Wicked slipjoint sighting!

F

Franciscomv

Joined
Feb 7, 2005
Messages
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I was going through some old Ray Mears DVDs and while watching the first episode of his World of Survival series I saw two inuit hunters using slipjoints to butcher a caribu.

At first I thought it was a SAK of some sort, since the blade looks a lot like one of the larger SAKs. But then I could see brass bolsters and what looked like a stag handle. The other guy was using what looks like a yellow handle single blade trapper, but I couldn't get a shot of the blade.

What these guys do with those slippies and some thin bladed butcher knives (which they use for snow) is amazing.

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Yep. It doesn't take a big blade to work an animal over.
My best friend since grade school and I still hunt together, and he uses what ever little folder he happens to have in his pocket at the time. He carries one of the compact carbide :eek: sharpeners to keep it going.

Last year he used a little Schrade 33OT jack knife. It wouldn't be a big surprise, but its not even an original Schrade. Its a current overseas production knife. He didn't know it was until I told him..
 
What surprised me is that they didn't just do the skinning with those pocket knives, they butchered the whole thing. Outdoors in below freezing weather!
 
Lots of the locals in my area use small slip joints to do all their skinning and dressing of Deer. One old guy uses a very well used (used up) old timer with no more than 2 inches of blade left. Alas, a number of local hunters use box cutters ;-(.

Regards

Robin
 
many of us whom dwell in urban areas are amazed by the prowess of tribal or rural peoples. people living close to the ground use their hands more & learn to do as much with a spoon as we can do with a shovel.growing up i had a farmer friend whom used a pocketknife to do all his fish & game. it always amazed me how he could clean rabbits & fish so much faster than we city guys with our fancy blades.
 
It's the same with everything: it isn't the tool, it's the knowledge of how to use it. Also, slipjoints are generally thin-bladed and flat-ground, which is a big advantage right away.

I think it was A.G.Russell who pointed out that the Texas toothpick cleaned deer all over the South in the old days. I had a toothpick variant with a scaler for a filet knife.
 
This comes as no surprise to me. The Inuit's are not any different than a coal miner in Appalatia, a working ranch hand in Wyoming, or a working waterman on the Chesapeake. All are working hard to get by, and when you have a family to feed, luxury items like extra nice knives and firearms are not in the cards. They buy whatever the local trading post/box store has and the make do with that. I've seen too many good old boys using an old edc pocket knife and a single shot Stevens shotgun to feed thier families. They have never read a knife magazine, and they don't know how under equipted they are by not having the lastest and greatest trendy knife. All they care about is, will it cut. I'll bet those Inuit's didn't even spend too much on those knives. May even be from an asian country.

Like it was said, don't have to be big, just sharp.:D

I love it!:thumbup:
 
I guess I'm just not used to seeing folding knives used like that, it's a really alien concept for an Argentine. Fixed blade knives are the traditional EDC down here (for outdoorsmen and rural workers, not modern city folks).

One of my grandfathers kept all his folding knives in their boxes, played around with them, but never used them around the ranch or in our mountain rides. He'd carry a fixed blade knife (a small one, with a thin carbon steel blade).

My other grandfather had a nice penknife collection, he was an army doctor in Patagonia, and he only used them on his mail and pencils. When he climbed on his jeep to go see a patient, he'd carry a small fixed blade knife. I remember some of our relatives (who still live in Spain) giving him a hard time about adopting the Argentine "verijero" instead of the traditional navajas from the old country. In the '50s he discovered SAKs while teaching in France and Switzerland, and he carried Wengers for the rest of his days.

I do agree about skill over equipment. There's an old ranch hand at my family's mountain ranch that carries and old, worn out kitchen knife (one of those forged chef knives with an integral bolster). I've seen him use it for all sorts of tasks, maybe I need to get the guy a few Blade or Tactical Knives magazines and show him the error of his ways!

The top knife in the pic is my grandfather Raul's Wenger (quite different in size to modern ones, and with exposed rivets), the bottom one is my grandfather Francisco's Boker lockback that he carried after he retired.

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I just reached into my pocket and took out my Vic. Farmer. It has the same blades as that Wenger except the Wenger has a hawksbill instead of my can-opener.

The Boker hunter is a classic pattern like the Buck 110 that's been known to do good outdoor work. :)
 
I just reached into my pocket and took out my Vic. Farmer. It has the same blades as that Wenger except the Wenger has a hawksbill instead of my can-opener.

The Boker hunter is a classic pattern like the Buck 110 that's been known to do good outdoor work. :)
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I just reached into my pocket and took out my Vic. Farmer. It has the same blades as that Wenger except the Wenger has a hawksbill instead of my can-opener.
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If you like that pattern, it's basically a Vic. Pioneer Harvester. Except with plastic scales and a lanyard ring. And the saw on the Vics opens on same end as the blades.
 
Thanks, randomlooker! I like the Farmer so much that it's time for a new alox or two. :)
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Thanks, randomlooker! I like the Farmer so much that it's time for a new alox or two. :)
Click to expand...

