick D2 as a cleaver for chicken parts, but I wouldn't have a clue what to do to a deer with a hatchet or a cleaver. I did watch my dad kill a deer once with an axe, but I got well clear of that rodeo and watched while I tried not to pee myself laughing. I have done almost all of it with a little bitty pocket knife with a 2 inch blade, and i have done more than a couple with a Gerber LST.
