Hunting Knife Design Preferences

Well it looks like I've got to do some testing. I've got a bunch of great knives to try, I hope I can find the animals to test them on.






 
Codger_64 said:
Roadkill is fair game if it is fresh enough.
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There sure is a lot of that out here this year. There seems to be at least double what I remember seeing last year.
 
protourist said:
I have a Sharpfinger and several trailing points and soon I will have a new drop point to try out. The testing will be interesting I think.
I really wish I hadn't let a friend use my old Gerber. They don't make these anymore and it was a great blade. I never saw it after he used it to skin a hog.
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You are getting a nice colletcion going there Mack. What is the knife laying on the hat brim ? I don't remember seeing that one before.

Gerber really made some nice knives in the years past. The only thing about finger grooves imho is, they have to fit the users hand very well, or it could become uncomfortable if used for a long period of time. The other thing is, it can, depending again on how well it fits the hand, make it uncomfortable when choking up on a knife, especially if the grooves are fairly deep.
 
Mack, I know you have mentioned how much you really liked your old Gerber. Why not have your custom knife made to be the same, or very similar to the Gerber ?
 
338375 said:
You are getting a nice colletcion going there Mack. What is the knife laying on the hat brim ? I don't remember seeing that one before.

Gerber really made some nice knives in the years past. The only thing about finger grooves imho is, they have to fit the users hand very well, or it could become uncomfortable if used for a long period of time. The other thing is, it can, depending again on how well it fits the hand, make it uncomfortable when choking up on a knife, especially if the grooves are fairly deep.
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That knife is one that I bought at a garage sale around 25 years ago. It's a fantastic little knife but I have no idea who made it or what steel it's made of.
338375 said:
Mack, I know you have mentioned how much you really liked your old Gerber. Why not have your custom knife made to be the same, or very similar to the Gerber ?
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I am thinking of doing exactly that. I need to nail down the specs on it and get it done. The one thing I will change is the handle. I don't want the finger grooves for exactly the reason you stated above.



Thanks Tom. That top Buck is a 103 isn't it? It certainly looks like it would do the job.:thumbup:
 
protourist said:
That knife is one that I bought at a garage sale around 25 years ago. It's a fantastic little knife but I have no idea who made it or what steel it's made of.

I am thinking of doing exactly that. I need to nail down the specs on it and get it done. The one thing I will change is the handle. I don't want the finger grooves for exactly the reason you stated above.



Thanks Tom. That top Buck is a 103 isn't it? It certainly looks like it would do the job.:thumbup:
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I like the garage sale knife. It looks like whoever did it, did a nice job.
I like the idea of doing your custom like the Gerber, but changing the handle. I like the blade shape. The handle on my knife was actually comfortable, but you know the rest of the story lol...

One of the most comfortable knives I have handled is Chris' Sidekick from James. Any knife that is that comfy right out of the box, should be equally comfy after using it for extended periods of time.
 
338375 said:
I like the garage sale knife. It looks like whoever did it, did a nice job.
I like the idea of doing your custom like the Gerber, but changing the handle. I like the blade shape. The handle on my knife was actually comfortable, but you know the rest of the story lol...

One of the most comfortable knives I have handled is Chris' Sidekick from James. Any knife that is that comfy right out of the box, should be equally comfy after using it for extended periods of time.
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James is starting to use some really interesting steels and his handles are, as you say, extremely comfortable. Your design is right up his alley too.
When we meet up I'll have my garage sale special with me. It really is a nice knife. It takes a great edge too. I have a moon shaped scar on my finger where it bit me once. Bit me HARD!!!
 
Hi Mack,

Well, no elk for me so the Keith Willis sharpfinger didn't get put through the ringer for field dressing but I did carry it daily on the hunt and use it for all my daily chores. Handy little knife and I didn't even notice it on my hip. Held a edge through cutting open vacuum seal bags of food, trimming branches, just daily chores.

Regards,
Clark

Willis_zps321ad935.jpg
 
Cwilliamson said:
Hi Mack,

Well, no elk for me so the Keith Willis sharpfinger didn't get put through the ringer for field dressing but I did carry it daily on the hunt and use it for all my daily chores. Handy little knife and I didn't even notice it on my hip. Held a edge through cutting open vacuum seal bags of food, trimming branches, just daily chores.

