Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What's the smallest fixed blade, folding knife you use for cleaning your Game and Fish?

I've got that exact Vitorinox I've literally had for 30 years. Got a red handled one too that I've had for 20.

I've sharpened the both of them, but the black handled one almost to the point (pardon the pun) where the serrations are gone.

My fish knife for scaling and skinning down at the dock is a Dexter, although I filet with a custom filet knife that was gifted to me.

My game knife is custom ... I forget the name of the guy who forged it, he was recommended by a buddy of mine who makes scales for custom knife makers. It's skinned a lot of venison over the years.

I'm a knife snob to some degree I guess but I mainly am a snob about keeping them razor sharp at all times, all my knives ... pocket knives, kitchen knives, hunting and fishing knives, big survival choppers, doesn't matter ... keep'em sharp. I'm usually honing a different knife every night while watching tv sitting in my chair or on the front porch or back deck. It calms me, helps me to reflect.

So the injured person would have done the same with any sharp knife?

For fish, I like a traditional filet knife. On deer, hogs and small game I use a smallish fixed blade.

Yup. Nothing wrong with using a scalpel - it's use is no different than any other blade. Not my cup of tea unless lancing a boil or removing a foreign object.

Hell.............went bowhunting and forgot my knife ended up shooting a nice 8 point used the only thing I had that was sharp.....a "Bear Broadhead" on a arrow 30" long....worked OK got less blood on my hands with the long arrow.....

So I would say just about anything that is sharp will work.....

I've been making knives for over 50 years....fixed blade around 2 1/2" of a blade is all that needed and even that is long....

I don't use a scalpel blade knife either. The way some of the replies were framed it seemed that maybe there was an inherit design flaw or risk particular to that genre of knife.

The replaceable/scalpel type knives offer a much narrower window of “oops” for folks who haven’t learned to let the knife do the work. Or, for folks who don’t know how to sharpen a knife properly and have been working w/dull knives forever.

Not that one should, but, the scalpel blades do not tolerate “prying” very well either and can cause a serious “slip” when they snap.

In regards to the OP. 2.5”-3.5” fixed blades the majority of the time, mostly fixed blades.

Standard carbon steel Case Trapper

Rapala filet knife for fish. Been using the same Green River Russel sheepskinner model on deer, antelope, elk and a mountain goat for nigh on 50 years now. Only sharpened it on a stone a couple of a dozen times, mostly keep the edge tuned with medium - fine grooved steel.. cost me $1.50 new in 1972 bought 4 of them for $6.00 . Gave one to a guy who I thought was a friend, one to a guy who is still a friend and kept the 4th one as a backup.. Pretty damn sure it and my old Remington M700 ADL 7 mm mag. are some of the best spent money in my life...mb

The two small knives that I use are the Buck Skinner



and the Havalon Piranta

A havalon.

I use these Made by Dave Kauffman Montana.

For skinning and field dressing - 4 inch custom drop point.
For boning out and processing - a 5 inch Forester flex blade and an 8 inch Forester slicing style.
Trout and birds - a 3 inch custom spear point and / or a pair of game shears.
Fish filleting - Rapalla.

I do not like folding knives for cleaning game. I always have a three blade Case Stockman for general purpose use.

Have a couple of buddy's that use the havalond, glad as every season they ask me to sharpen there cheap knives, I tend to use smaller knives fixed blade, tho I did buy a nice folder, musk ox crown, off Vince here to use, it's just to nice tho! Use M
Miller, treemans or MeC fee.

I use a Russel Green River paring knife with my Axis grips.

I carry a fixed blade knife for every day carry. I have several bench made knives made from discarded electric hack saw blades but they are larger than what I prefer and the workmanship is so so. I like a fixed blade knife with a 3 to 3 3/4 inch blade. Case, Schrade Old Timer and Uncle Henry, and Moore Maker work fine for me. I prefer carbon steel blades but most now a days have stainless steel. I prefer a stag handle. Still trying to learn the best way to sharpen a knife. Currently using a water stone, wet or dry sandpaper, razor hone and leather strop. I would love to have a high quality knife like a Menefee or Randall but cost is a factor. I cut lots of things with my knives and try to keep them sharp but they get used and worn down from sharpening. Hay twine is hard on a blade.

All I ever use on game is folders. I don't have any trouble cleaning them. I don't want a fixed blade on my belt and if I had to carry a pack hunting I'd stay the fugg home. Anything that won't fit in my pockets isn't going afield. For small game/birds some favorites are an Old Timer 194OT liner lock gunstock trapper, a Camillus Sword Brand #3 lockback and a Buck 500 Duke. For deer some long time favorites are a Puma 970 Game Warden, a Camillus Sword Brand #4 lockback and an old nylon handled Parker Imai lockback.

Not a knife snob if it will get sharp enough and stay that way long enough, I'm good.
Prefer folders, a minute of hot water from a sprayer strips it clean.

Always used a 3-4 inch blade, never measured but it just seemed right.

Grabbed a roadkill one night and my only knife was a little
Bucklight. Maybe 2" blade, sharp as heck.
It sucked donkey balls. Maybe im too "inexperienced", but a bit
more blade makes it a dam sight easier to get stuff cut loose inside.

Carrying things in my pockets seems to wear holes in my pants. Keys and pocket knives are the worst. Folding money in a money clip not so much. Copenhagen and Skoal cans used to be a problem before I quit using them. They got too expensive. So I carry a small shooter and a small fixed blade knife on my belt. Small saddle bags and pickup trucks carry the things one would normally put in a backpack.

My buddy helped me skin my bull elk three years ago. We went to work with my handmade knife on one side and his favorite Havelon on the other. I went through my side with no issues and it still shaved afterwards. He had to stop and change blades on his Havelon SIX times. The accidents I’ve witnessed with Havelons have, in each case, been blades snapping in use. It happens.