Are you guys into those hunting knives and fillet knives with replaceable blades? I've seen some nasty pictures on Amazon a folks cutting themselves with those scalpel blades in the reviews.

I like my Havalons for the role they serve. My filet knives are many and varied. My typical is a 10” Dexter. My smaller and one of my favorites is an old Swedish knife that’s been sharpened and slimmed down to roughly 7”. It’s firm but flexible for its size and I can go through Rockfish (Sebastes) limits with speed and precision with that little knife. I found it in an old tackle box that was my wife’s grandpa’s. He had old mother of pearl spoons and some cool old PNW and Scandinavian fishing gear.

PS….keep your flesh away from the sharp edge and pointy front and you’ll be good. Dull knives are more dangerous anyway.

My knives are kept razor sharp. Dull knives are worthless 😉

I’ve witnessed some fuucking bad cuts from havalon blades. Sloooooow down and do shiit right, or buy a Ingram or menefee… 👊🏻

I have 1 Havalon I use for small game. Them things are wicked Sharp.

In my experience, using a folder as a hunting knife just creates a lot more work (cleaning all of the blood and tissue/fur that invariably works its way into inside crevices after I'm finished with the chore at hand).

I much prefer a fixed blade knife. Lately, I've become fond of my little KOA Cub Bear. I keep it as sharp as possible. It does everything I need for it to do!

3.25"

Victorinox - Swiss Army 47602 Wavy Paring Knife



https://www.katom.com/037-47602.html

------------------------

Dexter makes a similar knife a bit cheaper that sell for $3.01.

Straight edge even less...

https://www.katom.com/135-31612.html

I buy dozens of these every decade or so...

They work for me

I agree cleaning a folder is a lot of extra work. My go to knives have been Buck fixed blades for years. I've pretty much settled on a 116 for all gutting and skinning needs. When I'm all done I can throw it in the dishwasher. I did buy a rubber handled KOA Alpha Wolf to try this year. My only complaint about the Bucks is the handles do get a bit slick when wet. I do have a havalon but that only seems to get used for caping back at home or camp.

For little jobs like gutting a skinning a deer I just use my pocketknife. I guess my definition of a lot of work is different than some because I can clean up the hinge and liner on my pocketknife in about 3 minutes at the sink.

For bigger jobs like skinning and quartering an elk or moose I generally use 2 knives and they happen to be fixed blades. I have done an elk with my pocketknife though.

I was with a guy who had one of the replaceable blade knifes when he skinned a bear once. Nothing majorly catastrophic but he did put some extra holes in the hide. I think there may be such thing as too sharp for general use.

Many on here know I make knives for discerning hunters and fishermen. Many guides use my blades and I’ve found the more experienced the hunter/guide, the smaller the blade they choose to carry. Case in point is a very successful brown bear guide who works Unimak and Kodiak islands and has eight of my blades. All with 2 1/2” blades….that’s he uses on those huge critters. My elk guide buddies I hunt with prefer 3”-3 1/2” blades. No Havelons for any of them….

I’m not a knife snob at all. Whatever works, works. For small game, I really like the Gerber, aka Fiskars, game shears I bought about twenty years ago. The make disjointing stuff easy and safe, and help preserve knife edges.

Dull knives are worthless 😉






And dangerous.

Dexter russel metal fowl shears and a dexter russel plain edge net knife with a 3" blade for game of all sizes. I don't even use a knife for birds, just the shears to remove bone and my hands to remove meat/feathers/skin/guts. Fish is another matter entirely as large blades are the only way to get at the thick skinned larger finned game we have in the gulf.

I'm curious, why is the Havalon any more dangerous than other knives? Does it collapse on the user? Blades snap and break unexpectedly?

Smallest would have been a 2.5 inch Kershaw. Only knife I had on an evening walk when I didnt really expect to see an elk....

Thats the only time it got used for that.....

