fb02p bill moran featherweight spyderco

[timmy96815]

Hi I was seriously considering this knife because I want a fixed blade knife for skinning and gutting pigs in the field. And it needs to be light. What does everybody think?

Good choice?

Any suggestions for a lightweight fixed blade skinner/gutter

 

[The Mastiff]

Those are nice knives, ground well and sharp out of the box. That being said I'm not sure I would choose VG10 for skinning and gutting wild pigs.

Their hair is so coarse, and usually filled with dirt, grit and stuff that dulls even hard wearing steels quickly.

I'd probably go more for a D2 blade, left fairly coarse, with a bite to the edge. An alternate would be to get one of the high vanadium "super steels" like S90V, 10V, CPM M4 as Gunmike showed in another thread, or something equally as wear resistant.

VG10 is pretty wear resistant, and easy to sharpen, very well balanced all around and I wouldn't hesitate to use it on a whitetail, or similar game but for Pigs, unless you want to resharpen during the job, I'd grab something like a nice Dozier ( D2 at RC 60.5 ), and sharpen it nice and toothy and not worry about how gritty the Hog has gotten. Just my opinion.

 

[Gus Kalanzis]

Those are nice knives, ground well and sharp out of the box. That being said I'm not sure I would choose VG10 for skinning and gutting wild pigs.

Their hair is so coarse, and usually filled with dirt, grit and stuff that dulls even hard wearing steels quickly.

I'd probably go more for a D2 blade, left fairly coarse, with a bite to the edge. An alternate would be to get one of the high vanadium "super steels" like S90V, 10V, CPM M4 as Gunmike showed in another thread, or something equally as wear resistant.

VG10 is pretty wear resistant, and easy to sharpen, very well balanced all around and I wouldn't hesitate to use it on a whitetail, or similar game but for Pigs, unless you want to resharpen during the job, I'd grab something like a nice Dozier ( D2 at RC 60.5 ), and sharpen it nice and toothy and not worry about how gritty the Hog has gotten. Just my opinion.

I think that is very sound advice for the reason in bold.

D2 would be my choice for pigs, not sure what the new super steel equivalent would be, maybe some one can chime it, but the old CPM440V might also be a good choice.

 

[The Mastiff]

Gus, Crucible made at least one heat of CPM D2 ( powdered D2). That was nice, but it's mostly gone, and only found on the used market.

Spyderco will be expirimenting with a powdered version of 440XH ( stainless D2). We'll see how that turns out.

Of the above steels that I listed any of them with the correct design, geometry, and good heat treat is up to the job and probably then some. Custom skinners in them are pricey though.

Doziers at this time probably remain the best bet. He is got D2 about as consistant as any maker ever has. He tests each shipment of steel and will not hesitate to send ones back not up to spec. His heat treat is so consistant he regularly gets RC60.5 tested. That's about as consistant as possible. Several models are well suited for hogs, and elk too. This would be my first choice and if I had money and time I'd go to Phil Wilson for a knife in 10V, a high vanadium non stainless alloy that is right now probably the reference standard for this kind of performance. Last I heard Phil has temp. stopped taking orders until he catches up. He's a true gentleman, and one of the leading knifemakers for the high performance vanadium powder steels.

CPM 440V has been out done in performance. It's biggest drawback is the inability to get high enough RC's . 56-57 is pretty much tops for that steel without brittleness, which causes the geometry to be beefed up. Too thick compared to the later steels from Crucible which are both wear resistant and strong enough for chainsaw like skinning knives.

Still, a Dozier is difficult to beat both performance and price wise. I personally prefer D2 a bit toothy, but others might disagree. Please excuse my spelling. Joe