Gut Hooks?!

Ebbtide

Ebbtide

Gold Member
Joined
Aug 20, 1999
Messages
8,004
OK all you hunters...What's the deal with gut hook blades, good, bad, another gimmick? I've read in the magazines that they clog with hair and are hard to sharpen...
What do y'all say?
 
actually, some gut hooks do a nice job if the angle is right.

Did you know that gut hooks were originally invented to lift hot pots off of camp fires and not to use on animals?

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Phil. 4:13
Dave
Wharton,NJ

I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.
 
Great trivia fact, lifter!
Which ones work well? Any production favorites? My hunting buddy wanted me to research this for him and I doubt he'd go for a custom since he is a gung ho gun guy as opposed to a knife knut...
Ebbtide out.
 
The only gut hook I have ever used was one on a Schrade sharp finger. It was to say the least of limited use. It would clog with hair as mentioned and was actually to narrow to cut through the skin of one grizzled old buck our group shot a decade or two ago. I have always considered them a waste of grinding time.
 
My experience with gut hooks has been negative too. Hair and tissue get clogged up in them and the hook can get in the way while cleaning up some of the more delicate areas where you don't want a mess. IMO there isn't a need for one anyway, a sharp knife does the job easily and quickly.
David
 
Not to offend anyone that uses a knife with one but........ I have NEVER used or seen ANYONE use one that worked!
Once I show someone how I use my Small Hunter for field dressing deer size game, they usually abandone their big hunting knives. The knife is designed to so that the tip of the blade can be reached by the pointer finger. This makes for quick, precise work with little chance of hitting tissue not intended to be cut (GUTS
frown.gif
)The standard Small Hunter does not have much belly in the blade. I find that a knife good for field dressing is usally too pointy for skinning. I offer a skinner version of the Small Hunter and often make them as sets.
Neil

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Blackwood Knives
More knives in stock soon!
http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/Meeting/5520/index.html
 
I think the problem most people have with gut hooks is they are using them for the wrong thing. Or maybe I should say manufacturers are putting them on the wrong knives. The idea of a gut hook or atleast sharpening it, as far as I know came from a zipper knife. They are for small game where its to hard to use a full sized blade for the opening cut, becuase you can't cut form the inside. They're just a small hook with the inside sharpened that you use to open up the game like pulling down a zipper, thenyou use a normal knife to finish the job. On deer, and other game its just as easy to make a small cut, then turn the blade cutting edge up and finish the cut so your cutting from the back of the hide and not dulling the blade on the hair or getting hair all over the meat.

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Fix it right the first time, use Baling Wire !
 
I guess I have the only one that works!
I've been using it for 8 years now , with 15 notches in the handle for the various game i've skinned and quartered with it.Mostly moose , caribou, and black bear.I think that the diameter has to be around 3/4 inch to best avoid clogging with hair.By the way it is a norwegian design that only cost 28.00. Up until I bought my first Randall, it out cut all my expensive customs , but that Randall is a slicing machine of the first waters....BUDMAN
 
Used a Wyoming knife with a guthook all the time I was in Montana.Used to take a lot of Calif.newbies hunting and had to gut and skin a lot of deer,elk and antelope.Used in conjuction with a Russell belt knife I didn't have any complaints.Worked pretty slick.IMHO
wink.gif


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have a"knife"day
 
Thanx for all your replies sound like about 2to 1 against, I agree about not fixing stuff that aint broke.
Ebbtide out.
 
I will put in my two cents here. Most gut hooks I have used are poorly designed with the exception of the scandinavian ones typically used on moose. The BEST one I have ever used is on a cheap knife made by KUUSAMO of Finland and works like a champ. It is very wide, with a very flat bevel which is easy to sharpen with a round crock stick or diamond rod. I have skinned at least 100 deer in the last 10 years with it and it beats my high dollar custom knives for speed hands down, especially when making the round cuts needed for caping out a deer skin for mounting. I agree that any good skinning knife can do this, just not as fast or as easily. Also when you have to skin out 5 or 6 deer after an evening hunt then every advantage you can use in your favor helps.

I have tried many styles of gut hooks like the BUCK zippers, Gerbers, etc and they are all too narrow and clog easily. I just tried one this past year called the Kodi-skinner made by Outdoor Edge cutlery and I can recommend this model highly. It comes very close to the design of the Kuusamo one I have had for years.

Remember also to always retouch the blade edge of the gut hook after using since it requires sharpening just like any other knife blade. I rarely see anyone in our hunting camp resharpening one of theirs and I always get on their case about it.

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Alex Penton
 
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