What knives do you take to the field for dressing and skinning North American big game (elk, deer, etc.)?

Thanks.

I've got several customs I like, including several of the 'standard' patterns from Gene Ingram and David Winston. They do great, mid thickness drop point styles, so they handle field dressing and skinning well.

I recently received a Browning Escalade drop point hunter straight knife, and it has been damn impressive, kept an edge incredibly! It is a great shape, although for skinning an Elk, I would use a dedicated skinner if I had one at hand, and use one of the previously mentioned for field dressing etc.

Jeff
I have a lot of different knives that I use from custom to factory. The knife that I use now is the 12700 Steigerwalt large 3 blade. It is by far the best all around knife that I have used in a long time. The main blade is 440C, the gut hook and skinning blade is AUS8. It is my go to knife.

James

Typically, I'll do the field dressing with a folding knife and the skinning/butchering with a handful of fixed blade knives.

I started out using sheath knives, and then sometime along the line I got a Buck 110 which became my carry knife for many years, then for some reason I just started using what I was carrying at the time, and then went back to my Buck for a few years.

This year I carried a Blade Tech Professional Hunter Lite which I like as it is thinner than a Buck, but nowadays I am thinking a high quality knife is not as necessary as I used to think. Another knife I've cleaned a quite few deer with is an Opinel, which costs maybe $15.

Anyway, I might change my thinking again in a year or whenever, but nowadays I think most any knife that feels comfortable in your hand and has a blade between 3 1/2" and 6" and some sort of curvature to the tip (i.e. NOT a tanto style tip) will serve you just fine.

Browning Kodiak F.D.T. Black, Model 676 is the knife a purchased 6 seasons ago and think it is the best field knife I have ever owned.



Forschner Victorinox 6-in. Curved Skinning Knife is the best skinning knife hands down I have ever used, I have two of them. It sharpens great and holds an edge for multiple deer. I aslo have their 6" boneing Knife and it is equaly good.

A present from a very good friend of mine:
A replica of a Green River Knife Works one called Hunter knife.
https://rangersupplystore.com/...en-river-knives.aspx

The sheath he made, but the security strap i made myself after backtracking for 4 hrs finding my knife again, at one time



The form is perfect and the HC steel sharpens very good. Besides i like to look at it and imagine what a knife like it has experienced in the 1800's being the company/tool of a frontierman.

I have a "Green River" almost exactly as you pictured. It was given to me by a widow of an old friend sometime in the early '60's.
He had the knife on many hunts in the Western Washington State area. He had immigrated to the U.S. from Sweden sometime during the turn of the century.
I was paticularly struck by the exact checkering and rivet pattern, which is exactly
as your knife. The Scabbard is of an old "Beaver-tail" design.
This makes me wonder if these "Green River" blades were put together by some Scandinavian maker. The blade is FANTASTIC. It has aged with the most beautiful patina.
Just curious, as I see your specimen.
Skoll!!
like the one I have.

Sorry, I got side-trained by "The Danes" fantastic "Green River".
Anyway, my field dressing knives are a Fallkniven H-1 and a Fallkniven WM-1.
The steel in these knives is of VG-10, which in my opinion is perfect. They have 3-G steel too,
which is supposed to be better, but so expensive. The VG-10 works better than any knife steel I have ever had.
The two knives will do you well. The H-1 is a PURE hunting knife. The WM-1 will do well as a precision skinner to complete the dressing process.
The WM-1 can also be a "necker", and a good knife for those times when we forget the big blade. It will still serve.

I use a Buck Stockman for most gutting and skinning. Of course,a larger knife when cutting up. A saw for pelvic and rib cage.

Fallkniven F1 (best knive I have used) and I always carry Gerber bone saw and Gerber skining tool but that is mostly because of the gut hook.
The F1 is realy the right size.

Queen Cutlery #4180,D-2 steel,worked quite well for my field dressing chores.Had no problems at all splitting the pelvis bone on whitetails.Found this knife to be quite a bargain.Custom quality and holds an edge.

Buck mini-Vanguard. Haven't found a knife that fits my hand better yet.

After playing with dozens of different knives including several expensive customs I've pretty much come to the conclusion that none of them are any better and most not as good as a simple Fallkniven F-1.

Like Sherpi said it's just the "right size". The blade steel is excellent, it has good blade geometry, it's easy to clean, doesn't rust quickly, and you can get one with laminated VG-10 Steel for a little over $100. I've paid a lot more for knives that don't work as well.......................DJ

I prefer my Knives of Alaska set.

I have a folding Gerber Gator II. It has yet to do me any wrong. I have field dressed and skinned 5 deer with it so far and have yet needed to sharpen it. One feature I really love about it is the grip, it isnt pretty but even covered in blood it is just as easy to hold onto as if it was dry. The blade is also heavy enough that you can use it to chop though small bones if needed.

I have been making my own knives since I lost a knife shortly after buying it in '76. Have refined my shape over the years till I got to this which suits me and my needs best of all. Small game is ivory and nickle silver with 3 1/2 in blade and will handle larger game at a pinch, while my big game knife has african blackwood and nickle silver with 4 1/2 in blade.





Von Gruff.

Nice looking knives Von Gruff!