Knife selection: Is its ability to skin important to you?

I think about any knife could be used for skinning, but some blade shapes are better than others. For strictly 'skinning', I've always used a traditional skinner type knife. Upswept blade. And it's always worked well for that.

But last year I found a Spyderco Street Beat and I knew it would be the perfect skinner. This year I think I proved it, skinning, gutting and then completely boning out a cow elk. The streetbeat is a sub 3" blade with a great choil and VG10. Small enough to get where I need w/o cutting what I don't and steel good enough to last the whole job.
 
Let's be realistic here. If you are skinning a large animal in a survival situation you are probably just going to cut the hindquarters off the sucker and hang them over a fire. For this you're going to need something more suited to bushcraft than skinning anyway ( you need to cut through the back bone at least) as far as getting the skin off you will just be slicing around the parts you don't need then pulling and it'll come off. If you have time, and want to go through the effort, you can even just cut around the leg then yank back the skin and slice out a chunk of meat to hang over the fire. Once you get fed then you'll want to think about harvesting the rest of the meat. So to me skinning design is not as important as being designed in a way that will help you build shelter or obtain firewood.

Another thought on skinning...I have hunted since I was about 6. Started like most kids with my dad and without a gun but, I got to do all the work when we got home. So over the last 22 yrs I've skinned a lot of animals and I have found that usually the knife work is over ( as far as skinning goes) in the first 5 to 10 minutes. After that I want a tool that is going to be able to cut joints and pelvis. So the skinning knife, to me, is the least important tool I use to process a carcass. I have a Cold Steel Riflemans hatchet that I would rather use for processing large game than a knife. It takes some practice to get the skinning down with such a large hatchet but pound for pound it's much more useful to me in the woods than a knife designed just for skinning. As has been stated, skinning is mostly just pulling the skin off, especially if the animal is still very warm.

David
 
To me skinning ability is only about 15% of the equation when choosing a knife.

I have used a dedicated skinner extensively when working a farm kill truck, however that blade design doesn't offer the utility I need in a bushcraft blade.

My bushcraft and survival blades are chosen with maximum versatility in mind due to the fact thatthey will be used for many more tasks than game processing.
 
I have done a lot of skinning while hunting and trapping. I have skinned deer, squirrel, rabbit, coyote, fox, beaver, muskrat, mink, turkey, grouse, weasel, and raccoon. Honestly, some knife designs and sizes are better suited for skinning, but almost any blade will do. The user just has to adjust his personal style and methods.
 
I am not a hunter, so it is not a big concern of mine. In a survival situation I feel you could make do with whatever blade you have on to skin or process food. I imagine if I was hunting I would probably carry something intended for skinning.
 
wildmike said:
To me skinning ability is only about 15% of the equation when choosing a knife.

I have used a dedicated skinner extensively when working a farm kill truck, however that blade design doesn't offer the utility I need in a bushcraft blade.

My bushcraft and survival blades are chosen with maximum versatility in mind due to the fact thatthey will be used for many more tasks than game processing.
Click to expand...

Wildmike, you said it. Our WSS necker was designed with versatility in mind for a small bushcraft blade.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top