Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What knife/knives are best for dressing out a whitetail deer?

One knife design that does it all?....Yep, actually a couple: While I usually use my pocket knife, a Schrade Uncle Henry Signature stockman, I also like my Schrade 'Lil Finger fixed blade (See the knife forum re: OT replacement). Thing to remember: Dressing a whitetail does NOT require a big knife.

Now, would I use a very expensive custom knife to dress a whitetail?.....NEVER! Dressing a whitetail requires a SHARP knife...with a short, relatively stiff blade that you can control, preferably of the "broken back design" if a fixed blade, or the clip blade of common stockman pocket knives. No need whatsoever for high-priced customs. However, if you wish to see your high-priced knife mucked up in the field...go ahead!

If you want a box full of pretty toys, ok. Personally, I don't buy 'collectables'.
I don't mind spending top dollar on a qualty knife to use as a tool. Ask Hawkeye if his Randall #11 is sharp, and if it can hold an edge.

Go to discount cutlery website and buy a 22 dollar Marttiini utility hunter. If you do not like the knife I'll buy it from you. I am not associated with discount cutlery or Marttiini knives. I have owned several different knives in my life; buy em, use em, and lose em. I do like a great inexpensive knife made in a non-communist country.

I just wish it were American made.

I picked up a couple of these for utility work and ended up using one last year for field dressing and like it very much.

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=78455

Im not much for big knives on deer, a 3 to 3.5 inch blade is just right for me. I also prefer a drop point for general gutting and feild use. If Im goig to skin a deer that has been hangning a while thus the hide wont pull off real easy I will switch to a more up-swept skinning style knife. Not that a drop point wont work fine but I feel I get more of the blade in play with a skinner.

Bottom line its what feels good you're hand. Sheath style and handle type are also important things, to me anyway, when it comes to knives. Rubber handles, abit great with blody hands just dont do it for me, I prefer stag. Stag gives me the grip I need when the knife is bloody and looks great.

As for steel, look less at the 0-1, D-2 or 52-100 unless you take real good care of stuff as they will rust if not given the best of care. ATS34 and some of the other stainless steels will serve just as well and not require the oiling. But the stainless is a softer steel so will need resharpening more ofted, but they will take an edge faster.

In the end its Ford vs Chevy, you just need to look at lots of them, and if your like me you will like them all and need a bunch of em.

Those are some really nice knives that you guys posted. I have a 3" liner lock folder made by a friend of mine who is now departed that is my general purpose skinning / boning knife. But the best deer butcher that I have ever seen (can skin and bone out a deer completely in about 15 minutes) uses disposable surgical scalpels.

The disposable ones are very nice. I have skinned a couple of deer with one and they work well.

I like this knife alot. Unfortunately, I lost it stalking a buck. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...ndex&indexId=cat20889&hasJS=true

I bought this knife last year and I love it. As it came, it was/is the sharpest knife I have ever handled. It gave me a 1/2" cut the first time I ever accidentaly touched the blade. Fantastic knife.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...ndex&indexId=cat20889&hasJS=true

I used a Buck folder for the first twenty years of my deer hunting and killing (including a lot of culling/collecting). Don't really know why I quit carrying one, but I guess I just succumbed to the lure of pretty custom knives for a while.

For the last fifteen years, I have used a really good folder from Kershaw that they call the "Folding Field". Use it on deer, elk, pronghorns, etc. I'm on my second one (laid the first one down while packing elk quarters and never could find it again). Should I lose this one, I will damn sure buy another.

Bob Dozier Columbia River Skinner, 4" of D2...


Dozier Slim Outdoorsman, 3 1/2" of D2...


Dozier Semi-Skinner, 3" of D2...


Custom Shop Buck 110, Stag handle, Nickle bolsters, BG-42...


Custom Shop Buck 110, Buffalo handle, Nickle bolster, BG-42...

Very cool knives! Damn.

