Finishing grit for skinning knives?

N

nutsforknives

Joined
May 1, 2010
Messages
35
Does anyone have experience specifically with skinning? I tried to skin a hog with my spyderco sage because it was in my pocket at the time, but it had a fairly polished edge (6k, stropped with flitz polish) and didn't work as well as the cheap butcher knives lying around the skinning rack.They seemed to have coarse edges and the guy I was skinning with used a steel to bring the edge back a couple times (hog skin is quite tough).

I have a Spyderco Gayle Bradley that I want to set up for skinning. I'm thinking about putting either a 320 or 1000 grit edge on it with my shapton glass/suehiro waterstones. Does that sound right for a skinning knife? What do you guys do?
 
I sharpen my son in law's skinning knives for him. I almost always leave them at either a 400 grit India or maybe a soft Arkansas, so I reckon that's around 600ish. He then uses a steel as needed during game processing. Not hogs, deer and elk, but he's happy with the edges.
 
Eli Chaps said:
I sharpen my son in law's skinning knives for him. I almost always leave them at either a 400 grit India or maybe a soft Arkansas, so I reckon that's around 600ish. He then uses a steel as needed during game processing. Not hogs, deer and elk, but he's happy with the edges.
Click to expand...
Thanks, that's helpful. I hear those Arkansas stones put a really nice edge on a knife. Do you use oil or water for the arkansas stone?
 
nutsforknives said:
Thanks, that's helpful. I hear those Arkansas stones put a really nice edge on a knife. Do you use oil or water for the arkansas stone?
Click to expand...

Well, that's steel dependent. I love my Arkansas stones but I wouldn't use one for M4. Sorry, I was just talking grit finish and didn't mention the steel. I bought my SIL a full Victorinox butchering kit and on that pretty soft steel, a soft Arkansas does well.

I've never sharpened M4 but given the vanadium content, I'd probably be looking at a 400-600 grit diamond edge.
 
Eli Chaps said:
Well, that's steel dependent. I love my Arkansas stones but I wouldn't use one for M4. Sorry, I was just talking grit finish and didn't mention the steel. I bought my SIL a full Victorinox butchering kit and on that pretty soft steel, a soft Arkansas does well.

I've never sharpened M4 but given the vanadium content, I'd probably be looking at a 400-600 grit diamond edge.
Click to expand...
I don't have any diamond plates except for a 140 grit I use for flattening stones. I might put an edge on the m4 with a 320 grit shapton glass stone and then strop it a few times on a 1000 grit or something just to refine the edge a bit.
 
nutsforknives said:
I don't have any diamond plates except for a 140 grit I use for flattening stones. I might put an edge on the m4 with a 320 grit shapton glass stone and then strop it a few times on a 1000 grit or something just to refine the edge a bit.
Click to expand...

I don't have water stones so will have to defer to the more knowledgeable folks there.

But I think the theme is, a courser edge is better.
 
I go no higher than a 600 grit stone on any of my hunting or skinning knives. And quite often stop at 400 and might give a few passes on a very firm strop. A toothy edge works great and lasts much longer than a more polished edge for those purposes IMHO. Completely dependent on the steel as to what type of stone needed.
 
David Martin David Martin Recently I have been stropping on plain cardboard; it just seems easier than stone deburring to me. Do you get a better edge off the stones, or do you actually find it easier?
 
David Martin David Martin I guess I need to experiment more. I haven't noticed over refinement stropping on plain cardboard; this experiment gave me good slicing aggression and I finished on cardboard for example. But there's always room to improve. What is your method for deburring on stones, please?
 
Edge leading & edge trailing strokes with a higher spine. And light pressure. I'm not speaking of 'Over refinement'. I'm speaking of further refinement, is what stropping will do. DM
 
About 40 years ago, I stopped using regular knives for skinning and bought a dedicated skinning knife. Even though it's an "El Cheapo" Chicago Cutlery, it's made all the difference in the world.
skinning knife.jpeg
 
Ben Dover said:
About 40 years ago, I stopped using regular knives for skinning and bought a dedicated skinning knife. Even though it's an "El Cheapo" Chicago Cutlery, it's made all the difference in the world.
View attachment 1341778
Click to expand...
That looks a lot like the knife I ended up using to skin a hog, because it was lying around the skinning rack. Coarse edge, worked great. Had to take it to a steel a couple times while skinning though. Hog hide is much tougher on knives than deer or elk, especially if you get a big boar. They develop a thick layer of "armor" all over the front of their torso that dulls out knives very quickly. I think my Spyderco Gayle Bradley in CPM-M4 will be up to the task. I don't always have a skinning rack and if you're skinning on the ground a smaller knife is better.
 
000Robert said:
Is that better for skinning than a nice polished edge with a toothy micro-bevel? Just curious and trying to learn.
Click to expand...
Yes, a toothy edge at 400 to 600 will work better for skinning and a polished edge better at paper thin cuts on a tomato or such.
 
000Robert said:
What about a polished edge with a toothy micro-bevel?
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean. If you sharpen an edge, let's say all the way to 8000 grit, but then you put on a microbevel at 600 grit, then the apex is going to be 600 grit. Might as well have not bothered taking it all the way to 8000 grit in the first place.
 
samuraistuart said:
Not sure what you mean. If you sharpen an edge, let's say all the way to 8000 grit, but then you put on a microbevel at 600 grit, then the apex is going to be 600 grit. Might as well have not bothered taking it all the way to 8000 grit in the first place.
Click to expand...

The toothy microbevel is supposed to be about 4 or 5 degrees wider than the polished edge.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top