- Joined
- Apr 27, 1999
- Messages
- 6,117
RD, Your model would be fine if the internal organs were flat and stiff as cardboard. In reality the body cavity is more like a soft-sided suitcase stuffed with clothes. You can't rely on the dull curve of the back side of the drop point to push the contents out of the path of your point due to softness and irregular contours.
What I do as I open the cavity is guard the point with my finger tip while the side of the finger helps lift the abdominal wall away from the organs. The key in this application is that my index finger doesn't want to align with the center of a blade that is straight or bent forward (towards the edge) as long as I am gripping the handle. It is easiest to guard a point on a blade that has some back-bend or has a straight back.
WK, My rabbit cleaning ideas were influenced particularly on a trip where I didn't have a good table or similar clean platform to work on. Whacking the head off a rabbit with a large knife is not as convenient as removing it surgically with a fine point when you are more or less holding it in the air. Likewise, it's a hastle to split the pelvic girdle and remove the last of the large intestine with a large knife if you don't have a good supporting surface. Most of the other gutting processes could have been done with a heavier tip. Where we were working was on the hood of my car and I didn't want anybody to slip up.
What I do as I open the cavity is guard the point with my finger tip while the side of the finger helps lift the abdominal wall away from the organs. The key in this application is that my index finger doesn't want to align with the center of a blade that is straight or bent forward (towards the edge) as long as I am gripping the handle. It is easiest to guard a point on a blade that has some back-bend or has a straight back.
WK, My rabbit cleaning ideas were influenced particularly on a trip where I didn't have a good table or similar clean platform to work on. Whacking the head off a rabbit with a large knife is not as convenient as removing it surgically with a fine point when you are more or less holding it in the air. Likewise, it's a hastle to split the pelvic girdle and remove the last of the large intestine with a large knife if you don't have a good supporting surface. Most of the other gutting processes could have been done with a heavier tip. Where we were working was on the hood of my car and I didn't want anybody to slip up.