Regards,
Clark

Willis_zps321ad935.jpg
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I am really liking the custom variants of the Sharpfinger design that I am seeing coming from modern makers recently. I think old Henry would be proud to see them pick up his circa 1973 design and improve it. And to see that hunters and other outdoorsmen of this new century still appreciate the design.

Of course I assume that most people here are familiar with the Schrade 152OT, but would you like to see the precursor pattern which likely inspired Henry?

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Adolph Kastor had these made in Europe in the early 1900's to compete with the original design by Webster Marbles.

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protourist said:
We all have our opinions on what a hunting knife should look like. A knife for hunting Deer, Elk, Moose etc.
I'm wondering why we like what we do.
I'm not talking about a knife for killing, I'm asking about a knife or knives for taking care of what we've killed.
What blade shape do you prefer for skinning? Drop point? Trailing edge? Other? Why do you prefer it?
What do you prefer for butchering the meat? Do you use a different blade for this or do you use your skinning knife?
Why do you prefer it?
What do you not want in a hunting blade? Guard, yes or no? Full tang, stick tang?
What handle shape do you like? I see a lot of them with round or oval handles, do they help or hurt?
I'm interested in seeing the opinions here. Hopefully in the next year or so I will be getting back into the hunting game and also hope to have a custom knife or two built.

If you were designing your perfect hunting blade, what would it look like?
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The game I hunt is all deer size or smaller, so a big knife is totally unnecessary. 3.5 inches is plenty to do everything on a deer without being too big for anything. The blade should be narrow, and I like flat ground. Thin is in. 1/8" seems to work best for me. That combination gives you a blade that is controllable and cuts well. The blade on a hunting knife should cut where you want it when you want it. Needs to be precise for both skinning and for getting all the meat off the bones.

For the handle, it had darn well better be a full sized handle. Most of my favorite knives have a handle coming in around 4.5 inches, and that for a guy with smallish hands. It doesn't need to be a big fat handle, and I prefer them to be more of an oval-ish shape. I like, at the very least, some sort of "guard" before the blade and enough shape to it that you know which way the edge on the knife is pointed when you can't actually see it (critical when you're reaching up inside an animal with the knife). I prefer a handle material that is not absorbent, G10 is nice stuff. I like anything used for food processing to be easy to clean.

I would prefer stainless steel, but my current hunting knife is made out of O1, which works well enough. There's really no need to go for an extra tough steel for a hunting knife as the hardest thing it will probably ever do is separate the ribs at the sternum, and that's not hard to do at all.

My current hunting knife is this Turley custom, and it's a bit back in the evolution of my hunting knife preferences. The straight back I don't like any more, and the blade is a bit long. It is convex ground, which is just fine, though if I did it again I'd just go flat. It is O1 steel, which is fine, but if I did it again I'd go stainless for sure.

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Done several deer all the way through field dressing, skinning, and butchering with that knife and it is pretty close to my ideal design. Shorter drop point blade and stainless steel and it would be about perfect. The drop point and shorter blade would just be more controllable, especially on smaller game.
 
Thanks for all the input gentlemen. This gives me a lot to consider. I sure appreciate it.
 
Years ago, I acquired an original Camillus BK11 Becker necker and tried it on a deer. It worked just fine. Just after that, I experimented with a variety of Schrade Safe-T-Grip patterns, then a group of antique knives Iacquired of the Outers pattern and of the Woodcraft pattern (a variety of makers - Marbles, Western States, Schrade Cut Co, Case, Remington etc.) and do you know what I found? They all worked well in field dressing, skinning and butchering white tail deer. The main differences were in how well they fit my hand and balanced. Lesson learned? Pick a knife style you like and use it. If it just doesn't "feel right", try another.
 
These are the Hunting knives I've used the most.


For Field dressing, a Loveless style drop point with a 3" blade:

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For processing, a hunter and a skinner in the 5" to 6" range:

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Big Mike
 
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