153UH Golden Spike workout.

[OTguy]

This year, I decided to use the 153UH as my hunting knife for the NY deer season. I was fortunate on opening day to take a dandy 8 pointer(sorry, no pics) and got to use the knife for its intended purpose. I'm pretty happy with the performance of this knife. I dressed, skinned, and did some rough butchering with it and the edge holding was great. Still plenty sharp at the end, only a light touchup was necessary to bring it back to shaving. Thats alot better than some other brands I've used before, very good for what a lot of folks consider a pedestrian stainless(440A). For a full sized hunting knife, the ergos are good. No undue fatigue while skinning, when you skin a large animal any ergonomic problems will manifest themselves quickly. Really just another day at the office for a Schrade hunting knife, no surprises, just performance. As Codger says, America still works and hunts with Schrade.

I wonder how many guys are still using Schrades in the field and how many millions of deer and other game have been dressed by Schrade knives. Its got to be a mind boggling number.

 

[Codger_64]

I would guess the number to be quite high among us old timers. I can remember over a hundred deer alone skinned and butchered by myself in the 1980's, and at least two to six a year since, skipping maybe five years when life got in the way. I try to make it a habit to gift at least one Schrade to a hunter each year. Last year I gave out four knives to hunters, including my own two teens and my son-in-law.

Besides the traits of the 1095 carbon which I admire, the "feels right in your hand" factor is high for me. The four deer I've worked so far this year all had thick layers of sheet fat. I spent quite a bit of time during the skinning and trimming tossing fat to Buddy, our Golden retriever, and his sidekick Peechew, the mutt. This much fat speaks of a good acorn crop, and a cold, hard winter coming. As with your Golden Spike, the Sharpfinger and Woodsman were ready for the next deer with only a brief honeing and stropping.

We only have a month and a week left in our Tennessee deer season, but I intend to fill my freezer slap full this year, and the jerky pantry too. At some point, I'll do a deer using only a tiny pen blade, just to photo it being done. I've done it before.

Codger

 

[mshambone]

My dad and brother both use schrades in the field. Dad's is a 154ot and my brothers is a straight blade with no snaps on the sheath (not sure of the model number). Dad got a 8 point during bow and brother got a nice 10 point opening day of gun here in northern ohio. Those knives have serious sentimental value to them!!