I like a very small, short, single-blade featherweight folder by Schrade for gutting. I can sort of wrap my finger around the back of it, over the tip, to prevent a popped stomach (that's something you do ONCE!). Anyway the blade can't be more than 2" long and it weighs nothing and cost like $15 or something... and it works.

I have a Buck Vanguard, with the rubber handle, for everything else. Seems to work but isn't in the league of many of these knives you guys are showing!

I'm still learning how to gut a deer. Self-taught and I've only done 16 of them. There's enough time between hunting seasons that I have to re-learn a thing or two every year too <g>.

I must confess to once improvising a Butt-Out type "tool" out of a stout blackberry vine with big thorns. It did work. I'm pretty sure I looked around to make sure nobody was looking before I used it though. :-) It just seemed... wrong.

You are right Jeff, that was wrong.



what ever works I guess.

Hey MOGC, I really like that buffalo grip 110 buck folder, that's cool!!

I don't want to hijack your thread Hawkeye but what's everybody using for sharpening?

I've been using a Lansky 3 stone set with the guides & such. Sharpened my own knives & many others with it for about...6 years now I think?

I was a free hand guy previous to this & also tried the quick sharp units with the carbide blades. I really preffer & highly recomentd the lansky type kits though, lansky or gatco.

Dave

I would say the most important feature in selecting a knife is to make sure the steel is of the compound that you can actually sharpen it. I use high carbon-stain free (not stainless), like commercial kitchen knives because I can sharpen them quite easily. some knives are just about impossible to sharpen after they lose their edge, short of a professional sharpener. they do dull quickly and then they are worthless. just skinning will dull one.

Buck 110 for 35 years.

For those of you who say you don't use an expensive knife because you lose them after you lay them down in the woods, you will notice that both of the knives I showed you have a hole in the back. Make sure your expensive knives have one too. Take some blaze orange ribbon and tie a short length of it in there before you leave your house. Much harder to lose it in the woods that way.

I use a 3.75" drop point of pattern welded 15N20 and 1084 steels, flat ground and differentially heat treated, It's got brass guard and pommel with burl Ironwood handle. No thong hole. I use a Lansky to sharpen it as needed.

Heat treat quality is more of an issue to edge holding than alloy is. Though some alloys are a real pain in the arse to sharpen.

One thing is for sure, the bigger the knife, the smaller the experience of it's user.

I use knives I have made from D2 or ATS134. I sharpen them on an Edgepro, most of the time using a primary edge of about 18 degrees and a secondary polished edge at 21 degrees.

On a setup like the edge pro even the "hard to sharpen" stainless stuff is no problem and I can get through several deer without stopping to touch up a blade.

Personally I have found that a system like the edge pro works so well it allows the steels such as 440 or AUS8 to perform at a much higher level by allowing you to put a perfect bevel to maximize performance. I admit my freehand sharpening skills are poor but knives done on the EP keep their edge much longer with far less time involved to obtain it.

Dave, my kids bought me a Lansky 3-stone setup a few Christmas's back, and I love the thing! $20 well, well spent. Once you get the angle established on a given blade it's fast and easy to maintain a good edge.

Getting that angle established in the first place can be tedious on a thick blade, though.

I hear ya, especially on harder steel that's been hand sharpened freehand for too many seasons & heds up with an edge similar to an old railroad spike. gotta get out the red back course stone to correct that sort of thing but like you said, once you've got it corrected to the angle you choose it's a piece of cake to touch them up.

Only one downfall to being the lansky or gatco guy. If you don't keep it a secret pretty soon that's all you do at deer camp is sharpen knives!

There is usually a pile of them in front of me in a matter of minutes if I break it out.

Personally, I use 4 different knives processing the deer before butchering.
One to open the dder, and remove entrails. A second knife to cut around anus and deal with that nonsense- a third knife to remove tenderloins in the field, and a fourth for skinning. I do not like the one knife does all method, because I do not want to contaminate the venison with crap. Dont want to use the knife I cut around the anus with to take out the tenderloins, or skin the animal.
And I have a different set of knives all together when I take the deer to the butcher block.