The best way for you to determine what is going to work for you for "use on animals" is to practice in the kitchen.
When a blade cuts meat like butter and easily slices tomatos, I am usually happy. I don't expect my field knives to perform in the kitchen like my kitchen knives and I don't expect my field knives to sliver cut tomatos into paper thin layers. But, for some reason, I just get a good feel for sharpness and ability to cut with tomatos (???).
Hair shaving is a common test, but you are only cutting with less than a millimeter of edge. It is good to have the edge sharp enough to shave, but I feel there is more to it.
To simulate skinning, you could practice "skinning" layers of fat or sliver layers off of beef or similar. You should be able to determine if the blade is sufficiently doing the job to whatever your standards are.
Truthfully, the drag from the blade coating is only probably slightly noticable a small percentage of the time. To me, skinning and meat processing is one of those times, but I don't want to scare anyone into thinking it is a HUGE issue. It is not. But, it "Can" be noticable.
If you are just slice cutting rope or any material less than .25", you probably won't be bothered by the coating or even notice at all.
I would catagorize the difference as "edge" cutting vs. "through" cutting.
My reasons for removing the coating as the coating sometimes being a hinderance to performance are justified in my mind.
"If" I visually liked coated blades equally to satin blades, I would still prefer non-coated blades on "smaller" knives.
But, because of the added rust protection and because of the different ways larger knives are used, I might prefer the coating on larger knives - toss up on larger knives (???)..... would come down to what the knife is being used for still.
My main reason for stripping my knives is definitely personal aesthetic preference.
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MUCH more benefits can be gained on the Howler for skinning, cleaning and similar meat processing type cutting tasks by re-profiling the edge and just getting it good and sharp. :thumbup:
I tend to lean towards the Bark River mentallity of knife edges and much prefer a full convex to sharp edge. (Once you have used one, you know...)
By removing much of the "shoulder" (or all of it!) at the corner of the primary grind and edge grind, you can get smoother cutting - especially for through cutting like through meat.
The edge grind doesn't need to be extremely acute, but I prefer more acute than most Swamp Rat's factory edges.
The Swamp Rat edge angles seem to vary a fair amount. So, you will have to judge.
If you think you feel drag from the coating, as you mentioned, you could probably just smooth out the coating closer to the edge and notice results.
The coating is rarely going to be a factor too far from the edge. I would think .75" - 1" would be more than far enough from the edge for most skinning and meat processing. However, sometimes I have to do some pretty deep cutting and the full blade height will drag. Smoother is going to be better.
Theoretically, high polish is going to be best at reducing drag. But, I prefer satin over mirror and feel a blade can be plenty smooth with satin. I actually don't care to much for mirror finishes.
Bottom line:
Blade coatings have ZERO benefits towards cutting ability.
"Sometimes" the coating is counter-productive to cutting.
Other times, the coating is not a factor.
Again the shoulder at the transition of the grinds, edge grind angle and sharpness are all actually probably much more of a factor on Swamp Rat knives including the Howler than the coating - for most cutting tasks.
I am a Huge fan of Swamp Rat knives (and Scrap Yard and Busse - except Busse prices
) and I own most of the Swamp Rat's and Scrap Yard's regular releases, but I have to be honest, Bark River knives are way better at cutting. Every single Bark River knife I have or have ever had outcuts (from the factory) every single Swamp Rat, Scrap Yard or Busse knife I have ever had.
I am not trying to slam Swamp Rat too hard here. I feel Swamp Rat, Scrap Yard and Busse knives are all Extraordinary knives. But, I do feel that the factory edges could be more up to par with the industry. I have received a couple of Busse family of blades that were reasonably sharp. Unfortunately for me, I have received most that were not as sharp as I would like to be able to expect. To me, it is MUCH nicer to receive a sharp knife. However, I know for a fact that Swamp Rat and the Busse family of knives can be made VERY sharp.
To me, there is a difference between sharp and cutting ability.
The quality of the steel and the ability to get sharp is not the issue here. Swamp Rat steel SR-101 is very good steel (although, Bark River does use some 52-100. 52-100 is basically "un-modificed SR-101 - whatever "modified" means - we don't know ?????). The difference in cutting ability between a factory Bark River and a factory Swamp Rat is mainly the edge geometry and factory sharpness ...... - and a little bit of the coating in "some" applications.
This is probably more of a credit to Bark River than a discredit to Swamp Rat, but Bark River knives cut so very well, that once you have cut with that level of cutting ability, you just want all of your knives to do the same.
The Howler is a great knife and can make a great skinning/hunting/camp knife.
The Howler has the "potential" to be very sharp and have great cutting ability, it just needs some tweeking.
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Out of curiosity, what will be your "Primary" knife?
..... since you mentioned you were going to use the HR as a "Backup" knife.
I would think (with some tweeking) the HR would do very well as a primary if using it for skinning and cleaning.
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