I use most anything. A lot of deer that I have gutted were done with small folding pocket knives. I have done some with an inch and a half cutting edge Kai including skinning. I have done more with a Gerber LST. My preference is small fixed blade knives, 3 inch blades. made from decent steel.

I do not find folders to be any harder to clean than fixed. Hot water and Dawn makes short work of it. Nor do I have issues with slick handles. Once I have a little blood on the handle it gets sticky.

User error in every case I've seen. That's what we call a mild-serious-severe-fatal (as the case may be) attack of dumbass.

I like to use a knife the length of my index finger. Which is about 3 " allows for control of the blade especially gutting a larger animal. I like to use a saw for the ribs and pelvic bone.

My ESEE Izula is a good skinner

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.

Good to know.

Have done a couple of deer with a medium Stockman pocket knife

There's the problem....

He was using the Chinese "havelon" knock-off instead of an actual havalon.

If someone knows their azzhole from a hole in the ground, they won't break a havalon blade. If they don't, they'll probably break a bunch and cut the schiet out of themselves.

An Havalon and a Leatherman Wave are carried for most things. A Weinand bird and trout for birds and trout.

I used my Hinderer NRA knife for big game until I started using an Havalon for coyotes and this converted me.


mike r

I own maybe 6-8 custom knives. Very pleasing to the eye and they feel good. When it comes time to skin and bone out a critter one of my stainless Mora’s come out. Would guess the blade is about 4 inches long.

From what I read people getting in the joints of animals and tweaking the blade snaps the blade and also sometimes when they're are inside the animal cleaning the blade sometime falls off.

I like the Malibu FireAnt from Charles May as good as any. The blade length is 2 3/8” and the overall length is 5 1/8”.

About all I carry anymore.

Erik Fritz Damascus and a set made for me by my uncle with mastadon ivory.

Light Hunter by Kim Ralston out of Grenada MS.

Havalon’s and similar are a perfect example of just how fugking stupid society has become.

I don’t know, and have zero reason to know, but I’d bet all Havelons are Chinese.

For sure. I hate having to feel where the tip of a tiny blade is with my other hand also up in the thoracic cavity.

Amen. Pussified men who can't sharpen a freaking knife.

What steel and maker, Go.

The most dangerous thing about a Havalon is changing blades. Especially if you break or dull one and have to change it with bloody hands and a bloody knife. You better have a pair of pliers with you.

I’m amazed at the guys I run into who don’t even carry a knife. And 90 percent of those who do can’t sharpen one.

I used my dad's old 1973 Shrade 787 "Improved Muskrat" pocket knife, to field dress the small 6 pointer I shot up my older sister & B-I-L farm. I carry that small folding pocketknife everywhere I go, just like my dad did. I was with him back in 1973 on a family camping trip when he and I went into the local store nearby, and he bought it. Later on, he bought another one and only used that one to open mail. It sat on the end table next to his cigar ashtray for decades. My older sister has that one now, as my mom kept it safe after my dad passed away in 2002.

This very same pocket knife, was ALWAYS in his pants pocket, from working in the garage, to dressing up in a business suit as an IBM Engineer, to helping with the volunteer rescue squad.

I’m the maker. CPM154 stainless. I do my own heat treat and tempering so I know it’s right. That blade I used is one I made for myself. 61.0 Rockwell.

Their website shows Taiwan.

I’d never heard of these before this thread. I googled them. I’m out!

Mostly folks who don't know how to sharpen a knife as was earlier said. The blades are very thin and most people don't realize how easy it is to snap one. Pressure from directly behind the blade when cutting tissue is fine. When it touches bone - it's not fine. After they snap one, it can easily go somewhere unintended.

This knife. Bought a few of them, keep one in every hunting and hiking coat. Have gutted more than a few deer with them when I didn't have a better knife with.

