Hunting Knives - Pros and Cons
Hunting Knives come in many shapes and sizes. In this article we are going to explain the pros and cons of each knife blade for the purposes of hunting and butchering game meat.
Clip Point Hunting Knife
The most common is the Clip Point Blade. They're a great all purpose knife that are available in folding or fixed handles. Clip Point blades we would recommend for small game and general use. These are a great knife to begin with as they are readily available.
Pros:
- Cutting
- Thin point makes it easy access for smaller areas
- Readily available
Cons:
- Not made for puncturing
- Not meant for heavy duty tasks - like wood cutting, cutting thick material.
Drop Point Blade
A drop point is the perfect shape for a knife blade that needs to handle various butchering tasks like cutting, skinning, and carving.
The Drop Point is normally thicker, more noticeably at the tip compared to a clip point.
Due to the thickness of the blade, it can be held in many ways, for example putting your index finger on the top of the blade to give a scalpel style grip.
Drop points are a good all round hunting blade.
Also recommended for larger game field dressing.
Pros:
- Perfect for slicing, and cutting
- Very versitile blade style
Cons:
- Hard to apply force with your thumb or hand due to the sinner blade spine
Bowie Knife
Image: Spika Command Bowie
A Bowie Knife (also known as a survival knife) is the perfect choice for a fixed blade hunting knife.
Originally being a butchers knife, it makes it spot on for field dressing, stabbing, and disjointing your kill.
From the average size, and weight of the knife, they can be great for cutting through foliage, and branches.
Scalpal
Image: Havalon Piranta Orange
For faster, easier skinning and field dressing of any kind of wild game
The changeable blades mean you can always have a sharp new blade, and not worry about it being to blunt to do the job.
Pros:
- Replacable Blade
- Good for big or small game
Serrated
They feature a blade with notches, generally called teeth.
They stay sharpened longer then a smooth blade due to less contact area, because of the serations they are harder to sharpen.
Pros:
- Made for cutting, and slicing
- Stay sharp longer
- Cut easy and faster then smooth edges
Cons:
- Harder to sharpen than a smooth blade
- Cuts are not as clean
Victory Knives
Victory Knives have a proud heritage stretching from 1927 until today.
These knives come in all shapes, and sizes.
They're used by many major meat, and fishing processing companies in AUS, and NZ.
They have:
Boning Knives, Butcher Knives, Skinning Knives, Fillet Knives, and more.
Pig Hunting Knives
A knife designed for stabbing pigs in the neck area.
That’s about it.
