Offset handles, Game processing, and Blade shapes

[shane45-1911]

Yours looks like it may be a hollow grind?

Yes sir.

 

[rodriguezryan14]

I do my share of hunting every year. This year I’ve worked 4 elk in the field, 1 mule deer. And 1 oryx. And I still have two hunts left. I made these two for part of my hunting kit. The smaller one worked perfect in my opinion to skin and quarter an elk the other day. It’s a 4 inch blade with a nice sweep to it. Similar to a trailing point, but more inline with the handle. And a slight recurve towards the back . I find I prefer a slight recurve when working animals for some reason. Especially when rounding a joint. I did make another one similar to it, but a 5 inch blade for bigger game. I prefer a little more reach on elk when pulling quarters. The smaller one worked good. But I wished I had a slightly longer blade the other day. The other one is a magnacut boning knife. It did its job perfectly when pulling meat off the quarters!

 

[deerrockknives]

I do my share of hunting every year. This year I’ve worked 4 elk in the field, 1 mule deer. And 1 oryx. And I still have two hunts left. I made these two for part of my hunting kit. The smaller one worked perfect in my opinion to skin and quarter an elk the other day. It’s a 4 inch blade with a nice sweep to it. Similar to a trailing point, but more inline with the handle. And a slight recurve towards the back . I find I prefer a slight recurve when working animals for some reason. Especially when rounding a joint. I did make another one similar to it, but a 5 inch blade for bigger game. I prefer a little more reach on elk when pulling quarters. The smaller one worked good. But I wished I had a slightly longer blade the other day. The other one is a magnacut boning knife. It did its job perfectly when pulling meat off the quarters!

Those look like some nice patterns. I think if you have a a big trailing point or deep bellied skinner it eliminates the need for an offset handle. Your handle design still tucks the fingers up nicely. Personal preference.

I’m kind of realizing my favorite is the offset handle with a slightly dropped tip. The slightly dropped tip keeps the edge out of the meat, guts, etc. Here’s a photo of my belt knife pattern (#1). It’s probably one of my favorite patterns for dressing game 4” blade. My skinner pattern (#2) has a big belly and the offset handle. The belt knife might be a little more versatile.

 

[rodriguezryan14]

Those look like some nice patterns. I think if you have a a big trailing point or deep bellied skinner it eliminates the need for an offset handle. Your handle design still tucks the fingers up nicely. Personal preference.

I’m kind of realizing my favorite is the offset handle with a slightly dropped tip. The slightly dropped tip keeps the edge out of the meat, guts, etc. Here’s a photo of my belt knife pattern (#1). It’s probably one of my favorite patterns for dressing game 4” blade. My skinner pattern (#2) has a big belly and the offset handle. The belt knife might be a little more versatile.

View attachment 2416745View attachment 2416746

I like both of those patterns. The skinner looks about perfect for caping out an elk! Your top pattern is almost more of a spear pattern. Which I’ve used before I started making knives. But I like the handle offset on both. So far I’m happy with what I’ve made for my uses. But I’m always changing things up a little. For the most part I like your designs.

 

[deerrockknives]

I like both of those patterns. The skinner looks about perfect for caping out an elk! Your top pattern is almost more of a spear pattern. Which I’ve used before I started making knives. But I like the handle offset on both. So far I’m happy with what I’ve made for my uses. But I’m always changing things up a little. For the most part I like your designs.

It does kind of looks like a spear point in that photo but has more belly than that. Here’s a photo of another one.

They look good I especially like that boning knife. I’ve recently drawn up a boning and filet knife as well. I’ve always liked the victorinox boning knife so emulated that.

 

[rodriguezryan14]

It does kind of looks like a spear point in that photo but has more belly than that. Here’s a photo of another one.

They look good I especially like that boning knife. I’ve recently drawn up a boning and filet knife as well. I’ve always liked the victorinox boning knife so emulated that.
View attachment 2416758View attachment 2416759View attachment 2416760

Here’s a few different patterns a made a month ago. 5 inch, 4 1/2 and 4 inch. The 5 inch blade will go with me on my pack in hunts, the other two are for day hunts. I’m also planning on building me a small hunters type axe for my longer pack hunts. The boning knife was based off an outdoor edge knife. I like the pattern, and so do a lot of the people I hunt with. Your patterns look good. I like them. That’s the cool thing about making your own blades. You can design and test, and improve as you go!

 

[Crag the Brewer]

deerrockknives
The little hook on the bottom of your scale's butt.... I know we've talked about that before, That keeps the blade tip into your work more?

 

[deerrockknives]

deerrockknives
The little hook on the bottom of your scale's butt.... I know we've talked about that before, That keeps the blade tip into your work more?

It’s funny you mention that now because just recently I’ve thought about it more and more as I cut out tons of knives. I really do prefer that bit of hook as opposed to rounding off the back. It makes the handle feel larger because the back of the grip stays straighter further back. Also, I don’t feel like it hinders me from sliding off the back of the handle and just offers more of a secure grip for indexing the knife. Some of my customers prefer the rounded handle like this one pictured

rodriguezryan14 that is true that’s one of my favorite things about making knives is coming up with the patterns. One thing I forgot to mention too is I generally prefer slimmer blade profiles for dressing game.

 

[Cementite]

I cut up a fair number of deer, and for skinning, I use whatever is handy (Case Sodbuster in chrome-vanadium steel is a favorite there, though I generally run 2 knives in rotation for skinning so that I don't need to degrease and touch up the edges as often). For boning out the meat, I like a Forschner semi-stiff boning knife with the swept-back blade, like this:

You can get the steel in that Forschner wicked sharp, and it seems to hold an edge reasonably well...and it's easy to touch up.

