I am thinking of bringing my knife to use if I have the good fortune to shoot an ele.

I have used my Leatherman but only to cut the tails.


Good hunting
CF

Using your own knife for the tail would be a common trend I beleive. I think the act of skinning and butchering is best left to the crew and with their own tools. I cringe when I recall a skinner team working thru a buf and using a handfull of blood and sand smeared on a limb for a quick edge tune up. Not how I would treat my own blade.

For tail for sure

Are you kidding me? Roll em sleeves up and go to work if you want. Its part of life. Use your knife, see what it's made of.

You gotta cut off the tail!

That's the victory lap of elephant hunting.

It is also good for slicing lemons and cutting string and shit like that.

I brought 10 opinel knives for the team. They are great skinning knives, simple and easy to sharpen.

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
It is also good for slicing lemons and cutting string and shit like that.

And a nice greasy piece of biltong. Yum.

All I ever carried was a good pocket knife. I let one of the trackers cut the tail for me. If you have ever seen an Elephant skinned you would have a totally different view of the process. The big bale hooks they use are awesome without them there would be little skinning. Certainly not what I expected.

I carry a knife to church.

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
I carry a knife to church.

+1

+2

I feel naked without a knife, and only leave it off when in a prohibited area like airport or Security area at work.

+ 3, and I always carry two knives, one Benchmade, the other a German made lockblade, and usually a Gerber Multi-tool.

I feel naked without at least one knife...

What else are you going to use to cut your biltong?

I have a puma knife that I used for hunting caribou.I don't know much about knives and my knife has always been dull.I bought a Lansky kit a couple of years ago and used it for the first time today.It did get my knife kind of sharp.

only thing i've ever seen anybody use a knife for on a ele was to cut the tail- everything else was done with machetes & axes and believe me that you do not want to get involved anywhere the carcass and skinning and butchering is going on

quote:

Originally posted by shootaway:
I have a puma knife that I used for hunting caribou.I don't know much about knives and my knife has always been dull.I bought a Lansky kit a couple of years ago and used it for the first time today.It did get my knife kind of sharp.

Brother, if I called myself a hunter and didn't know how to sharpen a knife I would never admit it on the internet. Just saying.

It's not that hard of a skill to learn to do with a standard wet stone.

With a Lanskey kit you can get your knife sharp enough to shave with if you follow the directions that came with the kit.

I tried different gadgets and a stone or two in the past but nothing really worked.

Do you have a Dremel tool?

I tried the Lansky again at another angle and I got it really sharper now.

Since we are talking about sharpeners- I have been using a Warthog Sharpener for the last couple years and it is by far the fastest and simplest sharpening tool I have ever used. Works great for knives, broadheads, and almost any other double edged blades.

A few strokes with the rough edge to establish the angle and then a few more with the finishing rods, and you are shaving sharp !

I carry the same damascus fixed 4" blade knife with a stag handle on all my

hunts in Africa. Goes on any belt (usually my Trader Keith's culling belt) & have

used it for many tasks (including cutting the tails off of 4 elephant bulls).

Always good to have a sharp knife along!

Jim

Nice looking double,Jungleboy.

Whenever I leave home with a gun, a knife accompanies me. Been carrying a knife to Africa since day 1. My standard has usually been a well used Boker sheath knife, but I have carried many of my custom knives as well.

[URL= ]Puma Skinner[/URL]

Mine seems a little too big to carry on my ammo belt.

Were you using a left edge sharpening stone? I use a steel blade made by Blake Kowshot from Montana and a left edge sharpening stone which keeps the edge udderly sharp.


Dutch

The only thing I regret about my Elephant is that I neglected to bring the hunting knife my father passed on to me 30 years or so ago to cut off the tail. I ended up using my multi-tool; but would have preferred using Dad's old blade to do the job.

Lee Baumgart under classifieds here on AR makes a nice little knife that you could purchase at a reasonable price and possibly carry in Africa on your ammo belt.

I only use my knife to cut meat to cook in the bush.

Nothing like fresh impala heart, or a piece of meat from any other animals we have just shot.

Put on a stick, and on a freshly started fire.

Beats any 5-star hotel meal

Well I'll be dipped in shit.

SHOOTAWAY and I have the same knife. Puma skinner. I also have the Puma Bowie which I like a lot.
So we are like knife brothers or something.

It just doesn't feel right to hunt without a good knife. I used my Randall Bushmaster to help on the recovery of my elephant. My job was to cut the trunk off. It was like sawing through bone and I ended up with blood up to my elbows. By the time I was done, that knife was as dull as a butter knife. It gets a little messy...

Shootaway:

That Puma Skinner must be close to 40 years old and for whatever the reason, is a bastard to hone and a bastard at retaining its edge (if you can get one).

I would classify it more as a collectible than a working tool.

My elder brother was in the Vietnam War. He was broke after basic and sent me a letter asking me to buy a belt knife and mail it to him. So I went to the local sporting goods store and bought that Puma Skinner and sent it to him.

When he got out he came home and dumped his duffle bag on the floor and dug the knife out of the contents and handed it to me. And said thanks. It's yours now. That was a long time ago and I still have it.

quote:

SHOOTAWAY and I have the same knife. Puma skinner. I also have the Puma Bowie which I like a lot.
So we are like knife brothers or something.

Muletrain,

Shootaway has the "edge" on you as the sheath for his Skinner is the original that comes with the knife.

Having read the stories about Harry Wolhuter and the lion, I brought a Randall 7-inch no.1 that I had bought at the old NYC Abercrombie & Fitch in the 1960s. I carried it everywhere on safari. Part of the experience, so don't knock it.

My PH,when he saw it, told me not to let the skinners use it because they would destroy it by sharpening on a rock -- whether it needed it or not. I believe that they used old kitchen knives.

Two thoughts on taking a that precious heirloom knife , the one that you got from your dad or grandad( or your favourite Lucky knife ) or a expensive custom on a trip through Africa.

First: Getting home, opening your gun case and finding that the bastards at Johannesburg's Oliver Tambo or whatever it goes by today have lifted your favourite knife !

Second to that is handing your knife in good faith to one of the skinners and have them hone it on a rock or worse with a file or against the blade of another knife; failing that not being enough snapping the tip off the knife after trying to pry open a joint or some such.

quote:

Originally posted by fujotupu:

quote:

SHOOTAWAY and I have the same knife. Puma skinner. I also have the Puma Bowie which I like a lot.
So we are like knife brothers or something.

Muletrain,

Shootaway has the "edge" on you as the sheath for his Skinner is the original that comes with the knife.

Yes. That is right.

But I am left handed so I had a new sheath made for it.

Anjin:

Wolhuter's knife was nothing more than a standard kitchen knife, it has a long almost 12 inch blade.

It's on display with the lion skin and the dead tree he climbed into in the Library in Skukuza