The Gun Counter

Anyone mind going over the basic and useful types/styles of hunting and fishing knives? I'm not sure how to pick them out. I'm also not sure what should be in a minimal useful setup.

I thinking for things ranging from rabbit to dear, and fresh water fish. Bonus points if I can buy all made in USA knives once and be done with it.

Thanks

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Doh! Just now noticed a separate knives category... Sorry mods. Ill try and sleep more before my next post...

Knives of Alaska make some decent, basic knives. I have a set which I like.

The nicest, simple set I've seen is my fathers - a Shane Sloan (made by him not "designed") which has an interchangeable axe head and broad knife w. a guthook.

Fishing is easy--you have the fillet knife and the only difference is how long you make the blade and that is dependent on what you're catching...the most common size is 6" to the largest of 10"...

Hunting is another matter now...You really don't need more then a 4" drop point blade (regardless of how big your hands are) to do 95% of the job on dressing and skinning a large or small game animal although for rabbits and squirrels a 2½" to 3" knife is more commonly utilized...A quite small blade is utilized around the horns/antlers (more so around the nose and mouth) in skinning out a head, called a caper blade but isn't a normal thing carried by a hunter as the majority of the work is down once the animal is brought back to the home...

If you look at a true hunter/gatherer society--the Saami of Northern Finland they use a little 3" Puukko knife for almost all there outdoor work and a 5" Leuko for butchering and camp chores...

The Inuit of the Far North use an Ulu, a large half round knife for almost all their cleaning/skinning duties and a clip point knife for the initial gutting...

Check out some of the Dealer sites like: Blade Gallery to see what's out there by makers...

Forums like: Blade Forums or Knife Forums to gain more insight into the knife industry...


Grohmann Nbr1 Original grind - near perfection in a hunting blade


Johnny Walker Nillson - Puukko


Hunter's Ulu

I looked in the Wiki and although the category is there, there isn't ANY information regarding knives.

Aglifter wrote:Knives of Alaska make some decent, basic knives. I have a set which I like.

Those guys are from Texas, and fly an airplane with a paint job that only a color-blind texan would love...

Netpackrat wrote:

Aglifter wrote:Knives of Alaska make some decent, basic knives. I have a set which I like.

Those guys are from Texas, and fly an airplane with a paint job that only a color-blind texan would love...

It is definitely the ugliest 206 that I have ever seen, but they do make a really good fillet knife...

SeekHer wrote:If you look at a true hunter/gatherer society--the Saami of Northern Finland they use a little 3" Puukko knife for almost all there outdoor work and a 5" Leuko for butchering and camp chores...

I might be biased, but the traditional Mora knife is a knife that will work for almost anything. It's very similar to a Puukko, except it has a narrower blade than the Puukko knife, which makes it a bit easier to handle for detailed work and fishing. The only thing I don't like with those knifes is the lack of a finger guard, though Mora used to have a "scout knife" that had one. And they are usually sold with a plastic sheat that just looks horrible.
But the Mora and the Puukko really work for anything, up to the point where a saw or an axe is a better option.

... the Mora FS2000, which is a really great outdoors knife. If they would just make it with an orange handle, so it doesn't get lost when you put it down, it would be even better...

Haha. I looked at the website. Apparently they heard me.

ETA: Oh, curses. I wanted to quote myself, and instead I deleted the entire post...

Short version... The Swedish, Norwagian and Finnish knives are cheap and good all-round outdoor knives, and a good place to start. Visit Ragnar's site (link below) for lots of details and good value.

I also really like the "hunter" models of Swiss Army pocket-knife from Victorinox and Wenger. Excellent outdoors knives - don't be without one. I know experienced hunters who use nothing else, on everything from rabbits to giant wild boar.

Start with something not too expensive, but sharp and sharpenable, and which sits OK in your hand. Use that a bit, and you will start to develop a tase for what you like and what works.

Erik wrote:

SeekHer wrote:I might be biased, but the traditional Mora knife is a knife that will work for almost anything. It's very similar to a Puukko, except it has a narrower blade than the Puukko knife, which makes it a bit easier to handle for detailed work and fishing. The only thing I don't like with those knifes is the lack of a finger guard, though Mora used to have a "scout knife" that had one. And they are usually sold with a plastic sheat that just looks horrible.
But the Mora and the Puukko really work for anything, up to the point where a saw or an axe is a better option.

I really like the Mora style. I keep wanting to get a nice one made with a lignum vitae handle and high quality steel, but can't bring myself to drop $300 on a 'custom' knife when I can buy an ugly plastic one for $30.

Fill wrote:I really like the Mora style. I keep wanting to get a nice one made with a lignum vitae handle and high quality steel, but can't bring myself to drop $300 on a 'custom' knife when I can buy an ugly plastic one for $30.

So spend $50 more with Ragnar and get him to send you a Brusletto Nansen or Norgeskniv with a fancy burl handle... Really nice knives (I have a couple of Bruslettos), with "custom" looks, but a good price, and you won't cry too hard when you lose it.