There's also the Electrican Plus, which has a sheepsfoot blade instead of the Harvester's hawkbill or the Farmer's can opener.


Back on topic... I normally prefer Victorinox over Wenger, but I'd rather have a knife with history behind it like the one pictured, given the choice. That one looks like it has plenty of use left in it.
 
Franciscomv said:
What these guys do with those slippies and some thin bladed butcher knives ... is amazing.
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While I agree with the sentiment that these guys are quite skilled at stuff like this, I don't think what makes it amazing is that they're doing it with "mere" slippies and some thin bladed butcher knives.

To me it makes perfect sense that they chose those knives for the job. Hell, my grandad did all his game and fish processing with a combination of a two-blade jack and thin-bladed carbon steel boning knives from Dexter.

See, led by modern-day knife manufacturers - whose innovations are quite often little more than bells and whistles designed to sell more knives, not necessarily create better knives - lot of folks have come to equate "heavy duty knives" with sharpened prybars that are big, thick and shiny, and have locking mechanisms that would support the weight of your average sumo wrestler. As consumers we've been trained that whatever is billed as the latest and greatest must really be the latest and greatest. Consequently, we're often amazed at how well the time-tested classic tools of yesterday work.

(By the way, I want to be clear: This rant is not aimed at Franciscomv or anyone here in particular. I guess we all just need to vent at modern society once in awhile, right? :) )
 
mnblade said:
See, led by modern-day knife manufacturers - whose innovations are quite often little more than bells and whistles designed to sell more knives, not necessarily create better knives - lot of folks have come to equate "heavy duty knives" with sharpened prybars that are big, thick and shiny, and have locking mechanisms that would support the weight of your average sumo wrestler. As consumers we've been trained that whatever is billed as the latest and greatest must really be the latest and greatest. Consequently, we're often amazed at how well the time-tested classic tools of yesterday work.
Click to expand...

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
I sometimes get amused watching guys who might field dress one whitetail a year agonize over minute points of performance and edge holding. :)
 
Years ago when I was a younger man, I stayed in the woods and cleaned all sorts of game.

I used a Schrade 8ot more than usual and sometimes used my Uncle Henry 897uh to clean deer, squirrel....whatever.

One year I was having a particularly good season and seemed to be taking more deer than usual. My mother noticed that I was spending a lot of time cleaning the "innards" of my slippies and on her next trip to town brought back a Schrade Sharpfinger and a Buck Vanguard. My step father was helping me clean the deer and we were butchering them ourselves and distributing the meat to the older neighbors that, while not needy, were most appreciative of the game.

The old man who's land I hunted on helped us along offering hot biscuits and coffee from his potbellied stove as we labored along. I'd take one that morning, we would clean it and take the meat to someone, then return to laugh and tell lies around that woodburning stove. The old man would spit tobacco, my step father would light his pipe and I would sit and hone those fixed blade knives back to razor sharpness for the next day's hunt. Some of my fondest memories.

I will say that the slippies did the deed just as well as the fixed blades but the cleanup was a snap on the fixed blades. And I always prefered the carbon blades to the stainless for sharpening up later.
 
Hey guys,


I think I have seen that knife somewhere. I am really surprised that the knife did not freeze open or shut.

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"The "Fiske Knive" (Norwegian for fish knife) features a real bone handle, sculpted bolsters and razor sharp carbon steel blade. "

The orginal video can be found here in three parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc5KPNlfnFU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VvrJQYWYgQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR4hBCYZWnw&feature=related

The hunting come in part II. Very incredible. I can't believe how people managed to live in the Arctic for 4000 years.

God Bless
 
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kidwholaughs said:
I am really surprised that the knife did not freeze open or shut.

I can't believe how people managed to live in the Arctic for 4000 years.

God Bless
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I have used slipjoints (And other folders) a lot during cold wether. Im much outside and lives not far below the polar circle in an inland climate. I have never had a folding knife freeze for me. see It from this angle. Cars, tractors, schainsaws, snowmobiles etc with lot of mowing parts works in the extreme cold wether, A slipjoint isnt exaktly rocketcience. If its very cold its good to have a knife in a pocket in the outher layers of the clothing making it not nessisarry to open the clothes to reach for it. If it can be opened with gloves and has a lock its good but a traditional slipjoint is not far behind. The fact that its a good cutter is the main thing. Its not Better to have a easy opening prybar instead of a little more complecated opened slipjoint if the cutting is best done with a knife. Of course a fixed blade have a lot going for it....

About living in the arctic areas I couldnt agree more. Very hard people to be able to survive on the tundra and in the ice.

bosse
 
kidwholaughs said:
I am really surprised that the knife did not freeze open or shut.
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Why should it? That's what oil is for. Even without modern oils, I'm sure these guys can manage. In the old days, whale oil was the preferred lubricant for slips -- pretty sure these folks still know how to render blubber into oil. ;) Most likely, whatever oils that work on other machinery up there also gets put on their knives. No problem.
 
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