Qualify a knife to pack

[Randle]

So with season over I go looking for a better mouse trap, If you guys buy a knife and think "This is it this is exactly what I am looking for" Do you put it thru some paces before committing it to your kill kit or do you take it along, with whatever you have been trusting in prior years and decide during game processing in the field? I have a couple I like but wish they were orange, or a better sheath, or lighter etc.. I have used the havalon, (to flimsy I don't like to have to baby my tools), OE razor lite is better but gums up easily. This does stem from a couple people saying the latest and greatest they carried this year didn't hold an edge or was hard to sharp in the field. So do you slice a 1000 slivers of card board, 100 slices of leather, dig up your potatoes and then try to resharpen. just kidding I would not dig in the dirt with my kill kit knife
I guess that's a long way to ask how do you test edge retention?

 

[feanor]

I would lean toward carrying the extra 8oz and take both the new and old. Start using the new one in the field to skin, and if for some reason it’s terrible, you have the older backup.
Being a bit of a knife freak, I do like to see how it holds up to overall daily use. I then like to see when it does lose its apex, how easy is it to use a strop, or a ceramic rod to being that apex back. Then you can judge how easy a touch up in the field will be.

 

[OutdoorsMD]

I have been really happy with kestrel knives. Wont find much lighter and for the weight can carry two in the field for half the weight of a lot of replaceable blade knives and are much easier to clean. Used outdoor edge and havolon for a while and went back to fixed blade. They stay sharp enough for kill kit until i get back home to sharped again.

 

[Brad@Argali]

So with season over I go looking for a better mouse trap, If you guys buy a knife and think "This is it this is exactly what I am looking for" Do you put it thru some paces before committing it to your kill kit or do you take it along, with whatever you have been trusting in prior years and decide during game processing in the field? I have a couple I like but wish they were orange, or a better sheath, or lighter etc.. I have used the havalon, (to flimsy I don't like to have to baby my tools), OE razor lite is better but gums up easily. This does stem from a couple people saying the latest and greatest they carried this year didn't hold an edge or was hard to sharp in the field. So do you slice a 1000 slivers of card board, 100 slices of leather, dig up your potatoes and then try to resharpen. just kidding I would not dig in the dirt with my kill kit knife
I guess that's a long way to ask how do you test edge retention?

It's a great question and one we wrestle with when testing our knives. In my opinion there isnt any replacement for the real situation and field butchering an animal to really know how well it will perform. So for us, when it comes to reliably testing, we only use real world field butchering.

That said, one of the ways I like to test knives when we are playing around with different variations of bevel angles existing or new prototypes is to keep a knife with me all the time and use it in the kitchen to cut everything I normally would with a kitchen knife to get a feel for how it performs and how many weeks or months it keeps a razor sharp edge. Not a scientific approach, but if you know how your other knives perform it gives you a relative measuring point.

My two cents.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[Shraggs]

Great question! Admitted knife aholic here. I’ve tested and done reviews on older forums too.

I think, for deer hunters going west, a deer hunting knife is assumed equal at elevation, and when doing Gutless method... without ever doing it. Then you find out it wasn’t best.

No different when I evaluated knives for gutting, I used them. Getting 4 a year helps and helping buddies gives me a lot of edge time.

Before I started back country elk hunting, I transitioned from gutting to skinning and boning out all my kills. For me, a typical drop point is not what I prefer (but those are great fir gutting) nor was the replacement blade or small options. I grew to prefer knives that were a good balance of less weight and cutting efficiency. On the other hand one buddy likes his mora for everything!

Only way to know what works for you is to anti up, buy some and use them. Sell those you didn’t like.

 

[Lawnboi]

Just use it in the kitchen.

I like to know what kind of an edge, how tough it is and how easy a knife is to touch up before taking it.

A few months in the kitchen will tell me that.

As for knowing how it works for the task, hard to duplicate. If your a guy who cuts up one animal a year I’m sure anything will work. When you have 4 on the ground in a few days and your doing all the processing, having quality tools and knowing your equipment is nice.

 

[boom]

total blind faith here. i just take it with me. i never wear a belt knife, but prefer to just drop it in my pack. this is sometimes unwise. i have on more than one occasion forgotten to bring a knife. when this happens i just dig in my truck and grab my multitool. or 98% of the time there is a beater Buck 112 permanently housed in my hunting pack. this tells me something. almost any knife will do. hahha.

