# KNIVES FOR HUNTING



## watchmaker (Jul 20, 2007)

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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## Wetzel (Jul 20, 2007)

Your Browning knife is to nice to use.  Guess if it was mine it'd be a show piece and wouldn't ever see any work.

I also use a Buck Vanguard for most of my field dressing and skinning work.  Really like the size and shape of blade.  I've bought many knives before buying the Vanguard and although I keep looking at new ones, I'm still very satisfied with the Vanguard.


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## 7Mag Hunter (Jul 22, 2007)

Yep, I am a knife nut too !!!!

Got about 10-12....Maybe more....
Used folders, fixed blade, and gut hook type to
field dress deer....
My favorites are a double blade folder from Frost
, a 3" Buck folder, and for the past 5 yrs or so, a fixed blade 4" knife from Normark...Swedish high chrome steel,
fairly easy to sharpen, and holds an edge probably
better than any other I have....


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## watchmaker (Sep 15, 2007)

Years ago I was invited to join a German hunting club in the Catskills, which had access to huge woods and was managed for quality deer. The members hunted from hotchsits and performed the "last meal" ceremony in the deer they got, all very proper and traditional Teutonic customs.

To "fit" in I dusted off my Mannlicher style Mauser 30-06 rifle and bought a White Hunter II Puma knife.

Here is it.






Best

Watchmaker


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## contender* (Sep 16, 2007)

I like the Randalls----




but you won't catch me guttin no deer withem. I use a buck 112 or a bucklite for that.


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## Nicodemus (Sep 16, 2007)

I have a love affair with knives too, and have collected and made a few over the years.


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## Doc_Holliday23 (Sep 17, 2007)

Growing up I've always carried a knife.  Unfortunately, that means I've lost a ton of knives.  My favorite pocket folders are Hen & Rooster and Tree Brand/Boker.  The hunting knife I usually have on me is my Puma Packer.  You'll notice all of the above are Solingen steel.  I also have 2 Cutco's, one serrated and one non-serrated, that are the sharpest knives I've ever used.


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## godogs57 (Sep 17, 2007)

I make my own. I use CPM154CM stainless steel (one of the new "super steels"). Hardened to a 60 rockwell and triple tempered. I also make damascus blades as well. So far I have made almost 750 knives...expensive hobby! An example or two of my work:


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## contender* (Sep 18, 2007)

Godogs,
Those are some beauties! Do you sellem or just hoard all for yourself??


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## godogs57 (Sep 18, 2007)

Got to sellum to pay for my hobby! After a hard day at work, it is nice to head to the shop and blow off some steam...work on a few knives....

My handles are usually some sort of stabilized wood such as burl maple, buckeye. I also use snakewood, various fossilized bones (mammoth ivory, oosik, etc). I also use stag, elk antler, and synthetics such as micarta. Can send pics of other knives if interested.

I can be reached at godogs57@bellsouth.net.

Have a great one.

Hank


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## Nicodemus (Sep 19, 2007)

Godogs57, those are REALLY nice!!


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## SmokyMtnSmoke (Sep 20, 2007)

watchmaker said:


> Years ago I was invited to join a German hunting club in the Catskills, which had access to huge woods and was managed for quality deer. The members hunted from hotchsits and performed the "last meal" ceremony in the deer they got, all very proper and traditional Teutonic customs.
> 
> To "fit" in I dusted off my Mannlicher style Mauser 30-06 rifle and bought a White Hunter II Puma knife.
> 
> ...



I always wanted one of those but dang are they pricey. 
This one here is almost a exact copy and is a bit cheaper...





http://www.knifeoutlet.com/shop/10Expand.asp?ProductCode=HR5003


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## FX Jenkins (Sep 21, 2007)

Those Puma's can hack a man's arm off if you swing hard enough....excellent back country staple...but I prefer a more nimble blade for field dressing...


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## SmokyMtnSmoke (Sep 21, 2007)

Watchmaker said it best, "Many of us hunters of long have a love affair with the tool of a successful hunt; the knife." 

I've got a 'few' knives in my collection. All are tools and none are display queens. This one I consider and all around survival knife. From Becker Knife and Tool a CM-BK9 Bowie. 





Ontario SP2





My hunting / camp knife has been the Buck 119





I also will carry the Buck 105 on backcountry fishing trips





Plus I always have a handy pocket knife.
Here in the South most of us were born with a pocket knife in our hand  .


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## SmokyMtnSmoke (Sep 21, 2007)

BTW godogs57, those are some mighty nice pieces of craftsmanship you got there. Specially those Damascus blades.


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## grizzlyblake (Sep 21, 2007)

Yep, I use a Buck folder with gut hook for hunting (not sure of the model) and always carry a Kershaw clipped in my pocket. I can't leave the house without it, it feels like I've forgotten to put on underwear if I don't have it.


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## watchmaker (Sep 27, 2007)

Godogs57,
Your knives are gorgeous, they will be the cause of my poor sleeping, now.

Thank you for posting those beauties.

Here is another of my blades, a Browning model 65 (one of one thousand)






Here is a detail of the file work in the handle.






All the best
Watchmaker


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## godogs57 (Sep 30, 2007)

Thanks for the comments....gimme a buzz if you ever need one.


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## 11P&YBOWHUNTER (Oct 1, 2007)

Godogs, check your email.  Them blades are awesome.

I carry a Shrade (SP?) and a Benchmade for hunting, both fixed blades.  I hardly ever use folding knives, although i own a few.  

As far as collectors knives, I have a handmade knife my cousin built me out of a buck i pushed to him in 1999.  Took him a long time, and he made a knife for himself out of the other half of the rack.  The blade looks jeweled and the sheath is handmade as well...it is beautiful and is worth more than my truck to me.  I also got a Puma straight from Germany for Christmas in 2005.  It was a limited edition and has my initials engraved on the blade.  A family from Canton, NC bought it for me.  It was very expensive.  It looks just like this one...but the sheath i have is a darker shade of brown...


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