GERBER Folding Knife: 2 in Blade Lg, 2 1/2 in Closed Lg, 4 1/2 in Overall Lg, Plastic, Straight - 45NV80|46050 - Grainger
https://www.grainger.com/product/45NV80?gucid=N:N:PS:Paid:GGL:CSM-2295:4P7A1P:20501231&gclid=CjwKCAjwpKyYBhB7EiwAU2Hn2RPGq87-S6sL6TR2bC7FS71m0gdkkEpuADxKQs672vFmakqU01VKFhoCnKEQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I keep claiming I'm going to use this one but I'm lying to myself. I drag it out and sharpen it and put it back in the weapons locker. The only thing it'll ever cut is my dumb friends.

Usually goes like this:

"is it sharp?"
"yes, shaving sharp"
"really?" "OUWWWWWAAAAAA SHIIIIT" "why didn't you tell me it was sharp?"

"laughter"

Geno, that's one of the most beautiful knives I've ever seen. I would be hard pressed to put that to work; it's a real piece of art.

Thanks Offshoreman! I feel the same way. I really feel bad about owning it to be honest. I was rummaging around and found some ammo I wouldn't use (at the height of the price lunacy) and offered it up for trade on another forum and my buddy offered to put a knife together for me. He used stuff he already had on hand but I really feel like he got the worst end of the deal.

I am not a guthook fan, but everything else about that knife is exquisite! You certainly have a prize there.

I st down and over a few night sharpened our kitchen knifes.
Just about shaving sharp.

My girl picks one of them up and proceeds to cut her hand.
She started yelling at me.
What did you do to our knives
I told her that I was tired of dull knives so I sharpened them up a bit until I can get the right stone to really sharpen them up.

He yelled at me that I made them dangerous because they are to sharp.
I Mentioned to her that I let her know that they were Sharpened and to be careful.

I then found the right stone and sat don and sharpened some pocket knives shaving sharp.

She got pissed off at me for some reason and will not let me sharpen the kitchen knives to the proper sharpness.

But she will use the glass knives we gut from Harbor Freight which are shaving sharp.

Women I will never understand them

No doubt. What a gorgeous knife!

I wouldn't mind getting some blood on it but I know dang well I would set it down in some dead leaves and never find it again. lol

Buck 371 and a 110, good up through elk. Went a little larger for moose.

I like the 4" Buck Vanguard 692BR, I prefer the model with the rubber grip. Use it for moose and Caribou. For Caribou my Buck 110 works just fine. but it's not the fixed blade that was asked about.

https://www.amazon.com/Buck-692BR-Vanguard-Fixed-Blade/dp/B000EHUYQ4

I've used my Old Timer pocket knife lots of times to clean fish and skin deer. Have to have a saw to cut the bones on the deer. It doesn't take a special knife for either, just a sharp knife.

Over the past 10 or 12 years all of our big game has been field dressed with a folding Gerber with about a 4 to 4 1/2” blade! memtb

I bought both of these knives at the Airborne PX in Ft. Benning, GA, as a gift to myself after graduating jump school. That was in December of 1990. I have used the non-locking folder to clean dozens of salmon. The lockback is a 2 3/4" 501 Squire. I carried it to work when I was an attorney (back before metal detectors at courthouses) and then took it hunting with me too. I field dressed two or three deer with it, before getting another knife. I still have both knives.

I've got dozens of pocket knives but this is the one I find myself holding 98% of the time, a Buck 301 Stockman.

Either of these work splendidly. One is a 3” blade, and the other measures 2-1/4”.

I wouldn’t own a knife just to rest in a glass curio cabinet.

I’d be whacking zip ties, cutting garden/radiator hose, skinning deer. So….no sense in paying more than 30-40 for it.

Hate be all boo-boo face if I lost my $800 custom hand made Pope blessed, walrus penis bone handle work of art. Drop it down into some jetty rocks hacking up bait.

Buck 110
Walmart
Made in USA
Was $29 till 51% of you closet dill wads put Bidet in office. Now it’s $39

One time I killed a deer and forgot my fixed blade knife, but my little Buck pocket knife worked fine to field dress it. Any sharp knife works good.

