Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What are your favorite go to hunting and fishing knives?

I never go into the field without the Case 6x folder that dad got for Christmas in 1!946. DeEr, small game , birds ,that old knife has done it all. Still takes a! Sharp edge and holds it well too!

Edge Pro

I've been using this Shrade Old Timer for 30 years. Then I inherited another identical one from my Dad 15 years ago. They take a good edge. I've considered trying a replaceable blade knife but haven't spent the money for one yet.

Old folding Buck.

Yep

No to havalon... first time someone was going to show me how slick it was, a blade broke off in the elk right at the start... no thanks.

Kent

Field dressing a deer is just so stupid, it takes 10- 15min to get all of his best meat into an ice chest or plastic bags with no body cavity contamination, leave the rest for the critters.

This is why I don’t use processing places. Processors tell me they mix everybody’s deer meat and its better to just do it yourself.

Got any pictures of your table set up? I'm 6'4" and debating doing the same, tired of bending and aching.

Kent,

I love the old school collection of knives that is beautiful!

I'm starting to see The Outdoor Edge replaceable blade Products are starting to become popular.

I was a little surprised to learn that field techniques vary so much. But, it makes sense.. one guy shoots his in the mountains and bones it out right there so he can pack the edible stuff out, and another guy shoots his at the edge of the field and drives his tractor directly to it to take the whole thing straight to the barn to do everything. One guy thinks he has to hack open the sternum or pelvis with his knife or an axe, I'm not one of them. My knives never touch bone except by accident.

That being said, I gut mine out in the woods to lighten the load for the drag back to the house for processing. I've experimented with a lot of different knives over the years and I keep coming back to the Buck 103 skinner as a mainstay, and pairing it with something a little longer and pointier for a few other tasks. Usually a Buck 117, 119, 212, or 105. I also don't much care for a folding knife because of the mess it leaves inside the knife.

Couple years ago now, I started smoking meat for the first time in my life, and in doing so, I've learned about another category of knives that I never really fooled with before- kitchen knives. I'll probably use a couple of those for cutting up the meat. Two that jump out are the Cold Steel Slicer 9" in their "Kitchen Classics" lineup, and the Victorinox 47602, with a curved, flexible, 6" blade. Both of those knives are available for around $20 and do a very nice job.

Nice setup thank you for sharing@

Bought my four inch mora for twelve bucks, they're a great value.

Thank you for sharing your information and techniques. Every little bit helps all of us.

While I find the carbon blades to be excellent quality and keep a great edge, from a practical purpose, they rust quite easily and using them in the field on a regular basis tends to be one of those things where the stainless ones are a bit more practical. I can bring an edge back to a stainless blade in about 2 minutes with a $5 mini set of ceramic sticks that I keep in my hunting pack and I am back to processing an elk or whatever, or even just using in the kitchen. As much as I think the carbon blades are good, from this point forward, I will only buy stainless Moras. I have processed more than a couple elk with an $8 Mora utility knife and a $5 mini sharpener.

The Havalon scalpel knives are truly excellent for getting the hide off, and when I can manage not to misplace mine during the off season, I use mine as it makes short work of that task. The only thing I add there is that I take a very small set of pliers along to swap the blades out on it as a safety precaution. Usually the Havalon blade and knife is gooey with stuff and since I hunt late season (December) it is often below freezing and sometimes below zero and it is way too easy to slice a hand or finger wide open with the scalpel when you cannot feel your fingers. Many hours from a hospital is not the place to open up your hand, which can happen in an instant.



Sidebar:

The havalon is sitting on a piece of VS-17 panel.

I carry half a piece of VS-17 panel, which is an aircraft marking/signal cloth. A few reasons. When I get an animal down, I tend to put my tools on it, so I can keep track of them. I also use it to mark the location by putting the panel in a tree or bush or on a rock high enough to be visible at a distance so I can find the spot for return trips when hauling out meat. I also use it when I am hunting with my elderly father or my kids, and I have my daughter carry a piece as well. I can easily locate them and vice versa. Fairly practical piece of lightweight little cloth.

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It took me way too many years figure out
this simple fact

If you can, try a fixed blade carried horizontally on the belt. I've had excellent luck with Spyderco and Benchmade S30V blades. Bill Moran's handle is hard to beat.

I use a Worksharp for most of it and finish off with one of these Smiths sharpeners. I keep in my daypack for skinning elk in the field.

If you use several different sharpeners, make sure they all have the same angle. Some are 15 degrees, some 20, some as wide as 30. Whichever you choose, you can't switch back and forth.

I have a Delta 1”x30” table belt sander that I have various grit belts for. I also have a leather strop belt for final polishing.

Havalon makes a great backup knife due to weight. I like something much more robust for my primary. An outdoor edge replaceable blade knife is one of my favorites.