Olympus
Member
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 4,212
It's time for me to invest in a good, hunting specific knife or two. I've been using really anything I had available at the moment over the years, but now that my son is hunting I find that I'm gutting, skinning, and processing a lot more whitetail deer than I use to. I'm thinking I probably need two different knives, one for gutting and skinning and another for deboning meat off the quarters. The day of the old Bowie knife to do everything are probably gone. I certainly don't mind to spend money on a quality "buy for life" knife. For gutting, I have used a gut-hook blade about as much as I've used a small, thin traditional style blade. The gut hook is more forgiving, but sometimes it gets clogged with hair or fat and I have to clean out the pocket to keep going. A smaller, thin blade I can usually keep sharper than a gut hook and I will use my left hand and make a "peace sign" under the skin while lifting up and then slice the knife between my two fingers and I can avoid nicking the stomach or intestines. I requires more attention, but I probably prefer this method if I'm being honest.
I'm also not exactly the best knife sharpener even though I have one of those Work Smart Ken Onion belt sharpeners. I find the curved blades of an ulu type knife a lot harder to sharpen than a more traditional straight blade. So I tend to keep those traditional blades a lot sharper than I do a curved blade.
And for deboning, I prefer a longer thinner blade over a thicker more rigid blade.
But anyway, I'd love to hear suggestions, recomendations, and photos of everyone's favorite hunting knife/knives.
I'm also not exactly the best knife sharpener even though I have one of those Work Smart Ken Onion belt sharpeners. I find the curved blades of an ulu type knife a lot harder to sharpen than a more traditional straight blade. So I tend to keep those traditional blades a lot sharper than I do a curved blade.
And for deboning, I prefer a longer thinner blade over a thicker more rigid blade.
But anyway, I'd love to hear suggestions, recomendations, and photos of everyone's favorite hunting knife/knives.