I've never wanted a gut hook until recently. The hunter I was 'guiding' had a brand new knife with a gut hook on it.

To me, gut hooks always seemed like one extra thing to carry and a pain in the butt to sharpen.

But was I ever impressed by how quickly it opened up a bear and especially the ease of making the initial cuts lengthwise on the legs, whch can be a real pain on a bear.

So I want a guthook now!

The only thing preventing me from buying a 'regular' guthook attached to knife is that I doubt that they will work properly unless razor sharp, and sharpening them could be diffcult.

I saw these ones with the disposable blades and thought it was a great idea. You could probably get through each season with one blade and it would always be sharp.

I'd like to hear opinions on these gut hooks, but also opinions on how dificult it is to keep regular hooks razor sharp. I like my knives REALLY sharp

That looks like half of a Wyoming knife. I have one(Wyoming knife that is) and at first thought it was a gimmick. But honestly it gets quite a bit of use. The replaceable blades take alot of abuse and can be sharpend many times over. Spare blades are easy to carry in case you would break or dull a blade, although I doubt that that would happen.

Yes, I enjoy my Wyoming Knife (WK) a great deal. The "Wyoming Knife" has a second blade sticking out away from the hook that is useful when removing the hide. I have a Shrade Old Timer with a gut hook that I can't seem to sharpen. The factory edge made it halfway through an elk. My partner showed me his WK and I've never looked back. The fire department uses one like the photo above to cut seatbelts after accidents.
Gene

That would be a perfect way to let my kids safely clean fish, I gotta get me a couple of those!

Paul, I had a gut hook that was on the back edge of the blade on a knife I built. I had it for 20 years and would not go hunting without it. It was easily sharpened with one of those slim EZ lap hook sharpeners. My ph in africa fell in love with it and it seemed to fit his young hand so well I left it in his care.

I am in the process of building another and they do some tough jobs exceedingly well.

David's right! It is Half-0f-a-Wyoming Knife without the skinning blade. But you'll still need to make the initial incision with another knife or something!

This knife is made by Wyoming Knife, I think. They were on the same web page together, anyway...

I didn't know you could sharpen these blades?? I thought that they were disposable, like utility X-acto knives...

This is my version. By John Toner. A nice skinning shape like this or you can flip the arm over to cover the back and tip of the blade and it turns the blade into a modified gut hook. Works quite well.

I too have a Shrade Old Timer and have not been to impressed with it. The hook is difficult to keep sharp and I find it gets in the way when trying to other more delicate tasks such as cutting around the annus during the gralloch. I also have a dedicated hook that is designed to cut seat belts. I don't carry it in the field but do use it at home on the legs and it does make life easier.

You might check out the range of blades available for the various craft knives as i am sure some have a hook; I think they are sold to cut flooring?? Having said all that, would a craft blade really retain is edge on a blood/mud covered bear hide????

I suspect I would go for the original Wyoming Knife as it looks a better quality item and is not too expensive in its own right...

Gut hooks are pretty useful sometimes!!
Here is a handmade Swedish variation on the subject:

Its quite small and handy and feel great in your hand!

GEN Blacksmithing

Cheers
K9

I used the 99 c version of that thing when I was running a trout hatchery / pay lake. I must have sold about 100 of them, because everytime I'd gut a trout for someone, they wanted the knife! For light duty, they work great. If you look real closely you can see that the blade is replacable. FWIW, Dutch.

[ 06-05-2003, 23:19: Message edited by: Dutch ]

I had a Buck Zipper and gave it to my brother. It was hard to sharpen the hook and the hook always got in the way when you least wanted it to. Any good quality sharp knife will open a deer or other animal.

I have used the Wyoming Knife off & on for about 18 years (got to quit loosing them). About the only thing better would be if the animals came with a zipper in them.

Micky,

You could'nt post a pick of that knife with the arm in the open position? Looks a very nice knife!

K9,
I take that knife is used with a pushing action? any idea what steel its made from? I took a quick look at that web sight, but i could not find a version in English...

