Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Favorite Hunting Knife

I don't get why anybody'd want a hunting knife with a cord handle that's just going to get soaked with blood.

I own several super steel expensive knives but if I had to process game with just one knife to survive it would be my carbon steel Old Hickory butcher knife. These days I much prefer a steel that gets shaving sharp with a couple swipes on a steel to a super steel knife that stays sharp longer but is much harder to sharpen.

I believe you get what you pay for. Trust me, I get it. Fancy custom knives are great. Love them. But, give me thin, pointed high carbon, under 60 bucks and I'm happy. A dang mora for 10 bucks completely changed my mind on knives. Cold steel us getting a little expensive. I bought a gerber the other day with a scandi grind that I'm needless to say unimpressed with compared to a mora. Right now I'm in the mora for gut/skin and a victorinox for a boner category.

As many gazillion carbon wood scale butcher
knives that Ontario/Old Hickory produced,
the supply sure dried up after Ontario closed
their doors
Looks like Dexter/Russell/Green River is
kinda edging away as well. I tried to buy a
wood scale carbon butcher a while back, and
was told that they were discontinued and
would have to find a NOS somewhere

I just gutted, skinned and disassembled a buck today with this. I did have a 8 inch breaking knife for cutting steaks.

Mora Pro

Well of course you wouldn't understand it silly...you hunt.

I was thinking the same thing myself. After one animal it'd be crusty..

A knife maker buddy of mine gave me a “shop knife”blank out of AEBL to try, it had off set grinds and wasn’t polished without slabs. It did have a good edge but the handle was uncomfortable so I wrapped it in paracord. I agree I would a nice handle and pins on a $200 knife but it works ok for what it is. Yes they get soaked in blood but washing the knife cleans it up ok. I have paracord thongs on all of my using knives and they get soaked in blood so it’s really no different.

I just picked one of these up Bob Dozier Folding Hunter with Desert Ironwood and Mother-of-Pearl Inlay so hopefully it becomes one of my favorites.

My thought exactly. Also, no finger guard to prevent your hand riding up that grip. That James Sponaugle knife earlier in the thread got my curiosity. It had a really nice drop point shape with a great finger guard, scale shape to give you tactile feel for blade angle and a good handle butt with lanyard hole..

I'll share something that some others may have experienced. I've had a number of knives over the years that have felt incredibly sharp, but for whatever reason, they don't seem to work worth a flip on processing deer. They don't have a "grab" when cutting hide, flesh or sinew. A Knives of Alaska knife comes to mind. Part of the issue seems to be "toothiness" (for lack of a better term) of the blade. I think this might be the lack of "micro-serrations" of the blade steel when it's sharpened. I commonly use a Gatco or Lansky sharpener. I've had a number of knives that are much more "usably sharp" when I stop with the medium stone, rather than continuing with the fine or ultra fine stone. I think this is also a factor with a number of the blade steel types too. I think certain steels (and maybe also the hardening processes) lend themselves to better blade edges that have that "grab" when you slice into something.

So, everything is a balance and for me, staying sharp for 50 deer isn't an issue, because I can do some interim sharpening as needed. The end of the season, I'll put the edge back right, but in between, I do my touch-ups that keep me going.

gsganzer-

You are absolutely correct about the lack of a finger guard. Why more bladesmith's don't use them I've no clue. I've been looking hard at the Sponaugle Magnacut steel knives. Really good point about the razor sharp ones don't cut as good. My buddy who made several knives said the razorblade sharp knives dull so much quicker than the stoned sharp ones because the stone sharp ones have a " jagged " edge that the eye can't see but is there. Great thread

Hunting knives can come in a lot of configurations. Many do the job well. I’ve posted this before. But this is a Canadian Moose that I completely disassembled alone with a Havalon Piranha and three blades. One lives in my pack along with half a dozen blades. I prefer a good 3-3.5” fixed blade, so I pack one of them everywhere as well. They get the most use.

I'm no fan of cord wrap either, and have no desire...but why in the hell do your knives get "soaked with blood"?

I'm no fan of cord wrap either, and have no desire...but why in the hell do your knives get "soaked with blood"?[/quote]


Gold pure gold.

Why did you delete your prior post? :

To which my reply was "why do you stick your knife and hands into the heart and lungs"...

Now you are just playing around. I deleted being nice as I'm sure you are joking.

Gold pure gold.[/quote]

You'd do well to stop the snarky comments and learn from your betters...

No, I'm not. I'm deadly serious.

Must not do much killing if you ask questions so stupid! Snarky is a knee jerk reaction to stupid questions.