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Thread: So, you're skinning out your deer and your knife is dull......

  1. #1
    Boolit Grand Master

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    So, you're skinning out your deer and your knife is dull......

    It's happened to all of us. We're skinning a deer, and the darn knife gets dull halfway through the job, and we end up just muscling our way through the job, mangling meat as we go.
    There is no sharpening stone, steel nothing. You probably just rolled the edge of your knife over, but it doesn't matter if you don't have anything to straighten it!

    I'll give you a little tip that works so well, you might just prefer it to many other sharpening systems. It's usually with you, and mere feet away from the deer you are wrestling with.

    Simply walk over to your truck, roll the window down half way, and use the edge of the glass as a ceramic sharpening edge. It works really really well.

    This trick was taught to me by one of my best friends. He is paralyzed from the waste down, and his truck is his life. I gave him a spyderco endura years ago as a birthday gift. He used to have me sharpen it (I'm a trained knifemaker and sharpening things is what I do). but then he learned this trick and showed it to me.
    Been using it for about 2 years now, and I can honestly endorse it as an excellent alternative!

    I actually prefer the edge that this method puts on the knife, for butchering deer. It gives it a lot of "bite".
    Give it a try! I guarantee that you will wonder why you never heard or thought of this before.

    Hopefully, this will get some of you fellers out of a jam this year at deer camp.

    Good hunting!!!
    Last edited by MBTcustom; 11-06-2013 at 11:36 AM.
    Precision in the wrong place is only a placebo.

  2. #2
    Boolit Master s mac's Avatar
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    Sounds brilliant.

  3. #3
    Boolit Master



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    I always carry an aluminum oxide gear hone in my pocket.To me they are one of the best hones around for sharping,honing burrs and the like.Here at the house I have a medium grit and fine grit that is 2" wide.The pocket one is 1/4"x4"x1".I think I bought these from Morton Hones.

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    Boolit Master Djones's Avatar
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    you can use your leather belt as a strop too

  5. #5
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by w5pv View Post
    I always carry an aluminum oxide gear hone in my pocket.To me they are one of the best hones around for sharping,honing burrs and the like.Here at the house I have a medium grit and fine grit that is 2" wide.The pocket one is 1/4"x4"x1".I think I bought these from Morton Hones.
    I carry a Smiths carbide, ceramic, and diamond pocket knife sharpener. It works amazingly well until I get to skinning my deer and realize I left it in my other pants.
    Stuff happens. You don't need a sharpener to get to the woods and shoot a deer. However, if you don't have a truck you are in pretty big trouble. That truck probably has a window.
    Trust me, just remember this trick. You WILL need it someday.
    Like I said, I used to make knives and I have a kit of fine stones that I try to remember to take to camp with me.......and yet, I'm giving you this advice.
    Hmmm, I must have forgot once or twice eh?
    Precision in the wrong place is only a placebo.

  6. #6
    Boolit Master
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    Turn your ceramic coffee cup upside down ......... it works as well.

    Good tip Tim!!


    Three 44s

  7. #7
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    Havalon Piranta is what I use for everything on critters, except when butchering where I use a couple larger knives. The piranta has replacement blades and when they get dull I change them out.... one blade gets through a whole elk for skinning and quartering as well as some meat cutting.
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    Great Tip... would have never thought of that
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  9. #9
    Boolit Grand Master



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    Dull knife? Be my luck I would show up with three sets of stones and forget the knife.

    The top knife in the photo is the Beretta Loveless drop-point hunter I got for a pig hunt with Glen Fryxell a few years ago.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Rick
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  10. #10
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by Djones View Post
    you can use your leather belt as a strop too
    I have done that in the past. The problem is that a razor edge doesn't bite like an edge that was dressed with a steel, or a ceramic rod. The strop is good for dusting that ultra fine edge, but if its used any more than a little, it will roll the edge over.
    Try this: roll an old shirt up into a ball and cut it with a really well stropped edge. Note the effort that was expended, and the number of layers that were cut.
    Now, sharpen that same knife really well with a steel or a ceramic rod, and repeat the test. It might surprise you.
    Precision in the wrong place is only a placebo.

  11. #11
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by Three44s View Post
    Turn your ceramic coffee cup upside down ......... it works as well.

    Good tip Tim!!


    Three 44s
    Oh that's goooood......
    Precision in the wrong place is only a placebo.

  12. #12
    Boolit Master



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    Good tips

  13. #13
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    Never would have thought of that and there have been times when this would have been useful...now if I can just remember it the next time!

    Thanks, David

  14. #14
    Cast Hunter

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    Quote Originally Posted by dk17hmr View Post
    Havalon Piranta is what I use for everything on critters, except when butchering where I use a couple larger knives. The piranta has replacement blades and when they get dull I change them out.... one blade gets through a whole elk for skinning and quartering as well as some meat cutting.
    I do the same. Its very light ands minimal weight to the pack. Thats important when hiking in the mountains. If the blade gets dull, just change it out and keep going.
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  15. #15
    Boolit Master

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    Great tips, assuming you remember your knife and have a window handy! Thats normally not a problem but one day I was alone with a deer and no knife I went back to the truck hopeing the knife was on the seat. No luck but I did find one single edge razor blade
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  16. #16
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    With the name "goodsteel" I'd think a dull knife was impossible!....thanks for the tip, I learned something quite useful. One problem though; out west where I hunt the PU is several miles away with a couple large canyons in between...........or I have the jeep and it doesn't have roll down windows..............and I don't carry a ceramic coffee cup out there with me............I do carry a good steel with me in my pack to touch up the edge, especially if the game is elk.........good tips and useful anyways........


    Larry Gibson

  17. #17
    Boolit Grand Master







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    Good tips. My suggestion is to always have two knifes with you, both sharp! One on the belt, the other a good folding knife with two or three sharp blades in your pocket. Anybody who has ever hunted Africa has seen skinners sharpen their knifes on just about any rock that they can find, and they do a great job, but you don't want to lend them your $150.00 prize belt knife.
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  18. #18
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    That's a good tip Tim

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    Tim, I think you mentioned the truck window trick a year or so back. I had forgotten about it. Maybe now I'll remember. Maybe.

    smokeywolf
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  20. #20
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    Another vote for the havalon, you just never have a dull knife, when you need one.

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