Hunting Season

[Jerry Manuel]

Another season is just around the corner and I thought it would be interesting to see and read about what knife or knives you guys that hunt & camp will be using . Whether it be a knife you've carried for years or a new one you recently got and plan on using this season . Give us a look and discription

[Karl B. Andersen]

I'll make this post in deep regard to simply metallurgy.
This is not a post about how beautiful my working knife is, but rather how just the slightest attention to the most basic of "rules" can create a knife that will perform as well, or better, than many of the store bought brands.
All of the knife makers we know and love, can do the same IF! they will just learn and follow basic knife making philosophies that are based on known facts.
I made this knife in 2004 out of my 1" square 5160, have dressed countless deer with it in the last 6 years and she will be on my belt again this year.
By "countless", I mean I really have no idea how much work I have accomplished with this knife.

I find myself in a unique living condition back in the woods along a river, and have lots of friends and huntin' buddies who often stop by to dress their deer or get knives sharpened, etc.
My knife I show here will dress deer, after deer, after deer with no sharpening. And I mean gut, split pelvises, hack through ribs, skin, quarter and ready to cut up for the freezer.
And it's just 5160.
Done right, we can do a lot of high quality work with our steel.
I hope more makers really put their knives through the paces.
I had one of my 5160 blades field dress, skin and quarter 6 bucks and 8 does before sharpening.
14 deer on an outdoor hunting show.
5160.
Cool, eh?

[Jerry Manuel]

That's what I was hoping to see and read Karl,good post - Jerry

I wish I had time to skin deer, because would mean I got to hunt!!

Good thread Jerry. Karl, you are the "ambassador" between knives and the hunting world. Great job. Lin

[Jerry Manuel]

Unfortunately I sometimes have the same problem Lin . My job takes up so much of my time especially in the winter . I'm on call which means I carry a cell & pager so I can be reached . Once a "call out" comes in I have to run regardless of where I am . I've been in the woods many times and had to leave . The old timers here are telling me to look for a extremely cold winter this year but I sure hope they are wrong . The colder it gets the more I'm on the road - Jerry

[jerry fisk]

Jerry, I make myself a new one each year just so I can have an honest evaluation of its performance. I plan on making a skinner from a saddle horn pattern for this year.

I don't know that there's any hunting in my future for this season, but this would be the knife I take:





Roger

[Karl B. Andersen]

Roger, everything is just perfect about that knife.
Mr. Fisk, I just can't bring myself to retire that knife and replace it with a new one.
But, this winter maybe I'll follow your lead and make a new one for a hog hunt in Tejas.

[Bob Starkey]

If I wouldn't have missed a doe Saturday, I would've put one of my customs to work. She just dropped and rolled and thought I hit here for sure, put the arrow cleanly missed her. I got an old John Cross knife I like to put to use, but my Lin Rhea hunter always accompanies me in the field.
Bob

[mike williams]

A few years back I started using hunting season as my test program. I usually get in on a dozen or so dessing/skinning jobs each season and it gives me a chance to run some new ideas in the real world. My family could care less if its a nice handmade knife. "Does it work"? Is the only criterion that matters. They can be downright rude about it sometimes.
I have used this "testing program" to make some very subtle changes over the last 3 or 4 years that I believe improves the usability/performance of my hunters. The hardness is a touch higher, the blades are 1/4" to 1/2" shorter. The handle has just a fraction more drop.
Just little things that add up.
Wish I was bow hunting instead of in the shop!!!!