Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Gene Ingram knives

No offense taken at all. I trust your call on that one. I tried
a Master Hunter out this fall on my elk and yes I was a little disappointed with it. I thought it would have worked better. My Pendalton performed better for me. I ended up having to pull out an old wyoming razor blade to finish up the job.

Those hides are tuff!!!

Anyways, thanks a bunch for the input. I'm ready for a change in my setup.

SU35, I've never used a CS knife, but had a little Buck folder made of brittle hard stainless that would still shave hair off my arm after gutting, skinning and cutting up a moose into packable chunks. Did a good number of elk and other critters with it also, some of them boned out. After 20 years of use I laid it down on river cobble rocks after gutting a salmon... Who could think that losing a knife would make a guy feel so bad?

Anyway, there are knives that will do an entire elk without needing any sharpening.

In a story I've told here before, a friend and I were gutting and skinning a moose, and he kept stopping to touch up the edge on his fixed blade knife with a medium fine carborundum stone. He would offer me the stone and urge me to sharpen my knife each time. I shuddered to think of touching my shaving sharp blade to that stone. Finally, near the end when I had done over 3/4 of the cutting, I paused when he expressed concern about my knife getting dull and shaved a clean patch of hair from my forearm.

Okanagan, lol, good story.

I would pay for a knife like that.

What have you replaced the Buck with?

I bought another Buck, the newer version of the same basic design. It is good but not as hard as the steel in the old one. I broke the tip off of the older blade using it as a screwdriver to adjust the open sight on a .22 rimfire, with not much pressure. Reshaped the tip to a point and used it for another 15 years before losing it. I sharpen these with hard Arkansas stones, an old razor hone and strop.

Would love to have an Ingram but I'd prize it too much to carry and use it like I do the Buck.

SU35 I worked over a couple of bull elk this year with a Ingam S30V shortcut never had to touch up knife in the field. Every year I threaten to see how many animals I can get through before sharpening but I'm too much of a knife nut to not touch up or even use one single knife!

Thanks for the report Jared,

S30V and David Boye's Dendritic steel are the best for edge hodling of any steel I know about.
I use Boye's steel a lot.

Don

My Cabelas Buck 110 with S30V went through 1 antelope, 1 elk, part of another elk, 1 deer, and part of mtn goat and I still don't feel the need to sharpen it. IMO, S30V ROCKS for hunting knives.

Cabela's has a Buck 110 in S30V? Didn't know that. Gotta have one of those!

geez Brad, I'm starting to feel like a flatlander, you like the DH belt knife and abhor the CS Master Hunter...........

mirrors my experiences exactly, my CS MH resides at the cabin, figure if the can opener breaks and I need to bust open a can of pork and beans it'll find a use again. (grin)

The first time I handled the DH I knew I'd found a friend, the better felt than telt rings true as well.

You starting to scare me dude. (grin)

Cabaleas 110 S30V

Insert Twilight Zone theme here... (grins)

Bob,

I bought a knife from Ingram a couple of years ago as I wanted to try D2 steel. They are very reasonably priced and decently designed. I didn't get much chance to use it for the first few months. I then used it on my son's cow elk. The edge CHIPPED badly! I checked the edge on my brass rod like I check all the knife edges that I make and sure enough, a little pressure and it would chip instead of flexing.

I emailed Gene as I figured that I got a knife with a bad heat treat. He asked me to send it back. He didn't even offer to fix or replace it- he just sent me a refund! Wouldn't correspond with me any further- just called me abusive to knives!


To those of you who are hording and ogling your Ingrams- possibly as investments, great! To those of you who are actually going to use them- good luck about all they are good for is skinning. Splitting sternums and such just destroyed the edge on mine and he claimed it "tested" fine.

I used my son's $20 buck knife (made in China) on TWO bulls in one day. I split the sternum and the pelvis- knife had zero chips and was still sharp enough to finish skinning. Don't know what steel it is and if I will be able to get it sharp again but it was a bargain for $20!

I'm not an Ingram fan- now start the flames...

Dennis, I've no doubt you had a problem with your particular Ingram and I've no doubt you've reported your experience accurately.

However, I really don't think splitting an elk's sternum with a field knife is what it's designed to do. An antelope's or deer's sternum is one thing, an elk's is another and that's where a small saw or hatchet should be employed.

I agree with Ingram... "knife abuser"! (cheesy grin)

PS, congrat's on the retirement...

I have no intention of flaming anyone as such behaviour is a PITA, but, I do not try to split heavy bones with a thin, hard knife blade designed and built for cutting hide and meat. I have a Cold Steel Master Hunter for exactly that task, or, use my Wetterling's forged hatchet.

But, since you received a refund, I see no reason for you to complain, in Gene's place, that is the proper thing to do, IMO. Your "Buck" knife sounds like a keeper, I had four different ones in 1968-'70, ALL of them failed under normal, careful use as anything can. I did NOT receive a refund and have not used Buck from that time 'til this, go figure.

The saw on my swiss army knife will split the sternum on an Elk toot sweet. Great little tool that thing is.

As everyone has touched on a couple of brands there seems to be a lack of consistency over the years.

My Dad swears by Gerber but I swear at Gerber cause it seems the blades are a bit soft for me. Cold Steel has been the most inconsistent by far. I picked up a Master hunter in Carbon V when it first came out and am very pleased with it, a bit thicker than I like but stayed sharp for a long time. A Trailmaster purchased a while later is also awesome. I later recommended them to a friend and his CS are complete crap. They are still listed as Carbon V but the edge holding is not even close to my earlier production models. I sharpened both master hunters on an edgepro and got them as consistent as possible. My was still slicing up pigs long after he was cussing.

I have not been able to save my nickels and dimes for an Ingram yet and have been sidetracked making my own knives from blanks. I recently picked up a Helle blank that claims 54rc on the spine and 63rc on the edge. It came with a factory grind sharper than anything I have ever handled. Im finishing out a matching pair with some Ipe wood now. Ill post when Im done.

Helle would be the one type of steel I wouldn't want to try to get right from blank.

Curious as to the cost of an Ingram.

CD

My set, ordered last summer, delivered this week, cost $360.00 USD mailed to Vancouver, BC and I consider this very reasonable, considering the quality.