Best grind for dressing game?

O

oguruma

Joined
Jan 3, 2010
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I havent been hunting since before I really got into knives, but I used to do all my deer dressing with a old Buck fixed blade I had. It seemed to work fine, but for knife nuts, "working fine" isn't really good enough. I am curious what is considered to be the best grind for skinning and preparing game? I personally might give the edge to a scandi grind because of its ability to get a scary sharp edge.

Any thoughts?
 
We have a Hunting forum that would be better suited for this question.

And...

I prefer a convex grind simply for it's easy of sharpening on a simple leather strop. But most of my skinning knives never need sharpening during the process. I take them home to sharpen them if they need it. 95% of the time they don't.
 
I like hollow grind knives for hunting, especially processing my deer at the house. Field dressing is a rather quick process, but differs from hunter to hunter. Folks field dress in different ways with different habits. Any sharp knife is fine for field dressing, I like the ESEE4/full flat grind as much as my Case Moose/hollow grind for a quick field dress. Heck you could use a scrap of glass to get the animal opened up and cleaned out with in the field.
Others will have opinions rolling along shortly.
 
Dressing game involves making shallow cuts in soft media. Any steel blade that can get sufficiently sharp to cut through the skin, and is sufficiently handy to negotiate the sometimes tight quarters of an animal carcass is more than sufficient...

"What you need to get yourself is a good tin can lid- then sharpen it up. That's more than you need." August West/ Running Boar.
 
hollow grind for hunting and dressing knives because it has a fine edge easy to keep razor sharp, Ive used convex scandi grinds and others grinds and they all do the job but for me I like hollow grinds
 
I have used all but chisel grind...they all work great

I prefer a slim point, such as the schrade 152
 
Grind - whatever. Sharp is what you care about - as everyone else has said. I'd add you also want something with a decently sharp point for making the initial incision without poking a hole all the way to the backbone.

My BK11 worked great on this whitetail doe earlier this season...

20101126_ac_11.jpg


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Beckerhead #42
 
I agree with the above
heres a scandi ground Ivan Campos Simplicity series on a little dink buck who shouldnt have bee wandering around on the last day of deer season

mattfish041.jpg

Dan'l
 
Jeff S1 said:
I like hollow grind knives for hunting, especially processing my deer at the house. Field dressing is a rather quick process, but differs from hunter to hunter. Folks field dress in different ways with different habits. Any sharp knife is fine for field dressing, I like the ESEE4/full flat grind as much as my Case Moose/hollow grind for a quick field dress. Heck you could use a scrap of glass to get the animal opened up and cleaned out with in the field.
Others will have opinions rolling along shortly.
Click to expand...

The speaker at the men's game dinner the other night was talking about not missing opportunities. He mentioned that once when he was a teenager he and his dad saw a massive mulie crossing the river. Neither had a knife and they drove on a little further. Then the dad remembered he had a glass aspirin bottle. Aspirin in pocket, picked up the .30-30 and went back and got the dear. Carefully broke the aspirin bottle and proceeded to field dress the deer...
 
When I was stationed at a radar site in northern PRK, some of the married guy who lived in base housing supplemented their food supply by poaching deer on the base. I watched one of these guys field dress and skin a small doe with a pocket knife with a 1 1/2" blade. It worked great. Of course, he had a lot of experience. ;)
 
i think sharpness and blade thickness would have more of a impact on field dressing, than grind
 
+2 for a convex edge for skinning deer. i made one for a buddy and he skinned 10 deer to date and its still shaving sharp.
 
sharp is what i look for as well, the grind i find is what suits the knife and the steel it is made of. I found better results with my street beat with a multi bevel grind, on the other side i have an old carbon steel hunter that takes an amazing convex edge. neither of which need to be sharpened when processing an animal.
 
i"ll echo most previous. Grind isn't that important as long as it's sharp. I've used an olfa knife to field dress before.
 
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