Your thoughts on this blade

rodriguezryan14

rodriguezryan14

Joined
Jan 6, 2023
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208
I made this knife a few weeks ago for a nice little outdoor/hunting blade. It’s .180 thick in A8 mod with a thin convex grind. The edge is relatively thin, around 15 thousands behind the actual edge! I used it this last weekend on an elk hunt. It completely skinned and quartered an entire cow elk without a touch up! I was extremely impressed and surprised by the wear resistance. It ripped through hide and sinew like butter, and never stopped cutting! I think I’m gonna make another variation of it in the next month when I move my shop to my new house. This one is 4 1/4 inches long for the blade. But I prefer around a 5 inch blade for elk sized game. Makes it so much easier to get the quarters off with a little more reach. And I really prefer this blade shape to a drop point. It’s more of a trailing point, but straight inline with the handle! Just looking for people’s thoughts on this!
 

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it looks good to me.
enough of a point if needed, and a good curve for skinning.
overall size and shape of what I would want for a hunting knife

0.180 may be a little thicker than what I would need, but not overly so I don't think
 
l1ranger said:
it looks good to me.
enough of a point if needed, and a good curve for skinning.
overall size and shape of what I would want for a hunting knife

0.180 may be a little thicker than what I would need, but not overly so I don't think
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Thanks for the reply. I also gave this one a slight recurve, I seem to like it better for skinning! It seems like it grabs the hide better when I’m zipping up the animal, if that makes sense
 
Boattale said:
I like it and agree with your 5" comments. Nice work Sir.
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Popping elk quarters in the field is just easier with a meatier, and slightly longer blade. I’ll keep the same thickness, and same edge geometry. Just stretch out the blade a little, and possibly refine the handle a little more! Thank you. I’ve come a long ways since I started making knives!! Practice makes perfect!! But I’m far from that perfect knife. And for my tools, I choose durability and simplicity over pretty for the most part! I usually stick with g-10 and micarta for my handles. I’m not to into the fancier materials!
 
I don’t know squat about that steel, but have dressed out lots of game. I think the knife looks great. I like how you keep the spine fairly thick towards the point as it makes it nice for puncturing into joints and maintaining strength. The belly looks great for skinning, but not an exaggerated trailing point that can dig too deep when unzipping. I like large handles which require less forceful grip and easier to manage when tired or hands are cold (or wearing gloves). I like ‘user’ knives and that one looks great.
 
beeinak said:
I don’t know squat about that steel, but have dressed out lots of game. I think the knife looks great. I like how you keep the spine fairly thick towards the point as it makes it nice for puncturing into joints and maintaining strength. The belly looks great for skinning, but not an exaggerated trailing point that can dig too deep when unzipping. I like large handles which require less forceful grip and easier to manage when tired or hands are cold (or wearing gloves). I like ‘user’ knives and that one looks great.
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Same. I think it came out well for its designed purpose! I like the look if trailing points, but never likes how thin they taper! Good for skinning though. I kept a nice sweep to the belly on this one, and it did great skinning 3 elk last weekend! I think it needs a little more pronounced guard though. It was snowing and cold, and my hands were covered in blood. It locked in well, but a better guard or deeper finger groove doesn’t hurt.
As far as the steel. It’s not necessarily a high wear resistant steel. But it did really good on these animals. And it was easy to touch up in the end. It’s designed more for toughness, and it does that really well!
 
rodriguezryan14 said:
Same. I think it came out well for its designed purpose! I like the look if trailing points, but never likes how thin they taper! Good for skinning though. I kept a nice sweep to the belly on this one, and it did great skinning 3 elk last weekend! I think it needs a little more pronounced guard though. It was snowing and cold, and my hands were covered in blood. It locked in well, but a better guard or deeper finger groove doesn’t hurt.
As far as the steel. It’s not necessarily a high wear resistant steel. But it did really good on these animals. And it was easy to touch up in the end. It’s designed more for toughness, and it does that really well!
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Maybe a little lateral sculpting to help form to the hand. Personally I like scalloping towards the blade to make pinch-gripping easier. Cold hands, wet and blood are always a challenge!

Thank you for the steel information. There are about 8 steels I really like and have not tried so many.
 
beeinak said:
Maybe a little lateral sculpting to help form to the hand. Personally I like scalloping towards the blade to make pinch-gripping easier. Cold hands, wet and blood are always a challenge!

Thank you for the steel information. There are about 8 steels I really like and have not tried so many.
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I’ve done that on other blades. And I may try that again.
It’s similar to infi steel that busse uses. It’s extremely tough with moderate wear resistance, and good corrosion resistance! So far I’m really liking it. But it took a lot of work to get my heat treat where I want it! It’s a wood chipper blade steel, high alloy tool steel.
 
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