Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Best knife for skinning and processing deer

OK, just curious which knife y'all like best for skinning and processing deer. Thanks in advance.

bludog

Knife? Singular? Nope.

A small thin blade like the KOA Jaeger hunter is good for gutting/skinning and separating joints. I like a dedicated boning knife. I like a super slicer for cutting steaks and making jerky. I have a "different" technique for slicing chops and removing silver skin, this can be a knife I also use for slicing steaks/jerky. Sometimes I use a fish filet knife for boning and separating joints. I nice Japanese chef knife is great for cutting up pork shoulder into chunks that fit in the grinder when making burger and sausage.

Good boning knife: https://www.ebay.com/itm/CHICAGO-CUTLERY-6-FULLY-FORGED-STAINLESS-STEEL-BONING-KNIFE-FREE-SHIPPING/362329119078?hash=item545c7f9966:g:MYwAAOSwLq5bBcyE

I kill and process 4-5 deer/year and appreciate having decent knives to do the work and the product is also much better. Buy the best you can afford for decent knives and each year add to them.

Thanks, that's kinda what I've been doing over the years. I usually end up using several knives as well, just wondering what others have found really useful.

Skinning - I’ll skin and debone hanging with a Winston.

Processing for the freezer - wenger or victorinox “venting” knife. Thin and sharp.

My favorite for the 4-6 animals I process each year is an F.Dick 5 in, semi-flexible boning knife. I don't see the exact model shown on the F.Dick website. Here's the stiff version: https://www.knifemerchant.com/product.asp?productID=7641

When skinning I use two knives, a sharp pointed knife for cutting the hide, usually my pocket folder, and a second knife with lots of belly. Vast majority of the skinning is done by pulling and pushing a fisted thumb.

I have used an ESEE Izula, 440c for the past three years, for most of it, and a custom Johnson some too.

This works for hanging deer. A folder in the field.

I like a 110 because like Boise was saying, it has a fine point for starting cuts in the hide plus enough belly to be good for cutting off what hide you can't pull off. Also like a trapper pattern pocket knife for the same reason....you have a pointed blade and a round blade in one package. I'll use either of those to "butcher" a deer which to me means gutting, skinning, and quartering. Like almost any rifle can be a deer rifle, most any knife can be a deer "hunting knife" as long as its sharp and feels good in your hand. Total matter of taste.

For the boning and trimming process, I've got a small tool box full of various boning and fillet knives that I'll use for that.....some Dexters, an Uncle Henry I got for Christmas back in the day, a Rapala, even a few Chinese mystery knives that aren't bad. Don't know that I paid for any of em......people give me knives for some reason.

This is a handy kit here, Howe mountain combo, lite hunter, Wyoming skinner. The Wyoming skinner is one cool bad bitch..
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I started out with this old Carbon Steel clunker and then moved up to a couple of Buck Knives.

I have a few others that cost a lot more and look cooler but those old warriors have never left me feeling "underknifed".

Little Dumplin is pretty handy. A stockman works pretty good in the field.

For in the field, a nice drop point with about a 3.5" to 4.25" inch blade is hard to beat for
gutting, skinning and quartering.
But back home I operate about the same as several noted above. I might have any selection of 3 or 4
quite different knives for meat processing.
A butcher knife, a boner and a small bird and trout are a pretty good combo for making meat.
But, to each his own..........
Tim

It's funny how so many seem to have settled on the same kind of gear as we have for the different tasks. For deboning, we'll use field knives and kitchen knives, whatever works. My knives seem to dull pretty quickly when caping/deboning.

Best I've had has been a S30v Benchmade wife got me a couple of years ago.

I have used the Havalon Piranta for caping after the heavy gutting/cleaning work is completed, and had pretty good luck. But it is definitely one-dimensional IMO. I'm considering a 154CM blade after getting an EDC with that steel last year and being very impressed.

Thanks for the replies.

PS-Mich, I am a drop point fan for my field blades.

Before i started having knives made, i used the spyderco Moran drop point. Have 3 or
4. To me the best factory skinner made. Nice and thin. Plenty of belly.

last year I used several different knives for processing. The ones that felt worked best were customs by Rick Menefee and Tim Olt. My old Randall #11 Alaskan Skinner is still as good as it gets.

Dexter Russell 6" boning knives... figure that's what a lot of guys that cut meat for a living use. For a field-dressing knife I use an old Russell Green River Works wooden handled boning knife. Easy to sharpen, takes a shaving edge and inexpensive. What's not to like? I've got a sheath that I bought for a quarter at a garbage sale that fits it like it was made for it. If I lose it or it gets stolen from my truck I'm out less than $10.
In the fur shed I've got several old paring knives and old half worn out butcher knives that I've snapped 2"-3" off the end of their blades to shorten them. Reprofile them and they make good fur knives. Mostly old carbon steel brands like Old Hickory though there is a no name, cheap, molded handle, stainless blade paring knife that is good 'coon skinning knife... the little 4" wooden handle Rapala fillet knives are good too.

Nothin' fancy here.

Buck 110 for gutting and skinning.

6" Dexter Flexible Boning knife for quartering and boning.

Bucks for gutting 303,skinning 118 and for boning a121

I used to think folks were more than dumb for spending $200+ for a knife, now all my pards got em, courtesy of me, and I got a drawer full of em..... it’s nice being able to bone/gut/cape a couple/few bucks without worrying about sharpin em...

You don't know what you don't know, till you do know.

The pair of Ingrams above I have been using for about 14 years.