#306628 - 07/20/07 09:03 AM
KNIVES FOR HUNTING
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watchmaker
4 Point
Registered: 06/28/07
Posts: 299
Loc: New York
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KNIVES FOR HUNTING
Many of us hunters of long have a love affair with the tool of a successful hunt; the knife.
In our minds, we have this idea of the perfect knife that will fit our hand like a glove; that will perform surgery like a scalpel; that will not need to be sharpened ever, and will remove a cape as well as field dress and skin anything from a deer to a moose.
In our search for the perfect blade, we accumulate many of them that are probably as good as the best knife ever made, but in our search for Nirvana we keep adding new blades and hoping to do enough hunting to test all of them on game.
On the other hand, some hunters are not interested at all in the tool. My friend Frank that has probably field dressed at least fifty deer with the same Buck hunter knife in the last 20 years removes it from the pack once every year in hunting season to field dress a deer or two, and the blade goes back into the same pack to wait for next year’s job.
Perhaps his father being a butcher has something to do with it. He was taught how to field dress a deer early in life, and to him it is just a necessary job that has to be performed. To others like me it is a culmination of all our efforts and should be done as elegantly and as clean and bloodless as possible and with the most effective of tools.
I have found in my long search for the perfect blade that many of today’s knives in the market qualify as superb blades for the job. A good knife blade of 3 ½ to 4 inches will be plenty for most chores. Preferences in my case are for the drop-point blades, but I have had good service from clip points or other shapes.
Some of us like a fancy wood or antler handle or perhaps some engraving on the blade. Those I label dress knives and are a great way to stir a conversation between fellow hunters. I am one with that type of taste and will always appear at camp with a fancy blade. The truth is that I perform all of my field dressings with a plain one that I keep hidden in my pack.
Here is one of my fancy blades, the Browning model 122 one of one thousand, and the one that does the actual field dressing, a Buck 192 Vanguard.
Best wishes
Watchmaker
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#306923 - 07/20/07 01:41 PM
Re: KNIVES FOR HUNTING
[Re: watchmaker]
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gil1
12 Point
Registered: 04/06/07
Posts: 6120
Loc: Nashville, TN
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watchmaker - you are the gadget guru! I know you're a hunter, but how in the world do you have and know so much stuff? Do you sell these products or are you just obsessed with gadgetry (even more than the rest of us)?
_________________________
"May you live all the days of your life." - Jonathan Swift
I'm a Pope & Young Official Scorer - I'd love to score your critter - no charge.
I conduct professional game camera seminars.
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#306948 - 07/20/07 01:57 PM
Re: KNIVES FOR HUNTING
[Re: gil1]
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Tnyoteboy
6 Point
Registered: 11/01/06
Posts: 668
Loc: Bartlett
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Man's got a way with words!
_________________________
You sure you can skin Griz pilgrim?
Hehehehehehehehe!!!
Skin this one and I'll bring you another!
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#307131 - 07/20/07 06:08 PM
Re: KNIVES FOR HUNTING
[Re: watchmaker]
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Matador
10 Point
Registered: 02/04/06
Posts: 3423
Loc: Rockwood,Tn.
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Watchmaker, I too value a good knife, but to me they are a tool to be used. I think I do an efficient job of field dressing, but I don't take 30 minutes on each deer either to make it look nice. Sometimes I may have 3-4 deer to field dress for some of the older guys, so I get it done.
On the other hand, I just like knives and have collected or acquire them for about 45 yr. Mostly good knives, but nothing that will jump out and demand hundreds of dollars. I just like guns and knives. 
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#307196 - 07/20/07 07:53 PM
Re: KNIVES FOR HUNTING
[Re: gil1]
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watchmaker
4 Point
Registered: 06/28/07
Posts: 299
Loc: New York
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watchmaker - you are the gadget guru! I know you're a hunter, but how in the world do you have and know so much stuff? Do you sell these products or are you just obsessed with gadgetry (even more than the rest of us)?
Yes, very very obsessed, but I don't have any other vices!!
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#307333 - 07/20/07 09:41 PM
Re: KNIVES FOR HUNTING
[Re: watchmaker]
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Stalker
8 Point
Registered: 12/06/04
Posts: 1468
Loc: Greene / Cocke County
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I have a ton of knives all for different jobs...Filleting, Field Dressing (small game & big game), Pocket Knives, Multi-Tools (LOVE my Leatherman, goes with me every where) and some that I do not know what there job is but I had a need for them when I bought them (I think). But why is it that every time I see a new one I think "this one will do the job better than the ones I already have"? Is it because the perfect knife has never been made? I am especially in the market for a perfect field dressing knife everyday no matter how many I already own.
Is there something wrong with me or does any one else have this same obsession?
_________________________
"A government strong enough to give you everything you want, is powerful enough to take everything you have" Thomas Jefferson
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#307412 - 07/20/07 10:23 PM
Re: KNIVES FOR HUNTING
[Re: Stalker]
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UPSman
TnDeer Old Timer
12 Point
Registered: 08/29/99
Posts: 7057
Loc: Powell Tn
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I have 2 of Gene Ingrams knives on order. Can't wait until April.
_________________________
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." --Benjamin Franklin
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#307415 - 07/20/07 10:25 PM
Re: KNIVES FOR HUNTING
[Re: Stalker]
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Hogbear
10 Point
Registered: 07/21/05
Posts: 4032
Loc: Cuba (near Memphis)
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I like to roll my own when I have time. They're kind of crude in fit and finish but they get the job done OK.
Here's a pig sticker that I made for a friend in Alabama who raises American Bulldogs and hunts hogs all the time, made from old car springs and wood handle:
Here's one I forged out of cable from an old dragline my father used to own, with stag handle:
Here's a "tactical" knife I made for a friend in the Army out of ball bearing steel with micarta handle:
 
Edited by Hogbear (07/20/07 10:26 PM)
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