MCgunner
Member
Sorry, not trying to be argumentative, but I don’t understand this.
After an initial stab through the skin, the knife edge should not come in contact with the outside surface. Skinning is accomplished by sliding the blade’s cutting edge through the subcutaneous tissue, the fatty layer between the outside skin and muscle layers below. I have watched packing house employees skin a lot of hogs, some of them pretty nasty, using only a smooth steel to true the cutting edge of their knives. They might use a sharpening stone to hone a new edge every hundred animals or so. Sharpening, as opposed to steeling the blade, should not be needed very often if the knife is made of good steel and has a good edge profile to start with.
Cut around the legs, down the legs from the outside. Sure, insert the knife, but you gotta cut around a lot of it to get the skin loose.first before you actually start skinning. You have to cut a lot of skin off, too. The knife comes in contact with the skin. That's what dulls it.