Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Your opinion: best profile/shape/model for deer field knife

Thinking about a new custom. I'd like one knife to use the rest of my life for field dressing medium sized game in the field.

What are your thoughts on the perfect size and shape knife for doing that?

drop point

3 to 3 1/2 inch drop point

+1

Or a single blade folder with a partial serrated blade.

another +1

Yup

3" drop point for fixed.

and it needs a little bit of belly, a sharp tip
I still have not found a better knife for processing dead deer, than this one. Randall #11.

one like this :-)
and I can fix you right up with one just like it..

This pattern works pretty well.



jmho (and that of some others also)
Tim

Steel choice? Sharpening is not hard for me to do. Having to re-sharpen frequently is a PIA however.

You won't get a better knife than a Bob Dozier Yukon Pro Skinner in his D2.

Another yup.

I sell more 4" drop points for general game cleaning than anything else. Im not a big fan of D2. I would recommend 1084 or 01 as they both take and hold an edge well.

Jumping on the pile... Tons of variation on the same basics of a 3-3.5 drop point though. Gotta find what you like. For me, for field dressing only I like Charlie May's Slitter...but like a lot of others as well...:

for the steel, I like O1, D2, S30V, CPM 154, S3V, 1095, A2, ZDP 189............heck, any of them seem to work well.

5" clip point w/some belly

6 is fine, too.

A Loveless style Drop point hunter with a 3" to 4" blade in a good quality stainless. No fancy file work, just plain easy to clean blade.

The handle should be of a material that offers a good grip when covered in blood. For added safety I prefer a small guard or similar to stop the hand sliding forward.

As the knife will be required to bleed and perhaps finish off wounded animals, I prefer a blade with slightly less belly and more of a point.

Looking at the pic below, I would like aknife the size and build quality of the top one, but with the blade shape of the bottom one..

Pete,

Beautiful knives. If you happen to know who made 'em, I'd like to acquire a set.