Knife Selection

Just curious what you guys know of Montana Knife Company? I have a couple. Skinned 2 and 1/2 elk las year with one without sharpening. Seemed to stay sharp for me.
 
I'm kinda old school. First hunting knife was a Schrade and I carried it for 35 years the same knife. Had the plastic fake stag handle and pry bar thick blade. I had a couple add ons and the longest lasting was another Schrade and a metal Framed Wyoming knife. It was razor sharp to start and pretty dull before I finished skinning and quartering a deer. Finally retired it and got a fixed Buck Vanguard/Roswood with SV30 Steel five years ago. It will stay sharp through two elk just fine. Saw lots of guys using the Havalon style and I was not impressed with the tiny blades, broken blades, and generally pretty weak steel. Then I tried a Outdoor Edge Razor Pro and fell in love with it. The blades are re-sharpenable and one blade will easily skin and quarter an elk. Their blade support flat works and you don't break blades and easier to install and remove than Havalon style. Their gut hook blade rules and is even better than the Wyoming knife. It is also re-sharpenable. Their gut hook replaceable blade sucks big time. I still pack my Buck with it, and this year I might maybe not maybe will just go with the Outdoor Edge alone. Nothing I would want to hand down to my grandkids as a family heirloom, and I will still start them with a high quality steel fixed blade hunting knife.
 
VinceMule said:
In the field, Hair and dirt make a knife blade dull quickly...some steel is not worth a darn. Imagine having two elk down on the ground and a Piece of crap knife and a midget for a hunting partner that only brought along a Leatherman, not wanting to get his hands dirty...
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LOL....only problem I see here is the hunting partner has a ton of work to do and probably will become a past OTHER HUNTER.
 
All you need is premium cutlery steel with proper heat treat and correct blade geometry. Lots of knives to choose from but not all have the right combination of those for a hunting knife. Below are a few of my models. Brad Watkins Knives
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Have too many knives. Carry a Lakota Hawk made many years ago. Also a Wyoming Knife. Both good but Wyoming can give a nasty cut if not careful. I guess any knife capable of giving a nasty cut. Also a small Buck Mini Alpha Hunter I really like for deer. Does great job field dressing and skinning out total animal.
 
I carry a custom made Behring Knife that holds an edge great. Used it on five or six animals in Africa last year before it needed to have the edge touched up. I also carry two replaceable blade knives as well. Both are from Outdoor Edge and they work fantastic. As someone on here did mention they are scary sharp and will lay you open in a heartbeat if your not careful but they work great and when they are dull you pull another blade out of the sheath and insert it. Hard to beat. Your not goingtocut throught he brisket or anything like that with one but for gutting and skinning you can't beat them. JMO fellas.
 
Not discounting anybody else's preferences but I have switched over to Outdoor Edge knives with replaceable blades about 5 years ago. I have used them with great success on several deer and black bear. The first time I used one on a black bear, I cut my fingers up so badly that I probably should have gotten stitches. I have since started using kevlar gloves whenever I work with the razor knives and it has proved a safe and efficient combination. These days I wouldn't use the razor knives without the gloves.
 
nksmfamjp said:
I have a couple of great standard knives for hunting that are sharp.

That said, those interchangeable knives with disposable blades in 3-4 blade shapes from honing to caping to gut hook look great!

So should I set aside my standard knife set for a cheap do-it-all knife?

www.outdooredge.com

RazorMax™ | Best Fixed Blade Replaceable Blade Hunting Knife | Outdoor Edge

The RazorMax™ is the best fixed blade hunting knife with our patented RazorSafe™ replaceable blade system and includes two unique blade styles to allow you to switch from 3.5 inch drop-point to 5.0 inch boning/fillet blade. Replacement blades sold separately
www.outdooredge.com www.outdooredge.com
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Keep my knives/cutting/sharpening tools in a Harbor Freight 26" 8-drawer tool chest. Buck, gerber, Shrade, Old Timer, et el. Dumped all my Benchmade due to their politics. Definitely not a blade snob. Non-apologetic overwhelmingly partial to Buck for their design selection, quality, warranty, business and faith practices. Have a broad collection of Buck fixed blades, 120 down, the 110 folding.....duh, of course......numerous smaller folding/multi-blade pocket knives. Just love them. My daily town and farm carry blades are the Buck 425 1-7/8" blade (~2-7/8 closed) plastic handle single blade lockback folder. and a WallyWorld Gerber locking folder aluminum body with pocket clip holding replaceable standard utility razors. Numerous Gerbers fixed and folding. Have some of the special multi-contours replaceable blade knives......I'm a degreed engineer, gadet guy. I like the folding concept, some of those Gerbers one just wants to use. Other brands are mostly yesteryear sentimental keepers. But, I find the folders get full of fat and are a bitch to clean. I go with fixed for skinning, preferring the Buck 602 4" Trailmate rubber handle for everything, save fish filleting. The traditional Micarta handles on Buck fixed knives, become slicker than **** once bloodied....can't hold on to them. The rubber fixed is perfect, easy to clean, maintain. Don't find the skinner or other style, sizes add anything to the chore. Can and have skinned deer, elk and many other harvests with a 3" folder/4"fixed with zero problems. If one knows how to use (let blade edge do the work) and sharpen a knife, dress game, one doesn't need big, special contour blades. Just my experiences.
 
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Puma Hunters Pal, imported from German knife shop.com. lanski knife sharping system, diamond hones. Carry a small diamond hone in your pocket or pack. Learn to use them on cheap knives. Your Puma will stay sharp for many deer and couple of elk. Then only requires a touch up.
 
I have been carrying Kevlar gloves for cleaning up animals for years. Really sharp knives and working inside animals where you can't always see what you are doing can make for some bad cuts, especially if you are in a hurry because it's getting dark or beginning to snow heavy. For years I carried a knife my Dad gave me. It was a German made knife (Soligen?) he bought during WW2. They were selling them dirt cheap because they were made by the enemy. It was an okay knife but in those days the selling point was ease of putting an edge back on once they dulled. I went to Buck knives for a while and they are good but I have big hands and finding a knife with a fat enough handle meant I finally had to go custom. Designing your own knife and having it made by an expert is well worth the cost if you do a lot of hunting. Different grips, blade lengths and shapes, types of steel, even sheaths, can suit the animals you hunt and the way you hunt them.
 
Unless I have some insane need to go ultra, ultra-light I will always carry a fixed blade skinner and a Havalon type blade in my kill kit. I've tried many different blades for skinning, caping, and field dressing. I can get the job done with just one or the other, but I like the security of having extra razor sharp "back up" blades available. The disposables barely weigh anything and surgical sharp.
 

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