Anybody use a wharnie

[Wandering_About]

me likey! who made that

Bryan Breeden made that one.

I also like a wharny for gutting, just seems to work well.

 

[coote]

Nice knives pictured in the posts above.

I grew up to believe that a proper skinning knife had a curved blade. However most of my skinning is done with a much straighter knife nowadays.

I don't skin cows, buffalos or African game animals. I think that when hides do not easily pull away from the carcase, and when the skin has to be removed in good condition, then a curved skinning knife is probably a good tool for the job.

I feel that the trickiest cuts in skinning are the cuts that open the skin around and down the legs, and opening along the gut to the head. The little 'Wharnies' pictured above would be great for this job. After these initial opening cuts have been made, quite often I find that the skin can be pulled from the carcase without constantly having to use a knife. This is true for the animals I deal with anyway.

A while ago I enjoyed trapping our wild possums on a part time basis. I skinned a lot of them. Below is a picture showing three knives I might have typically used for the job. The top one is a cheap folding knife. I bought a number of these for less than US$2 each plus shipping. They performed surprisingly well as a general purpose knife for durability and holding an edge, but what I particularly liked was the shape for making the opening cuts on a possum. The two, rather crude looking, knives below the folder were made by me. Their construction is based on the 'karda' knives that came with kukris I purchased. I think the steel in the larger one was previously a bandsaw blade scrounged from a saw mill, and the smaller blade was ground from a broken kitchen knife. They don't have the exact Wharnie shape as shown earlier, but they do have fairly straight cutting edges and a flat 'angle' on the top of the blade. This is a good shape for opening a skin. I think of these blades as having a traditional 'seax' shape.

 

[MRpink]

Just finished this one up, might throw on some thin micarta.

 

[Toucan Oasis]

Time machine
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=509917

 

[bikermikearchery]

One I made for my son. The handle material was from my father who my son never got to meet.

One i made for a yacht club last year

warncliff friction folder with bottle opener. This is my sitting on the beach drinking Pacifico and cutting limes knife.

shop knives

little warncliff necker.

 

[coote]

Beautiful thank you.

The style of knife you made for your son could well fit the category (for many folks) of 'this is the only knife you need for most occasions'.

 

[jimdandy197647]

I love my micro tusk for edc?

 

[dartanyon]

Hahahaha we used to use one of those to flog the poms

 

[bikermikearchery]

Just finished these two up for the yacht club.

 

[bikermikearchery]

OK one more Warncliff

 

[coote]

Looks like it pretty much has the size and shape to be a great little hunting/outdoor blade provided that the point is sharp. I also like the fact that is has a similarity to the old seax shape used by our ancestors (who must have had some idea of what they were doing).

That knife really appeals to me.

 

[myright]

Here's mine made by Atakach

 

[Rick Marchand]

Here is a chopper I made a while ago. The Wharncurve.
Rick

http://www.bladeart.com/artists/rick_marchand/rick_marchand.htm

 

[coote]

Yeah. That would chop.

very nice.

 

[bikermikearchery]

Like that one Rick

 

[Joben]

any skinning ive done has been with a razor blade, like most of the hunters here......it too has a wharnie shape. I've yet to see any hunters here other than Inuit use curved blades.

might be a regional thing?

BTW that is a beautiful blade the OP made

That's interesting, I'm in New England, and if you say 'skinning knife' I think most folks picture something like this:

The idea being that the upswept tip helps you avoid accidentally puncturing things.