Hunting knives are, as the name implies, tools designed for
processing game. Gutting, skinning,
fleshing, de-boning; the objective is to reduce an animal to parts usable for
food, clothing and shelter. The best
hunting knives are neither cumbersome nor are they fragile. They are not ponderous either! They must remain sharp despite long periods
of use and should be robust enough to fracture bones and sever joints and still
keep a keen edge in order to continue the work at hand.
Most modern hunters don’t do much beyond gutting their quarry. The animal is then transported to a butcher
shop where band-saws (designed for larger animals like cows) are used to
process the game into steaks, roast, ribs etc.
In those cases a decent pocket knife works just fine for gutting. But I only used a butcher on one occasion and
was sorely disappointed afterward. Bone
fragments abounded. White-tailed deer
bones are fragile and when struck by a large band-saw will invariably splinter
and fragment into dangerous pieces. A friend
of mine accepted a deer steak from an acquaintance and then lost his tooth when a bone chunk split one of his molars. Six thousand dollars later and a painful root
canal and my friend still lost his tooth in the end.
For many years I’ve done all the processing myself from
gutting to de-boning. So after decades
of handling game I’ve developed my own criteria of what works best. What I don’t like are knives made from cheap
steel. Years ago I bought a set of
Gerber hunting knives. They were
stainless steel and though they weren’t cheap I think the steel must have been
either 420 or 440A because those knives drove me nuts. They would not hold their edges and during
field dressing I was constantly forced to re-sharpen them. The experience with those knives soured me on
Gerber products and on any knife made with either 420 or 440A stainless steel. Others have varying opinions and I certainly
respect their ideas but when it comes to dressing out game I think I’ve circled
the block enough times to know a thing or two.
I recently posted a column about Old Hickory Knives with “Nessmuk”
alterations and I still consider those 1095 carbon steel knives some of the
best made. They are inexpensive
too. If someone wants to go out and process
a deer from “on the ground” to “in the freezer” then you can’t go wrong with an
Old Hickory knife from Ontario Knife Company.
I’ve used the skinning knives—mainly re-profiled to fit my needs—as well
as other styles of Old Hickory knives.
As mentioned in the previous post these carbon steel knives are tempered
down a bit to allow for easy sharpening and they will stain after use. But as far as I’m concerned that’s just
adding character to the blade’s appearance.
One thing you do have to watch for is rust. All carbon steel knives rust if not properly
cleaned. Some years back I gave a Mora
510 knife to someone and he threw the knife into his fishing tackle box and
used it frequently but apparently never cleaned it. The result was a rusted-out mess. You’ve got to clean those carbon steel
knives! But in my opinion nothing beats quality
carbon steel tempered into the 55-58 Rc range for field dressing and de-boning. As to what is the best bevel grind for
hunting knives? My vote goes for a
shallow convex grind over the Scandinavian grind or any hollow grind or flat
grind. My reason is based on the potential
fragility of the Scandinavian grind (and the other grinds mentioned) when
working through bone. I’ve seen “Scandi”
grind blades buckle and fold under that kind of pressure and force. The convex grind on the other hand is stronger
and thus, in my opinion, preferred when working meat and especially bone and cartilage.
I enjoy making knives and so, of course, I’ve made a number
of dedicated hunting knives. In fact, I’ve
got several in various stages of construction as I write this piece and if it
ever cools down around here I might get out to the workshop and finish them. But two in particular have been used on more
game than I can remember. They were both
made from steel mill files with handle scales fashioned from an old fence post
I acquired in North Texas that had been in the ground about 80 years. The wood is Osage orange and as many of you
know that makes a pretty darn good selfbow.
But it also makes good knife scales and even wooden spoons though not as
fancy as what you might get from a piece of mesquite or some other Brushland
hardwood. Both knives use brass pins to
help secure the scales.
Some well-used hunting tools. Two homemade knives and a 40-year old Estwing Ax.
In these years of many memories I tend to approach the subject
of hunting with a degree of reverence. Life
and death become weighty subjects over time.
My game processing talents are more often used in working on somebody
else’s kill than my own. With four sons
I’ve got that option. I walked those
paths years ago and so I understand that innate drive. I just don’t possess the passion to pull the
trigger or release the string like I did in the way back once upon a time. Still, a knife is something that awakens the
collective unconscious and speaks of an archaic ancestor or perhaps several
dozen. In those memories I remember a
kid who gutted deer, hogs and other things with broken glass bottles because he
didn’t want to get the hunting knife his granddad had given him dirty. The knife was proudly displayed and used at
the table in the cabin where woodsmen gathered to feast on venison and other
vittles. Now and then it might have been
used to fashion a stake for a spring trap or canvas tent. But otherwise, it was too precious a thing to
get grimy. Any razor-like glass shard will
do the trick. And in that sense maybe
the kid was closer to those distant ancestors than he realized.
