How Many Skinned w/o Sharpening ?

J

johno

Joined
Aug 12, 1999
Messages
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There have been a couple/three people that have noted that their Doziers can skin four to five deer before needing to sharpen, and some comments about the Cold Steel Master Hunter being popular as it's a knife that skin a deer/elk/moose without neededing to be sharpened. Any other results ?
 
This is an interesting question. I used to skin and process game animals in our family's little custom meat cutting establishment. The problem with trying to count the number of deer skinned without sharpening is people perform different tasks when they skin. If you are just talking skinning, without field dressing, removing the head, removing the legs at the knee joints, you should get quite a few deer before requiring sharpening--even with a "not-so-sharp" knife. Properly done, there is little knife work in skinning deer. The knife starts the process and is used a little around the legs and head, but most of the hide is pulled or "fisted" off the carcass. Now is you have to cut the legs at the joints and sever the head at the "atlas" joint, you need more knife action--knife against bone--which dulls more quickly. Also, lots of hunters refuse to buy a small pocket saw and use their knives to split the pelvis and rib cage. The majority of broken knives happen when attempting these two activities. If you know where to split the rib cage--just either side of the sternum in the cartliginous material that attaches each rib to the sternum--you can run your "fixed blade" knife up the line and split it. Sometimes a folder will work, but this is where many hunters break their knives. Either buy a saw, or leave it for your processor to do.

I carry a 4" blade, custom semi-skinner hunting knife and a small Gerber folding pocket saw. I can process about 10 deer before I need to even think about sharpening.

Bruce Woodbury
 
I have been using 440V almost exclusively for my hunting knives for the last two and a half years...they are heat treated by Paul Bos who does it right....I have one customer who cleaned 36 animals without touching the edge...another who went thru over 40..dont believe me...I will be happy to supply their phone numbers and you can talk to them personally.....both are VERY accomplished hunters who are careful with their blades and dont waste any movements cleaning animals. One guy guides bow hunts on Lanai. I am not saying this because of any greatness on my part...I just grind the things, the steel and the heat treat are the important part. Have just started using 420V, which looks to be like an improvement on 440V...and the above results are right in line with the first article on 440V in Knives Illustrated...where it was compared to all the best steels being used and came out on top...with an approximate 35 animal rating.

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http://www.mayoknives.com


 
'35 animal rating' is a useful sounding measure, and an impressive, actually an amazing number. Do you remember how some of the other knives/steels rated ?

A saw seems to make a lot of sense. I'll need to look closer at the saws designed for processing game, and also use the term 'processing' instead of 'skinning'.

What a great forum.

 
All of the hunters I make are of D2. I use the same heat treat process that I use at work for manufacturing tools. The only difference is the Draw temperature.
I have customers rave about the fact that they have gone through several deer or seasons without having to sharpen their knife. Others give me their knives to resharpen after one deer and it looks like they were cutting sandpaper!! Usually, I have a good enough rapor with them to ask if they were cutting sandpaper!! Then it comes out.... Well, after I got done with the deer, we cut stew meat on a cutting board......for three hours!!!!
I encourage my customers to return their knives to me for resharpening at no charge. This way I can return it to my "factory egde". I feel that if I can keep their knives looking and performing well, it's good business.
I have to agree with the response above, that it depends on HOW the knife is used. Someone that has a field dressed and skinnned hundreds of animals will be much more efficient with their cutting. Like Tom said, and I agree, wasted movement!
Neil


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http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/Meeting/5520/index.html




[This message has been edited by Dr.Lathe (edited 30 October 1999).]
 
I did eight Axis deers with a buck 110 before it couldn't shave hair, Axis deer is a lot smaller than a white tail.
 
I skinned (and dressed!!!) a whole squirrel with my ATS34 Simonich Cetan. It did the job flawlessly and would still shave hair when I was done! I would recommend them to anyone looking for a smaller knife.
 
One customer of ours said he went through 10
mule deer with the blade we made for him before he had to sharpen it. The knife was made out of ATS-34. I don't have any proof about his claims other than his word, but we did something right because he has ordered
15 more of the same knife as gifts for his friends and co-workers.
 
Well, it depends. My buddy and I have done several moose, he with his Red River/Cold Steel Elk Hunter and me with my Master Hunter. I used an SRK once, too, and it worked fine. All Carbon V steel. If you go to sawing at moose hair the edge on any steel won't last long, but if you work from the inside out (the MH drop point is great for that initial cut), it should last an entire moose. Deer are no problem at all. Last season I used a Roselli hunter to field dress, skin and quarter a moose and it held up great; however, you have to be careful with that upswept tip. I don't know how Carbon V would stand up to other critters, like alligators (rare up here in northern Alberta), though.
 
One of my customers was thrilled that he was able to use the ATS34 knife I made him to process a black bear without sharpening. He had never been able to do a whole bear before. The blade was about 4.5" long. You can see the knife on my "Hunting and Utility Knives" page, it is the one with the camo pakkawood handle. The handle was a customer request
smile.gif
.

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Matt Harildstad
Knifemaker
www.planet.eon.net/~matth
matth@planet.eon.net

 
Last week I was given a new datapoint to add to this thread. One of my customers used a 4.5" ATS34 knife to process several geese this fall (could not get a definite number, but it was more than two) then he lent the knife to another hunting party during deer season. During the course of the season the knife processed 6 deer without sharpening. I sharpened the knife last week. It was still sharp, and would have kept going, but it would not shave hair anymore.
 
I enjoyed Dr. Lathe jumping in here about his knives since he is making me one of his small hunters. Since the deer season ends soon, I will have to wait until next year to report on how many deer it will clean without sharpening. You can do the entire job on a deer with a Cold Steel Hunter without sharpening. I always sharpen the knife before the second deer. As far as splitting the pelvic bone, I have had many hunters give me this story about breaking it open with a pen knife, but after watching them, they always say "I missed the spot" so I have never seen it opened up like a lock. Probably can be done, but I haven't seen it.
 
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