 

[Lowg08]

I’m also in the market. I’ve carried a SOG micron all this year for everyday and hunting. I’ve worked up four deer completely and three coyotes and a coon. It holds a great edge. Only takes ten strokes to get back the sharpness. I’ve been considering a kestrel or tyto

 

[Browninglover1]

I have gone to replaceable blade knives for quartering/boning out the animals but I take two separate knives. My Havalon is only used for meat, and I take a Milwaukee folding utility knife with a curved roofing/carpet blade to cut through the hide and break the joints apart. It's the perfect system for what I do and I'm grateful a few friends introduced me to the second knife because I hated using just the Havalon since it would dull way too fast when cutting through hide.

 

[Randle]

Well I have been doing about the . same. I use my new found favorite around the kitchen and when out camping. I am thinking for the solid blade knives I may do some whittling and such. I did pick up a work sharp fiuielike sharpener and that thing works really nice. alittle big to pack but I like it.
browninglover1, are you talking about the rounded carpet blade in your razor knife?
Many years ago when I shot my first deer, my dad's hunting partner jumped right in the gut it and used a slide out razor knife. I looked at him kind of fun and asked about it and he said you only use about an inch of blade anyway so any bigger would a waste.

 

[Browninglover1]

Well I have been doing about the . same. I use my new found favorite around the kitchen and when out camping. I am thinking for the solid blade knives I may do some whittling and such. I did pick up a work sharp fiuielike sharpener and that thing works really nice. alittle big to pack but I like it.
browninglover1, are you talking about the rounded carpet blade in your razor knife?
Many years ago when I shot my first deer, my dad's hunting partner jumped right in the gut it and used a slide out razor knife. I looked at him kind of fun and asked about it and he said you only use about an inch of blade anyway so any bigger would a waste.

Husky Hook Blade (10-Pack) HKHT11016 - The Home Depot

Heavy Duty roofing hook blade for heavy duty cutting of roofing materials, flooring, carpeting and other tough materials. Made in England with the highest quality steel, it is designed to stay sharper

www.homedepot.com

These are the blades. They work freaking awesome at ripping hide open and they do an excellent job at helping break up joints too, especially in the neck when you're taking the head off.

 

[mcseal2]

I use them on the ranch for a while. See how many bales I can cut and other jobs I can do before they lose their edge. I will see if the back spine is sharp enough to work on my firesteel, if it will strip bark, how it whittles and carves. I'll often baton with it just a little bit. I don't often do all those tasks on a hunt, but I like a knife that's capable of them. I want a knife that slices well but is still tough enough to abuse a little. The fewer knives I'll be packing, the tougher the one I pack will be. I find I like a fixed blade with a 4.5" or so blade most of the time as an all around knife.

These are my favorites right now. Scouting when game processing isn't a priority I tend to lean toward the tougher knives.

 

[Decker9]

I had been on the fence on a custom knife for a long time, so I had one built for my best buddy for a wedding present. After a handful of animals, and not having to be re sharpened... I knew a custom set had its place in my pack. They were damn $$$, but has proven to be worth it. Its nice to zip through an animal and not have to re sharpen, I don’t pack a sharpener anymore on my backpack hunts.

 

[Beendare]

This link on edge retention testing is about the most accurate I've seen;
Blade Forum link

Interesting that the more you delve into edge retention- it opens a can of worms including;

1) A high Rockwell quality steel will hold and edge better...but sometimes becomes very difficult to sharpen
2) a low bevel angle makes a difference

There are many steels that just about everyone would be happy with.
I have multiple steels that will hold an edge through multiple animals; CPM S3v, BG 42, Elmax, S30v, S90v,

My favorite large fixed blade is a bark river Elmax blade. I have 2 knives I use that I keep in my pack both happen to be Benchmade; an Steep country S30v and a Altitude S90v blade that are both fantastic.

Lots of good options........

_______

 

[Trial153]

Right now I am pretty much carting a Dozier Pro Guide in D2 on my hip if i am anyplace that cant walk out of in a day ... if weight is a cocern Charles May Necker in s30v been getting the nod. If i am caping anything out a Herbet small caper in s35v is in my kill kit.

 

[brsnow]

I carry a 200 Puukko with a belt hook kydex sheath. Don’t really know it is there.