When we hunted moose in Alberta during some slow time the conversation turned to knives and I asked the guide how many of his clients showed up with "new" knives just for moose? Lots. The rest of the answer was, "The longer the blade, the less likely it is that the person has any clue how to use it.".

You don’t need a broadsword to gut a deer.

Z Blade. It is a #66 scalpel in an injection molded case, weighs less than an ounce. They stay sharp for a while, the current one I have has several deer and a cow bison under its belt and it is still sharp.

I have gutted over 100 deer with my Gerber ultralight LST lock blade folder. Handle 31/2 inches, blade 31/4 inches. Come sharp and take a very sharp edge. I used it for years till I lost it and replaced it with another, I also have a spare now.

I've made custom knives full time for 20 years and learned quickly that everybody has their own idea of what makes the perfect hunting knife. Most seem to want one that is a half inch shorter or a half inch longer than the one you have in stock.

I've used a lot of them that were between 3 and 6 inches long. I decided that I like one that has a blade that is a drop point, 5 inches long with a full size handle. That combination just suits what I use a knife for better than anything else I've tried.

Below is a picture of the knives I've used the most over the last 55 years. The stag handle drop point at the bottom is the hunting knife I made myself a few years ago. I don't see any reason to change it.

Very nice! Any one of those would suit me fine.

SO TO ANSWER THE OP’s QUESTION



I used to gut deer with a little black plastic keychain Case. With about 1-1/4” blade on it.
Was perfect for reaching up inside and catching that corrugated windpipe.
Limbsaw the the pelvic canal, finish cuttingf out the tail pipe.

The 110 I mention was my and still is my skinning knife. Nothing fancy. And I ain’t no gopher gunner dipshît that’s only popped 2 deer in my whole life. 🤣

Lost a couple little knives in gutpiles. No sadness, $10 for a gutpile blade. Did a couple with a box cutter blade in my Stanley roofing knife.

I like knives like that to keep stashed around in trucks, SHTF pack, etc., but moved on to the Zyliss paring knife because it has a larger handle that fits my hand better. I'm going to try the Ontario Camp Plus Chef folder for field dressing whitetails next season, but will bring along a Sagan Saw to cut the pelvis bone.

A long time ago I had a buck trapper folding knife, one pointed blade and one clip point. I gutted lots of deer with it until one day I reached into my pocket and the tip of my middle finger hit the point of the blade and cut me pretty badly. What happened was the back spring broke in my pocked somehow and allowed the blade to open. I will never buy another Buck knife, my sheath folders are Case knives and my pocket knives are Gerber. They sharpen easier and hold an edge better than a Buck.

I like a little longer blade for deer. The 3 3/4" blade of a typical folding hunter is good. Makes it easier to core out the ass hole. I ain't carryin a saw.

I keep a couple of $2 florist blades in my pack.
blade maybe 2"

Ahh man, I figured you as one of those $900 knife guys that kills one doe every 15 years.

😂😂

While carrying his florist knife for the real work and wearing his polka dot pink crocs ? LOL

Only wear those when I know there won't be any dogs to kick

Blackie- you ever posted a pic of any of those deer you killed?
oh wait.........

You can never be sure when something might need the shyt kicked out of it. It must look like a gay pride parade in the woods down there during deer season. Don't need to post pics for the likes of any of you dirt bags. Do you deer hunt with your gas piston semi automatic inertia operated double barrel shotguns ? LOL

You aught to try it sometime.......[hunting]

If NY still lets y'all handle guns that is.

My wife has killed more deer than your puzzy azz

She must be a better deer hunter than you then. Do you fight over who gets to wear the pink crocs ?

Let’s see some pics.

ya!

GWB

I use a Gerber Pixie, Pendleton Lite Hunter, or Opinel#6 in the field. A Mora Companion for breaking down at home

I've taken elk completely apart with the Gerber LST and CRKT Wrangler - both have 2.5" Blades. This past year I used an Opinel no. 8 with its massive 3" blade.

Opinel no. 8 is my edc.

They're good little knives. When I'm backpacking in the summer and after highcountry trout I take a no.6