Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades dedicated gutting knife

Never have liked how my skinning knives work, when doing the gutting chore. Too awkward when up to my elbows, feeling my way down the spine, cutting everything loose (deer and elk).

Was wondering if anyone carries a blade that's dedicated to gutting? And if so, what is it....or, what are the dimensions?

I was thinking along the line of a Cold Steel, mini Pendleton fixed blade.....maybe with the higher grade steel (cpm-3v). Smaller and more control.... maybe less likely nicking something that oozes green?

Any suggestions?



Andy3

For deer I liked to hold the knife this way ,with my index finger covering the tip . Turned upright while zipping the the belly ,it gave me confidence not to puncture intestines . This is 6-7/8" OAL drop ,blade 3-1/4" with 3' of edge .










I have field dressed deer with a smaller blade but when it came to the part about cutting around the anus ,the shorter blade wasn't that good .
This is a personal preference of course .

Anything longer than this knife ,it seemed to hold it this way it got kinda dangerous as your hand would be on the blade in front of the handle

The cheap/easy answer is something that uses scapel blades. I prefer the Gerber version to the Havalon, but have used both. Easier/safer to change blades on the Gerber. I'm also a fan of the #70 scapel blade. It has a blunt tip. Keeps me from poking holes in things.

For gutting - cutting the hide and open the belly,

The outdoor edge swingblaze works well.

As does the old Wyoming knife.

IMO a good gutting blade should also be a good skinning blade. 3-3.5" semi skinner design is just about perfect, as is a canadian belt knife design in the same blade length. Why carry two knives into the field when one will do.

I use several different knives when processing a deer or hog. I have different types and sizes and use them because some are better than others for specific tasks. For field dressing, unzipping if you will, I like a smaller knife.

https://www.knivesplus.com/outdoor-edge-whitetail-skinner-oe-wt10.html

Hard to beat this IMHO. The t handle lets you keep secure grip, easy to sharpen, gut hook unzips really easy. Use the heck out of one for a long time till I lost it.

When my god friend's girlfriend started hunting, I picked her up the pink version if the swingblade. Long story short, we used the [bleep] out of 'her' knife for a couple seasons until she made the mistake of leaving it with his hunting schitt and he inevitably lost it.
I haven't found a pink one for her since, and still feel that I owe her a replacement.

Maybe she'd be happier with one of your sets in pink kydex!

Get ahold of Tim Olt (Michigan Roadkill) and ask him for a 4 3/4 inch version of his Michigan Slim. It will come in S35VN steel which is the easiest steel to live with that I have used. I have what amounts to 4 different length version of his Michigan Slim, and the one he made for me with the Buffalo Horn Handle wins the Goldilocks prize for gutting Bambi. I posted a picture of it here, so it's in this forum and in the one for just holding pictures.

S35VN holds its edge as well as S30V, it is stainless, it is easy to sharpen.

One of these is what I would like to get my hands on, fairly scarce though.

Puma gutting knife

There are a lot of reasonably good working knives and different ones work for different users.

I have yet to find anything that works better for me than a standard Bob Loveless drop point pattern with
a 3 1/2" to 4" blade for gutting, bung hole and skinning overall. A semi skinner seems to be pretty versatile also.

Many preferences from many users. Really does not need to be a big knife as MILES358 mentioned above.
And then.
Big, small. Fixed, folder, interchangeable, scales, which of many really good steels...........


My 2 cents.

That's cool.

When we were shooting a lot of deer on damage tags we had a couple poly handled F. Dick knives with similar blades. When quickly gutting a lot of deer they were very handy.

That rounded point Puma makes perfect sense, for internal work, when you are going by feel more than sight.

I'm thinking of taking one of my fixed/drop point blades, and grinding a rounded (butter knife) nose on it, with no edge or point. About 3"-3.5" with lots of belly in it. And, gripping it like Vince pictured, above.

Something like a small buck 684..... https://www.buckknives.com/product/684-bucklite-max-ii-small-knife/?sku=0684BKS-B


Thanks for all the input, guys....great suggestions, all.

Andy3

I use a caping blade a lot still, but have moved to gutless because I mostly am working out of a backpack.

Your huckleberry is probably something like we used trapping. I lost mine but replaced it with a caper, and for me it's tough to decide which is better.
https://www.knivesofalaska.com/Store/muskrat/muskrat---suregrip

The technique that Vince noted is what I do when opening the gut. I prefer a 2.75-3.25" blade for all that I do, 3" being my favorite. A lot of the cutting I do while processing is with my index finger on the back of the blade, though usually farther back than Vince shows (unless I'm opening the gut).

On hunts in an adjoining state, I can't bring bone in, so I use the gutless method there. There's a fair amount of skinning on the tailgate then removing meat. I can handle the skinning with a slim dropped point or a skinner/semi-skinner. The finer work removing meat...I don't like to remove meat with a skinner or semi-skinner. For the way I use a knife, if using a single knife for everything, I prefer a slim drop point like Tim's dropped MI Slim.

Something like this Ingram Slim Hunter will take a deer from field to table...

Outdoor Edge Zip Blade or Outdoor Edge Swing Blade

Maybe it is because of my skinning technique, but never have an issue. I leave all the guts in the chest cavity and only lower and expose just enough to remove the inner loins. I never have an issue cutting the stomach.

You can take the brisket off with a knife. Once that's off and the belly open you can cut the wind pipe and pull most all the insides out by sight, with the help of a knife.

Just curious... If I'm getting what you're saying, you zip open the belly, then leave the guts in the cavity and just push them out of the way to get the loins?