158ot

B

Barry E Harris

Joined
Nov 27, 2006
Messages
136
Anyone done much skinning with a 158OT? I have skinned a lot of deer and domestic animals. I love the 152OT & 156OT. I just can't see the point in the handle to blade angle on the 158OT. I've seen this on some high dollar European skinners to. What am I missing?
 
Barry, I've tried several guthook patterns, and not yet found one that performs any better than my old fashioned approach. As for the handle of the 158OT, as you have noticed, it is the same assembly part as the 152OT and 154OT. That handle design was a winner from the get-go back in late 1973. It just "feels right". As for the blade design...change for the sake of change? Did customers request a guthook version of the Sharpfinger/Drop Point Hunter design? I really don't know that answer. The 154OT was introduced close on the heels of the popular Sharpfinger in 1976. The 158OT was introduced in 1988, which was the swan-song for the 154OT, so the fact that it replaced the 154OT is pretty apparent. Like the Sharpfinger, the Guthook Skinner was kept in the lineup through 2004. I have one as a "type" in my collection, but all four bucks I have dressed this year found me going for my old faithful combo, the Sharpfinger and the larger trailing point 165OT Woodsman.

Michael
 
I am speaking of the fact that it is as if the knife is bent at the hilt. It seems with the blade being at such an angle to the handle that it would put your wrist at an odd angle when trying to use the belly of the blade.
 
In that regard, the knife is no different than it's ancestor pattern, the 154OT/UH. No, it isn't awkward to use in skinning. And the tip is "spear shaped" to compensate for the blade angle. IMHO, it would not work with the scimitar shaped point of the sharpfinger. But I still prefer the angle designed into the Sharpfinger, recurved instead of an arc.

Michael
 
I agree. I have tried all sorts of knives and have skinned and butchered more animals than most; the Sharpfinger is hard to beat. Its pointy enough for coring, disjointing, etc., its got plenty of belly for skinning, and its thin enough that you can quarter an animal at the joints. I don't gut mine. I skin em, take off the loins, and take off the quarters w/o ever opening them up.
 
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