From Frank on M4 blade I made for him
"Tim,
Finally had a chance to use the M4 knife you made me. I used it to skin a frozen whitetail doe and bone it out. The blade held an amazing edge through the skinning to the point where I felt I had to be careful with it. I've cut up quite a lot of deer with quite a few knives and usually don't feel like I have to unduly careful. I was more cautious with your knife. I don't know if you've ever skinned a frozen deer or not, but it's no fun and not far off from skinning an ice cube. The blade had lost some edge by the time I had the deer boned out. I cut against a fair amount of bone while cutting off the fore legs and boning out the loins. Also you end up cutting through the hide and hair pretty often when trying to peel the hide off a frozen carcass. I ended up taking the hide off in 2 pieces just to make it easier, so cut through quite a lot of deer hair. I use a DMT Diafold sharpener in fine grit that's pretty well worn out. 4 strokes per side brought it back to hair shaving sharp.
I have knives in D2 (Ingram and Dozier), S30V folders mostly, Elmax (another maker here), CPM-154 (Page, Hendrix, Davis) and some others. I don't think any of them would have done as well as your M4 blade at Rockwell. I think a thinner blade like 3/32 in a 3.25 inch or so in that steel and temper would be an incredible cutter and take up no room in a pack.
Thanks for making it fore me. I'd be happy to give you more specifics if you'd like, either my message or telephone."
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PS:
I am thinking of doing one more run in a couple months using M4.
If so, I will be going thinner with the material, and smaller with the blades in general.
I went a little on the thick side with the first run thinking the blades were more for heavy duty.
A thinner blade and cutting edge and a 63.5 Rc should be a great cutter and skinner.
Thanks
Tim
