My problem with the gut hook blade...

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DaQo'tah Forge

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So I took one of my new knives fresh from the shop to work with me yesterday.

The guys don't seem to understand the etch that shows the temper lines at all...they just think the knife looks badly done.

Now I was talking about all the different heat treatments I use to make my blades, when this one guy asks me if I have ever made a knife with a Gut-hook?

Now I was then going on and on about what I thought of gut-hooks when it became apparent to me that most of the guys at work are convinced that a gut hook is a very good thing to have on the blade.

Well I disagree strongly!

I believe that a gut hook is in the way 99.9999% of the time, and when you might need a tool like it, you would do better with a gut hook on its own type of handle, and not just stuck on the back of a blade as an after thought.

I have tried myself to use a gut hook while cleaning game, and I think it's a dumb thing. It's not really all that useful. It seemed to me to be not a very good design to do the work that it's meant for, and I was always snagging the gut hook when just using the blade. There are many times when cutting into the meat that I would want to draw the knife back and make a cut, only to snag the gut hook into the sides of the new cut. I found myself always having to line the blade up with the sides of each cut, just to be able to draw back of the blade.

That's what I call a waist of time!

I did some reading about the first gut hook ever placed on a knife, and it came out of guy who just cut a spot on a camp knife to lift hot coffee pots out of the fire with. This clever idea of a hook to lift things out of the fire was soon transformed to have a 2nd purpose that of a gut hook for cleaning game.

I just think that its become a bad add-on for a knife.


But what do you guys think?
 
I agree to me a guthook has no place on a using knife as far as i,m concerned,It may be benifical to someone that can not properly use a knife.2c...........
 
i don't make them ether. also the idea of having the sharp edge up while useing a gut hook is asking for trouble.
 
I also agree! I made a few during my early years in knifemaking, but quickly discovered it's about like peeing in a wet suit........you get a warm feeling for a while, then it's just annoying!
I think that the public has been conditioned to accept gut-hooks simply because so much advertisment has been done on them, and many factory knives offer them. As for your buddies at work, this is an opprotunity to educate them and to help people understand that gut-hooks are nothing more than a sale gimmick.
 
There's not enough money to pay me to make one. To me, they're like having the bottle opener at the top of the blade, instead of the choil. IMO, both are ridiculous.:eek: :barf:
 
maybe you just work with morons.


i'd rather have a bottle opener than a gut hook. - but hell, the back of any knife works as a bottle opener anyhow. :)
 
I have a Benchmade Rescue Hook (no blade, just a hook) and it is simply amazing at cutting fabric, rope, and belts.

It seems like a very appropriate use of a hook.

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I do not like gut hooks.I dress a lot of road kill moose and I can work faster and do a better job with the tip of the knife.
Chuck
 
The rescue hook does look much like the gut hook. I dont have any need for such a rescue type knife, however now that I look at the knife, Im not too sure that a rescue hook should be on a knife too!....seems to me. (Ok Im not a rescue guy so this is just my views) that the hook should be able to slide next to a person without cutting them, the sharpen edge on a Rescue hook knife looks a bit dangerious.(Wont it be slid next to the person trapped by a belt?)

I believe that the Hunting Gut hook knife is just too much trouble. I believe that many hunters have tried to use the gut hook only to have trouble with it, and then blame themselves for not knowing how to work the hook like on the photo on the knife's wrapper.
 
Guthooks ARE dumb, and I won't grind one on a blade, either. And guess who are they going to cuss when they realize the guthook is a bad idea?
 
I think maybe guthooks would work well on big fish or reptiles. The few people who I know that have used one on deer or elk don't like 'em. The hook gets clogged with hair and dulls fast since it is such a short cutting edge.

I have hunted whenever I could for over 40 years and have never ruined a carcass by slicing up its guts with a regular knife. I think hooks on a hunting knife are like serrations-a resort for those who can't properly sharpen a knife.

I have turned down orders from people who insist on a guthooked blade.

If I thgought I needed a hook. I might buy a "Wyoming Knife".
 
Good Thoughts gentlemen. Gut hooks appeal to arm chair hunters and those who like gimmics. They will sell knives to the man who likes such stuff. If such stuff is truly needed it works well as a specialist blade alone like those pictured, but not incombination with a real knife.
The same goes with a saw back blade, much better when they stand alone as a changable blade or independant tool.
A well designed blade made with what for in mind is a joy, the more you add to it the more it degrades.
 
My father and brother are both slaughtermen. Working with knives all day. They have a pouch with a different knife for each particular cutting task. I never saw any with a gut hook. I had seen gut hooks on shop knives when you listen to the idea it sounds good. But I suppose it is not untill you use a knife that you get to see how good it is. A bit like carring a heavy large knife up and down a mountainside for a couple of day then deciding a small knife may be suitable for your needs.
 
I personaly dont see a real purpase to a gut hook on a knife, it just gets in the way. Maybe a dedicated gut hook like the Bench made shown, but not on a knife I'm going to use for anything else.

I made a couple just starting out, but have never sold them nor do I plan on makeing anymore.
 
IIRC, the whole gut hook concept started in Alaska. A couple of guides/part time knifemakers ground a hook in the top of a blade or two, to facilitate hooking the bail on the coffee pot, to remove it from the fire without getting burned. They weren't even sharpened, and were never intended for use as a "guthook". A hunter saw these knives and theorized about their use for "unzipping" game animals. He ordered one that way, and although I don't believe it was ever really very good, he was not going to admit it. A knife magazine was introduced to the new style, and the race was on.:eek:
 
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