i am just about to do a run of hunting/skinner knives. it is kind of a tradition now to do several outdoor style models for the fall hunting season. i am just curious what everyone likes for a skinner blade style. i usually do a sharp finger style blade with the upswept tip. i am thinking of doing something new this year. what are your favorites?

dozer

Don't have a ton of experience with it, but what skinning I have done, I prefer a drop point with plenty of belly and maybe 3-5" of blade. Something kinda like this:

that is a nice profile. there are just so many different types of skinner, i wanted to get some ideas.

dozer

The Bark River Wolf River is my favorite.

This is what I think of for a classic skinning knife blade profile. Has to have the fat belly but I like also having the point to puncture and then flip over and run down the animal's belly.

yeah, that is the style i normally go with. i was thinking of doing something different this season.

dozer

nice. is that notch a functional zipper?

oh yeah. that set was made for a local customer's grandsons a while back. Christmas presents, if i remember correctly.

dozer

http://www.sandownforge.com/page-10.html

Check out the Skinner with the three holes on the blade (third down on left). Mike made this for me as a commission, I can send you the dimensions (photographed in 1/4" graph paper).

The holes are actually useful - they keep a slick thumb from slipping.

But to be honest - my faithful skinning/ processing blade is a 2.5" drop point. Good shape for moving and yet not so big as to slash up the meat or your thumb when field dressing.

that is a nice one, too. i am leaning toward a small, drop point blade. thin blade with a nice, fine edge.

dozer

If you want something different, you could try a “Canadian” style. https://www.grohmannknives.com...al-design-182-detail

i have seen that style before, it is very interesting. i have always liked leaf shaped blades.

dozer

well, we are gonna do a few of these file knives. the top knife in the photo is the skinner model. they will be skeletonized, so no handle to clean blood and whatnot from the cracks and crevices. short upswept blade of about 3.0". a nice, no nonsense pocket skinner.

dozer

here is the new skinner shape that i came up with along with a new bowie file knife design i am working on. a customer told me he has been using his paring knife as a skinner because of the blade shape. so, i decided to take our paring knife design and tweak the blade just a bit. a bit longer and a little more belly. this one should really be nice. i am using .125" thickness, so it will be nice and thin when done.

dozer

OK, the skinner is coming along now. i ground it in the same way i make our large boning knives. it is rough ground now and presently the clay is drying on the blade. tomorrow it will be heat treated to bring out a nice hamon. fingers crossed. this thing should be a smoking slicer.

dozer

quote:

Originally posted by dozer:
i am just about to do a run of hunting/skinner knives. what are your favorites?

Presented this damascus skinner to a good friend years ago. He loves it.

that is a very nice looking piece. i actually like the handle as much as the blade. i normally don't care for traditional styles, but this one is very well done.

dozer

Just my 2cents worth and it's from someone who's skinned dozens of animals and not 100's like some others may have, I respect their opinions....

I find gut hooks perfectly useless. I sharpen my blades well, lift the skin and it parts effortlessly with a well sharpened edge. I can't say gut hooks, especially dozers don't LOOK cool as heck but functionally they are harder to sharpen and practically not very functional

I like a edge with good sweep gut not so much sweep that it's hard to sharpen. I use multiple sharpeners from waterstones by hand to Tormek, TSPROF, or Wicked Edge Sharpeners. By hand you can compensate for large amounts of blade sweep but if you are using any one of the popular guided stone sharpeners any knife with huge blade sweeps is going to have huge amounts of angle variations in blade geometry if you use a guided sharpener. Seriously something to consider in practical useage.

For SERIOUS Skinner knives it seems practical to me to look at the old buffalo skinner knives. Those knives were used to skin HUNDREDS of large animals PER DAY and would have evolved into the most practical patterns. Add artwork as needed but the blades of those buffalo skinner knives would have been the most overall efficient patterns......

i agree about the gut hook or whatever they call it these days. those knives pictured were custom orders and that is what the customer wanted. i normally never put them on my personal knives. you gotta give the customer what they want.

dozer

Dozer, are you familiar with the MUK blade style? Pretty basic and classic, but with variations by individual knife maker. Makes a great skinner in the 3" range and is pretty useful as an all-around woodsman's blade.