Am I the only one here who finds it somewhat odd that the skinners on the buffalo hunters crews could skin as many as twenty head of buffalo a day for weeks on end with out expensive custom skinning knives or nicking those valuable hides?

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
Am I the only one here who finds it somewhat odd that the skinners on the buffalo hunters crews could skin as many as twenty head of buffalo a day for weeks on end with out expensive custom skinning knives or nicking those valuable hides?

Quien Sabe,

Let's see, do I accept your premise or not.

If I accept.........

One can purchase a Russell Green River Skinner (carbon steel) cheap.




Don't take much of nuthin' to keep it scary sharp. Lots of belly and what with buffalo capes prolly over an inch thick on the the hinds near the anus and over the backstraps. Even a cave man could do it and not pierce.........


If I don't accept your premise,

How do you know they didn't pierce capes when skinning, as you were not there!!!


As to expensive custom skinning knives.......

Why the hell not?

I've worked my azz off for the last 53 years to get to the point where I can do what I damn please . I earned it by pluck and the sweat of my brow,

Used to be an old "saw". Support live music, hire live musicians. I tend to extrapolate that in regards to knife-makers. Yeah I could buy a Chinese piece of junk, turned out by a kid chained to a desk. However I prefer to spend my hard earned Benjamins investing in the success of American craftsmen that take pride in their efforts.

Just fer schitz n' giggles, there's lots of other stuff out there than buffaler'....................




Pescados




turkey



hoglets




cigars




kitchen and food prep




showing one's grandson how to peel an apple


If I didn't know better...........




I'd think you don't know "beans" about knives.
JAPPFT,





GWB

In response to your question...Yes, you are.

Lee

They were generally paid .25 cents per hide and at around $5 bucks a day, well, that was good wages. Would motivate me to skin as many as possible. Plus, they could use a mule to pull the hide off.

I've used good and bad knives, cheap and pricey, factory and customs. In the end, all animals were skinned but.....
The rub is that I like to take pride in my work and appreciate the beautiful work of others so I've used custom knives for 3 or 4 decades now.
Besides, many many many custom knives are NOT more money than a top production knife. That's what blows my mind!
Zeke

I have lot of knives ranging from $10-350. I recently sold my Roger Bergh knife for $1100.

I think in typical ISS form, you are full of BS as always.

Have you ever skinned a bison? I have skinned two, they destroyed the edges on every cheap knife within a few minutes.

We average about 10-15 medium quality sharp knives per bison. These are knives that retail for around $120 mostly Muela out of Spain, Spyderco and a couple of German knives made for commercial butchershops.

It has been a few years and I have some custom knives I am hoping to put to good use on bison in the near future. We'll see how this little experiment goes. I know from skinning hogs that the custom high carbon knives kick ass.

My guess is that he clubs his animals and skins them with a rock.
Pride in tools and ownership with something worthy to hand down.

quote:

Originally posted by Jerry Fisk:

Pride in tools and ownership with something worthy to hand down.

+1, there is something particularly satisfying in using a fine firearm, a beautiful knife, wearing a quality vintage timepiece, etc.

+2

+3

Anything would be better than that F-ing K-Bar POS I had in the military.

Now I can afford nice, well made knives. I don't need to use rocks.