Bring sharpener for fixed blade or ditch it for a Havalon?

[mtnbound]

I really think the Outdoor Edge is the answer here. Cuts like a Havalon, just a touch heavier, but still robust. I'm not great at the knee joints and the skulls and I tend to pry a bit and I've never broken a blade.

The only downside I see on them is sometimes they gum up and replacing a blade isn't as straight forward as a new or clean knife.

I have one of these, and they do work better than the Havalon style, but cleaning them is a pain.

 

[Legend]

For folks who are saying they get through a whole animal without sharpening their fixed blade, are they talking about quartering or boning out? There's gonna be a dozen miles and at least one mountain pass between me the truck. Thanks y'all

You can de-bone a deer, turn all of it into Jerky strips and still have a sharp knife. Meat doesn't really dull a blade much.

Cutting hair (always cut the skin side not hair side), taking knuckles apart, and removing skull are hard on blades.

Sure you can bring a sharpener but I am always in too much of a hurry to stop and sharpen especially when it's still cutting.

If you are new at this DO NOT bring a havalon type blade....damn things are dangerous to the user.

 

[Mojave]

I do no like exchangeable razor blade knives.

I have absolutely mangled my hands.

 

[Macintosh]

Those moraknives are pretty darn soft steel. They sharpen easily, but they do dull fast if you are new to cutting out backstraps, knuckles, etc, so I might want to touch it up midway if you are cutting out ribs, etc. will you be alone? Your partner might also have a knife. If not, A super light fine stone or one of those credit-card thickness diamond hones might come in handy. Heck, just wear a leather belt and use it as a strop and that’ll probably do it.
I pack a havalon as a backup knife, its light and sharp. Thats more for loss of knife when camping than it is for using it though. Agree with those who dont like them, they are fragile enough they sort of terrify me.

 

[Kurts86]

I used havalon’s for the better part of a decade but with SV30 and SV90 knives I have switched back to fixed blades in the field. I use a havalon for things like cleaning skulls at home. I usually have a Benchmade bugout mini or a Leatherman skeletool as a backup knife when solo. Mora steel as mentioned is soft by modern standards and needs more frequent sharpening.

 

[SirFellowShrimp]

Why are you going to go 12 miles in?

I'm not sharpening a knife to get through a deer, quarters or boned. If I'm using an outdoor edge, it's the same blade for the entire animal. Don't saw on bones and you're fine.

A lightweight sharpener is a better idea than walking twenty miles to shoot a deer.

Maybe I'm weird but when given the option to hunt from home by hiking over the mountains I prefer that to spending half a day in the car to get into my zone. I enjoy being in the mountains. I know it'll be a pretty crushing hike out but I want to hunt from my side, so no getting around it.

 

[SirFellowShrimp]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Cool to see the systems everyone prefers and I really appreciate the recommendations that were tailored to my specific needs and experience level.

 

[Maverick1]

It's not like an elk caked in mud and pine sap.

I dealt with that once. It was horrible! Shot a nice bull with clay dried and hardened onto his hide. It was heavy, thick, and very hard to cut through. I started by using an expensive, fancy steel, lightweight knife. After only a short while I switched to a leatherman (!!!) and finished the job. It seemingly took forever and I had to stop multiple times to resharpen it. The letterman actually worked better in that situation!