The Skinny on Skinning Knives
by Chuck De Bruin
The large game animal is on the ground. An excellent shot, whether from a modern firearm, a muzzleloader or a bow, has assured that the meat and the hide will be in great shape if the correct steps are taken. Those steps should include at least a couple of knives, not just one do-it-all knife.
A top quality basic hunting knife can do many of the tasks needed to process a big game animal, whether it?s for the table, the hide, or both. But that basic hunting knife is not the most effective tool when skinning a game animal if the hunter wants the best of both worlds; top quality meat and hides. Enter a specialized tool called the skinning knife.
I checked with a number of sources to explain the benefits of using a skinning knife after the field dressing has been completed utilizing a top quality basic hunting knife. All of these people had long histories of skinning game animals. One basically lives off the land and gets his elk, deer and other legal game quotas every year, and then he and his family eat the delicious lean meat out of their freezer until it?s gone at about the time the next hunting seasons begin. Another person I considered approaching is a former federal meat inspector, and his son worked as a meat processor. They both had hunted large game in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Oregon and Washington and were extremely adept at laying out the proper tools when it was time to skin the animal and cut the meat into steaks, roasts, burger, etc.
However, I was looking for just one particular aspect of processing a game animal, and that was skinning. Fortunately I ran across a person who writes articles for a regional magazine of which I?m the managing editor, and found he was more that just the owner of a fishing tackle and bait shop and a fishing guide. Doug Holcomb from Northside Fishing in Hillyard, WA (a part of Spokane) used to professionally skin all types of game animals including elk, deer, bear, raccoons, coyotes and big cats such as cougars and bobcats. He was eager to share his expertise on skinning knives versus basic hunting knives.
?Your skinning knives are going to have a lot more rounded tip on them,? Holcomb stated. ?They?re not going to be real sharp and pointy at the end. They?re not designed to get between bone and they?re not designed to cut the hide.?
Holcomb said the utility field knife has a really sharp point and can cut into the hide. He noted that if a person isn?t careful, the sharp tip will cuts holes in the hide and decrease its value. That?s one reason for using a skinning knife. ?It also allows you to do a lot cleaner job on the carcass,? he added. ?You?re not getting a lot of cuts in the carcass, you?re not getting those little slices through the outer membrane into the meat, you get a lot cleaner steak, it?s not cutting the flanks into pieces as you skin down along them. The flanks are the toughest part to skin on an animal because you?ve got a real thin piece of meat about a half an inch wide and you?ve got hide on both sides of them. A real sharp pointy knife will cut into that flank, and once you start dropping that flank out, you?ve got chunks of meat on the hide and you lose that piece of flank steak.?
This bit of information may make some hunters think that after they?ve field dressed their game, they need to turn only to the skinning knife. But Holcomb says the field knife is still a part of the equation. ?You?ll need ?em both because you still need that field knife to open their legs up, to get up through the pads or the hooves or up the back legs because you need that point to break the hide open,? he said. ?But once you get it open, that?s when you want to go to you rolled-tip type skinning knife. By rolled tip, I mean it?s one with a nice rounded edge on it.?
Knife makers have, over the years, responded to the public?s desire for the hardest steel possible in producing a quality knife. They?ve familiarized us with the Rockwell hardness test and have tossed around numbers in trying to assure the buyer he or she is getting ?one tough knife.? But there?s a problem here. Many professional skinners like Holcomb don?t particularly like the super hard stainless steel blades.
?I like a good carbon steel blade,? he stated emphatically. ?I can sharpen that when I work on that animal in a couple of seconds. Your 400 stainless and your surgical stainless are great knives once you get ?em good and sharp, but once you lose that edge, it?s a bugger to re-sharpen those.?
Holcomb admitted there are numerous people who prefer the hard stainless steel knives and noted that it?s a matter of preference. But his experience has shown him that a high quality carbon steel knife works best for him and most professionals with whom he?s worked. Holcomb said the same skinning knife used on elk, deer, antelope and moose can be used on big cats, bear and other wild critters.
?That?s what we did was mostly your big cats and bear,? he stated. ?We did a lot of coyotes and raccoons and bobcats. Some of those, when you get into that weasel family like your raccoons, they have a fat more like a pig. It?s really hard on knives and it just takes the edge right off of them. And the more you get into those thinner hided animals, the more careful you have to be.?
So, what is an actual skinning knife?
?They?re not as long as a normal field knife or hunting knife (that have) a real long heavy wide blade,? Holcomb said. ?A good skinning knife is going to have a thinner blade; it?s not going to be as heavy; not as wide as far as thickness of the blade which means I can get in between the meat and the hide and work it easier. It?ll be a third thinner than a regular utility hunting knife so you can bend ?em and work ?em around.?
One particular knife that would meet Holcomb?s specifications would be the Buck Skinner which is available through www.fernknives.com. There are numerous other skinning knives on this web site that will work splendidly, and many of those are made out of stainless steel that can be easily sharpened in the field. Hunters looking for an outstanding skinning knife would be wise to check through the ?hunting? section of the web site to find the ones that are ideal for them.
There?s a perfectly good reason Holcomb prefers a skinning knife with a rolled tip versus a standard hunting knife when taking the hide off an animal. ?I can take that knife, and as I pull it and just keep rolling it up, it?ll take that membrane right down and pull that hide off so fast you can?t believe it.? He repeated that when using a pointed knife for skinning out an animal and ?you try to roll that tip, it?ll cut into the meat and it?ll cut a hole in the hide.?
Coming up with a perfectly skinned hide is not an easy task, even with the best tools. As a last bit of advice in this article, it takes time to become adept at skinning. ?The first raccoon I ever skinned for my dad professionally was when I was nine years old, and he put me on the porch with an old pocket Schrade knife and I mean, oh jeepers, it was ugly!? Holcomb chortled. ?But that?s how you learn. Your mistakes are what teach you how to do it.?
Holcomb added that when time becomes money and you have a dozen coyotes lying on the porch, they can?t lay there; they?ve got to get done. That?s when you learn to become faster at it and learn tricks of the trade in separating the membrane from the hide.
Plus it?s a tremendous advantage to the hunter to have the proper sharp skinning knife with the knowledge to effectively sharpen the knife in the field. Holcomb and other experienced hunters, and even some anglers, have become used to bringing a ?steel? with them to keep the knife edges sharp. For those not familiar with ?steels,? just check in with the local butcher who can bring one out and demonstrate how it should be used. |
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