 

[oldmanwilly]

deerrockknives
View attachment 2417137

Marvelous design. Does the grip have any tendency to twist while bearing down through tough materials? Or does it lock in nice and tight?

 

[deerrockknives]

deerrockknives
View attachment 2417137

Marvelous design. Does the grip have any tendency to twist while bearing down through tough materials? Or does it lock in nice and tight?

My knives are pretty thinly ground so I’m never bearing down on anything too much, just cutting things. I did cut the breast bone on a deer this year with a .008” bte aebl knife with no edge damage, that handle was pretty small.

This handle locks in very nice because of the large top swell and subtle bottom swell with that also very subtle hook at the end

 

[oldmanwilly]

My knives are pretty thinly ground so I’m never bearing down on anything too much, just cutting things. I did cut the breast bone on a deer this year with a .008” bte aebl knife with no edge damage, that handle was pretty small.

This handle locks in very nice because of the large top swell and subtle bottom swell with that also very subtle hook at the end

Thank you for elaborating. I've really been enjoying the progression of your designs, both blades and handles.

i've been turned off from a few knives recently after they started turning in my hand while whittling and such. One of them really surprised me as I thought the handle was wide enough, but the darned thing just slipped and twisted around. So now my conception of comfortable handles has been shaken and I'm trying to identify subtle features to seek out in the future.

Who woulda thought good handle designs are every bit as complex as good blade designs?

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Thank you for elaborating. I've really been enjoying the progression of your designs, both blades and handles.

i've been turned off from a few knives recently after they started turning in my hand while whittling and such. One of them really surprised me as I thought the handle was wide enough, but the darned thing just slipped and twisted around. So now my conception of comfortable handles has been shaken and I'm trying to identify subtle features to seek out in the future.

Who woulda thought good handle designs are every bit as complex as good blade designs?

Handle design is More important....

 

[oldmanwilly]

Handle design is More important....

Yup. I reckon I forgot that for a while, until recently.

 

[deerrockknives]

Thank you for elaborating. I've really been enjoying the progression of your designs, both blades and handles.

i've been turned off from a few knives recently after they started turning in my hand while whittling and such. One of them really surprised me as I thought the handle was wide enough, but the darned thing just slipped and twisted around. So now my conception of comfortable handles has been shaken and I'm trying to identify subtle features to seek out in the future.

Who woulda thought good handle designs are every bit as complex as good blade designs?

Handle design is More important....

oldmanwilly thanks for following along on my work! I don’t personally think handle design is as crucial on a game processing knife. It kind of circles back to my first post about the blade and handle relationships.

I find myself wanting something not overly complicated and on the slimmer side of things because it’s easier to manipulate. I like it to be relatively neutral as well. I don’t think guards are necessary but they serve more purpose than just preventing your finger from sliding up, it offers finger clearance. If we’re talking about a knife for whittling I wouldn’t necessarily want this type of handle, and I don’t really consider myself to be an expert on bushcraft knives-though still somewhat knowledgeable.

A lot of it is just personal preference but I do think there’s certain design elements that need to be nailed down that make a knife advantageous for dressing game (once again, on the ground). I also never want to come across as I’m saying anything for certain, I just like talking about these design elements specifically because I seldom hear it discussed, yet so many people process game. I dress out a ton of animals every fall. This year alone I think I did 15 elk and 8 deer, couple bears (guiding, my own, friends, etc). It gives me a lot of opportunities to test steels, edges, shapes, handles. Let’s not forget the most important thing that makes a good cutting knife…thin grinds, and I like thin stock mostly because it’s substantially lighter

 

[Hard Knocks]

***Three pictures posted. Two and three are of skinned bear, graphic, in the spoilers.

deerrockknives I know I talked to you some by PM or text, but I was having trouble with imgur at the time and never ended up getting any pictures posted here of the blade you built for me. I used it during spring bear season and it is a dandy blade. Apologies for not making a contribution to this thread sooner, and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Spoiler: skinned bear pic 1

Spoiler: skinned bear pic 2

 

[oldmanwilly]

oldmanwilly thanks for following along on my work! I don’t personally think handle design is as crucial on a game processing knife. It kind of circles back to my first post about the blade and handle relationships.

I find myself wanting something not overly complicated and on the slimmer side of things because it’s easier to manipulate. I like it to be relatively neutral as well. I don’t think guards are necessary but they serve more purpose than just preventing your finger from sliding up, it offers finger clearance. If we’re talking about a knife for whittling I wouldn’t necessarily want this type of handle, and I don’t really consider myself to be an expert on bushcraft knives-though still somewhat knowledgeable.

A lot of it is just personal preference but I do think there’s certain design elements that need to be nailed down that make a knife advantageous for dressing game (once again, on the ground). I also never want to come across as I’m saying anything for certain, I just like talking about these design elements specifically because I seldom hear it discussed, yet so many people process game. I dress out a ton of animals every fall. This year alone I think I did 15 elk and 8 deer, couple bears (guiding, my own, friends, etc). It gives me a lot of opportunities to test steels, edges, shapes, handles. Let’s not forget the most important thing that makes a good cutting knife…thin grinds, and I like thin stock mostly because it’s substantially lighter

Thanks for another measured response. I agree with your point that handle design should depend somewhat on the intended use of the knife. I also agree that relatively neutral handles are great as I dislike handles that limit my options to one or two comfortable grips.

For what it's worth, the knife I mentioned being recently disappointed with is marketed as a "tactical knife" that is also useful as a general field knife. I've used it primarily for hunting, cleaning/skinning maybe a dozen deer, and had great results and no issues with the wide, relatively thin handle. Then I tried whittling a ~1" pecan branch and ran into the handle twisting issue.