I have about 8 big game animals to my credit so fairly new myself. All deer or antelope, no elk yet. The thought of the Iron Will hunter has me interested, something light and really sharp that could blend roles.
I use three specific knives-
Havalon Piranta - it’s a huge scalpel, super clean cuts, replaceable blades, use caution. Mostly for fine cuts like tendons, between muscles, and around the anus. It can easily wreck a hide, so it wanting to keep a cape, probably not the right tool.
Outdoor Edge combo with a folding blade and gut hook thing. Easy to sharpen, more robust blade for working along bones and the gut hook thing slides nicely under the hide for an easy opening with less finger exposure. My little pack came with a folding bone saw saw.
Lastly, I have a small special edition Böker with a curved blade that makes caping easy.
I carry a small field sharpener too, but can get through a deer without much need to touch up if I use the right tools for the right tasks.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Well hell, I thought this was gonna be a Jimmy Lile fanboy thread...
Essential is probably the wrong word. I just find them a lot easier. Basically with a thin sharp blade a lot of things are easier to be more precise with. Since most of your troubles will come from cutting into things you didn't mean to precision is nice. The drawback of thin sharp blades is the edge and blade itself are fragile. Havalons don't have this drawback since you just pop a new blade in.
Dressing wild game is a perishable skill. A good butcher doesn't need a Havalon because they do that all day long. It's possible to get to that level of skill but if you're only doing a couple of animals a year it's difficult to get there and difficult to maintain skill.
"Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA
Beware of my temper, and the dog that I've found...
A couple of Mora knives along with a $4 sharpener, a bone saw are all you need. That said, I do really like the Havalon for taking the hide off and use mine a bunch. It gets carried in the pack along with the spare blades and a very small set of pliers for changing blades. The reason is that the handle and used blades get goo all over them, combined with cold numb hands, its very easy to have an accident, so I use the small pliers to swap out the blades. I really don't want to deal with a serious cut from a scalpel when I am many miles and hours from medical care.
The Moras will sharpen up quick with an inexpensive sharpener like the one shown in the pic. One suggestion. If you have an option. Get bright colored handled knives like orange. It makes them easier to see and not accidentally put your knee on, or hand on, etc. When not using a knife, put it some place that is safe like in the trunk if the animal like in this pic:
You can see it right on top. The pic was showing the exit wound path of the .308 Scenar bullet, but it is a good example of knife management as well.
Last edited by Lost River; 01-20-2021 at 09:05 AM.
I found a pic of the Havalon and the little pliers that I use to change the blades in the field that I was referring to in the above post.
Some folks do hunt some things with big knives.
https://www.eickhorn-solingen.com/boar-hunter.html
While not mentioned on the page in the link, some hunters use big pig stickers as their their primary hunting weapons, not just for a final “release,” after the shot(s). These guys do not want to unintentionally shoot their dogs, so favor using blades, after the dogs have made the capture.
Black bears, too, apparently, were hunted with big blades, in the US South, at least in the past. I remember reading that Theodore Roosevelt had an interest in bear hunting with blades.
Retar’d LE. Kinesthetic dufus.
Don’t tread on volcanos!
How timely that the Havalon has come up. I going to add one in addition to the Mora's for the fact of the replaceable blade.
Reason being, when I hunt West River here, we have to submit either the entire head for CWD testing, or if you are doing any type of mount, we have to submit the two glands in the throat. Be nice to just be able to toss the blade after digging those out, rather than the 3hour bleach soak that I did this year.
"And for a regular dude I’m maybe okay...but what I learned is if there’s a door, I’m going out it not in it"-Duke
"Just because a girl sleeps with her brother doesn't mean she's easy..."-Blues