Recommendation? Looking for no frills hunting knives

[Henry Beige]

Now I want one of those old hickory hunters.

Now that you mention it, I should get another one or two to keep around for gifts. I wonder how long they can continue to sell that package for twenty bucks, which seems to be a pretty universal price. Perhaps they weren’t moving at $26 or whatever it was they are supposedly marked down from.

Although it is only four months old, this thread was already pretty zombified. The OP posted once and vanished.

 

[Wild Willie]

Rikes Raggy! I didn't even see that I was participating in necromancy of a thread...

 

[Bigfattyt]

I would say thumbs up to every one of the recommendations that I see here... except one. The BUCK 103 is a loser. Forget it. It is a gross fat clumsy fad skinner knife that is too heavy and hard to sharpen. Weird. Well... I guess that is just my opinion.

I'm going to have to disagree with the hard ro sharpen part here.

Buck's 420HC is some of my favorite steel to sharpen. Even compared to my 1095 and other simple carbon steels...it takes a hair jumping, hair whittling, shave your face sharp edge for me with minimal effort.

Now, that design is not necessarily one I think of as a rough use, batton logs for the fire, throw at tree stumps knife. It is a hidden tang. The wood is stable and strong. It will skin well, and cut cheese and salami while camping.

I don't have that model so the blade height may not be ideal for every task.....but my lifetime of Buck use tells me it'll work just fine.

I would probably pick a different model from them for general use (,I have a 110 and 120 general which covers a lot of uses) but frankly, I have other custom knives to pick from.

The hollow grind is fine for skinning and general tasks. Stays nice and thin behind the edge for a long time if normal sharpening.



It may cost him more than a few Mora entry level or old hickory or a few others.

The Buck 103 can be had for about $80..it is a pretty classically useful blade shape for skinning tasks. Less point than you might want for joints and tight cutting areas while boning.

The vanguard, is a different model. More point, less belly/blade height. About the same price range. Would work well for a lot of hunting tasks.

Again, in that price range, OP can find lots of models where he could buy 3 or 4 different designs for the same price.

While I don't own one, and did not recommend a 103 or vanguard to fit his purposes, I'd be fine using either if it was what I had, or wanted.


Bought my two boys and me self a matching set a few years ago.

 

[screened porch]

Rikes Raggy! I didn't even see that I was participating in necromancy of a thread...

November 2019 isn't that long ago.
The only thing that bothers me about necro threads is when I post on page one and find out a little further down that I posted the same thing in the distant past.
Anyway, we've seen a lot of nice inexpensive fixed blades.

These were something like fifty cents from the world's largest knife showplace, many years ago. A great travelling kitchen knife, but not for batonning, even if one were into that. One millimeter thick.