A Good Sharp Knife

What is it about a knife that intrigues young boys? My son is no different than I was, there is something about them that makes our eyes light up and we have to handle it. There is something in many of us that likes to take a risk and that could be the clue as to why we like handling knives. A generation ago almost all men carried a pocket knife and today most of us couldn’t cut our way out of a paper bag. Now we can no longer get on an airplane with one and would probably get funny stares if you walk in public with one strapped to your belt. Fortunately we can still carry knives into the woods.

One of my first hunting knives was a large knife patterned after the famous bowie knife. This machete could hardly have been considered dangerous since the blade was honed to the sharpness of a dull lawnmower blade. Try as hard as we could, we couldn’t get a sharp edge on it. Maybe that was for our own safety. Needless to say, gutting a deer with it was a real chore.

My next knife was handcrafted and given to me as a gift. It had a beautiful handle and a nice sharp blade that could be honed rather easily. The only problem was that I hated to see the wear and tear that it showed from the rigors of hunting season. I eventually decided to preserve this knife as a keepsake.

For the last ten or more years I have used one of three 3” lockblade knives. Two of these knives are manufactured by Gerber and the other is a Camillus. They are small enough to carry in your pocket and the blade is large enough to gut a deer without difficulty. The blades on these knives are also easily sharpened with one of those sharpeners that you pull across the blade a couple of times. These knives have gutted many deer over the last several years and have also been used some in my taxidermy ventures.

Two years ago I received a Gerber E-Z Zipknife gutting tool. This is one of the handiest tools that I have. I like the 3” lockblades a lot but making the initial cut from the lower ribcage to the pelvis can be real tricky without cutting into the gut. We probably all know that smell when the gut is punctured. I prefer to avoid this at all cost. The Zipknife makes quick work of this cut and it is practically impossible to puncture the gut. This is one tool that I have that if it were lost I would go buy another one as soon as I could. One additional bonus for this tool is that it uses utility knife blades, making replacements easy to find.


Return from Hunting Knife page Click to the Hunting Supplies Page.

Learn How To Field Dress A Deer.