Gatehouse,

Here is another Swedish guthook just about at the opposite end of the scale to K9's.



It is made by Frosts and is very cheap and cheerful costing about �13 or around US$19 here in the UK...Our Scandinavian friends can probably get it even cheaper. While it is very cheap and cheerful, it is strong, functional and easy to keep sharp and the hook is a decent size unlike some. I use it primarily to open down the legs on deer when I skin them out, but I am thinking the larger hook would be better suited to touch hide like bear skin than some of the smaller designs which come on the back of knives. From Attleborough Accessories at http://www.attacc.com

quote:

---

2.5� Guthook / 8.1� Overall, Swedish S/Steel. Polypropolene handle,
abbatoir designed gutting hook. Black leather belt pouch. Made in Sweden.

---

Regards,

Pete

[ 06-08-2003, 03:19: Message edited by: Pete E ]

From what I'm hearng...Size Matters.

Those that have used BIG guthooks (like the one I used with the bear) Have had good experiences.

Those that have used small 'back of the knife blade' guthooks, have had bad experiences...

I'm gonna get a Wyoming Knife, I think...

Light and quick

I have used the "on back of the blade" type gut hooks for the last twenty or so years, with good results. The small cutting area can be dealt with quite easily with a Dremel tool and a round fish hook type sharpener, but they are a little more work than just sharpening the blade. The Wyo Knife is a great concept, and works well. My Dad could never get the knack of using the dual blade version, managing to open his thumb with the skinning blade about every other use. At least it didn't hurt much, and did heal quick. I still have the one I gave him about thirty years age. I have grown to prefer the "back of the blade" type and just become proficient at keeping the gut hook in shape. It is really like having a zipper on the deer/elk/moose, works great on legs, chest, around the neck, anywhere you are opening the skin. The tougher the hide, the more useful they are.

Micky,

Thanks for that. I love the traditional lines of your knife and it is definately unusual with that "blade protector".

I did a quick search on the net and could not come up with a "dedicated", "quality" guthook only, most seemed to be primarily knives with secondary gut hooks on the back.. unless anybody can point me to asite where they are made/sold?

I showed some of these pictures to a friend and he quite speculates he could make a dedicated gut hook which would have blade configuration of my Frosts but have the handle and over all "quality" of the one K9 posted... so that might be the way to go if i can't get an off the shelf or semi custom model at a reasonable price..

Regards

Pete

Pete E
Sorry for the late answer! I�ve tried to dig up some info about that steel but haven�t come very far�. It�s called ARNE SS2140 according to the website but searches on the internet have turn up nothing but confusion� The website is unfortunetly not available in English � I linked it mostly because of the pics of his other productions. The gut hook is indeed used in a pushing motion and is in my opinion very easy to use as it will not � due to its blunt nose- dig into the flesh underneath the hide. Price for the complete knife is app. �46 and the blade app. �23 if your interested. This guy lives some 40 min from me and is very nice to deal with. I intend to have him make me a �noncatalog� blade soon.

Cheers
K9

I've never had the pleasure of using the Wyoming Knife, but had many friends that swore by them. So far, the best knife that will do it all is Remington's Big Game Knife that is sold in Cabela's. The biggest problem that the guthooks have on most knifes, including Bucks,is that you don't immediately pick up on of course, is the fact that on the end of the guthook, the blade is pointed(sharp). You don't recongize that right off as being a problem, until you're opening up 200lbs. plus mule deer, and as you're cutting the stomach lining with your handy dandy gut hook, the pointed end of your blade is opening the guts up. Needless to say, that put's a squelch on camp breakfast!!

Remington's big game knife has a rounded end on the guthook and works like a charm. I bought one for my dad for his birthday last year and we used it for gutting and skinning two bucks we killed on opening morning. That is one of the best made knifes that I've looked at in a long time. Dad almost didn't get it! If you want an excellent gut hook, combined with an excellent all-around knife that folds up and carries nice in a pouch, Remington's knife is as good as it gets for $40.00.