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

[HNSB]

Knife? Aw ****.
I've been doing it with my bare hands.

A knife sounds like it would be way easier.

[Swede44mag]

We stopped many years ago to assist a person that hit a deer with their car.
The deer was mangled and so was the front of the car. My cousin asked the driver if he was going to keep the deer.
The driver said no so we waited for the HI way patrol to come by my cousin got a road kill tag the HI way patrol officer asked him why he hadn’t gutted out the deer.
My cousin said he didn’t have a knife so I let him use my folding Buck pocket knife it was sharp to start with but got dull quickly.
My cousin started to gripe about my *** Buck knife I told him it was better than what he did not have in his pocket.
If I had only known the window trick we could have went to his house a whole lot sooner.

Thanks for the tip.

[M-Tecs]

Starting with a sharp knife gutting and skinning a single deer shouldn't dull the knife significantly. If it does the steel/heat-treatment is of poor quality or the knife had an improper angle on it initially. If it dulls fast it's generally too fine of an angle.

My S30V, D2 and 1095 blades are generally good for two to three deer before I touch them up. I use a convex grind at 20 degrees per side.

So far this year I have gutted and skinned two deer with a Buck S30V blade without touch up and it will still easily shave the hair on my arm.

I have always started with a shaving edge on my knives but since I started using the Wicked Edge system http://wickededgeusa.com/ my blades are incredibly sharp and with the convex edge incredibly long lasting. I purchased it for my broadheads but it also works better than anything I have ever seen on knives.

Different types of grinds here http://www.ragweedforge.com/grind.html & http://zknives.com/knives/articles/knifeedgetypes.shtml

[RoyEllis]

Or you can skin 'em my way. Cut around the neck, around each leg @ hock then fasten hoist to tree limb & around neck. Peel skin at nap of neck up, slip a golf ball under the hide far enough to gather hide around it like a pouch, tie 1/4" nylon rope tightly around hide pouch. Hoist deer head first up in air, tie nylon rope to truck bumper & drive off...peels hide off like a sock & keeps 95% of the hair off yer meat. Lots faster too, I can skin a deer that way in under 5 minutes, do a bunch of them every fall helping a buddy at his processing store.

[M-Tecs]

Some friends of mine are using the Everlast "The Claw" Skinning Tool. Works great for skinning and no balls, ropes or trucks required.
http://dravesarchery.com/everlast-th...ning-tool.html

I just ordered one. I have skinned around three hundred deer most hanging from a gambrel by the hind legs and a dozen or so on the ground. After watching my friends skinning by hanging from the neck and using the claw I am switching. You only have to cut around the neck, forelegs and brisket. The advantage is almost no hair on the meat.

[starmac]

Wonder what the indians and mountain men did. lol Skinning a deer can sure get complicated these days. lol

That claw reminds me of the catfish skinning pliers we always used.

[osteodoc08]

Excellent tips guys.

BTW- my EDC is a Kershaw Scallion. Love it for what it is.

My hunting knife my fiancé gave me last year for my birthday. A Buck Ergohunter pro. Skinned quite a few without losing an edge.

[white eagle]

Thanks for the heads up Tim
and thank your friend

[Rangefinder]

Wonder what the indians and mountain men did. lol Skinning a deer can sure get complicated these days. lol

Wanna try something interesting, try dressing out a deer with a napped flint knife. Did that once, and not by preference. Did the age-old mistake of stopping to 'water a bush' and had my Kershaw slip off my belt. Several miles later I dropped a nice doe alongside a creek bed. I reached for my knife to bleed her out and start dressing... and well, you know where it was. After fuming a few minutes and contemplating how bad I didn't want to waste the last little bit of daylight back-tracking and then have to pack out in the dark I got the idea to have a look in the creek a little--sure enough, there were pieces of jasper. Took a little looking to find one big enough, but I found one about the size of a flat golf ball, napped one side down to an edge pretty quick, and got down to business. It fit in the crook of my index finger well enough that it actually dressed out that doe about as quick as I coulda hoped for with my knife. What's funny is that I went out with my boy for a few hours after his elk monday morning so I was going through all my stuff sunday evening--guess what I found mixed in with all my other c-rap: that AND the little pinch-skinner that I'd saved from the experience. Guess what is sitting here right on the computer desk: BOTH.

[MT Gianni]

I rarely skin before I cut things as temps usually allow us to hang meat with the skin on. That is a great sharpening trick to know.

[fishhawk]

It seems the truck is always miles away when I need it when I'm out moose hunting. I always have a "overnight" pack with me on my back when out in the Canadian bush with sharpening stone included.

[CastingFool]

I carry two knives for cleaning out a deer, plus a spare in my pack. then, I always carry a pocket knife. If I have to gut one deer out, that knifr gets to see Dr. Stone afterwards.

[300savage]

i also always have a spare knife of some sort, and the back of one blade can be used as a steel to put a good skinning edge back on the other in a few strokes.

[quilbilly]

Hope you don't mind that I passed this along to people in a totally different community with proper accreditation, of course.

[Dan Cash]

My vote goes to my flint blade. Re chip the edge and good for another buffalo or so. Great tip, Tim, I try not to hunt away from my truck.;

[MBTcustom]

Well, everybodies a little different in the way that their hunt play's out. The way we hunt here in Ar, usually goes like this:
We shoot the deer, and tag it.
We load it on the fourwheeler, and drive it back to camp (where the trucks are at).
We skin it there.

So for us, even though the truck is far away from where the shot was taken, it seems it's always close by where the skinning is taking place. I realize this may only apply to us southerners, where the deer run like rabbits and are about the same size LOL!

Or you can skin 'em my way. Cut around the neck, around each leg @ hock then fasten hoist to tree limb & around neck. Peel skin at nap of neck up, slip a golf ball under the hide far enough to gather hide around it like a pouch, tie 1/4" nylon rope tightly around hide pouch. Hoist deer head first up in air, tie nylon rope to truck bumper & drive off...peels hide off like a sock & keeps 95% of the hair off yer meat. Lots faster too, I can skin a deer that way in under 5 minutes, do a bunch of them every fall helping a buddy at his processing store.

I actually just saw this done for the first time this year. You aint kidding! 10 minutes and that deer was skun out and tucked in the cooler.

They actually had a pretty nice setup there at deer camp. It was a concrete slab with an eye bolt sunk in the very center for the nylon rope. just off the side of the slab was a 15' boom made of steel with a pulley at the top, and a hand crank winch at the bottom.
They just put the noose around the deer's neck, and cranked it up till it's feet were off the ground. Then we ringed the neck, and started it peeling till we could get the golf ball under the skin. Then we just picked up the nylon rope and put the small noose around the ball. The guy on the crank went to crankin and before you could say "hush my puppies" that deer was way up in the air, and the skin was in a pile on the slab. Then Freddie scissor fingers went at it, and next thing I knew there was a bucket full of carcass and a cooler full of meat! It was almost too easy!

[btroj]

Good tip Tim.

How did you dull the knife in the first place? Did you sharpen it before going?

[BNE]

I had not heard of that one. Thanks.

[lead chucker]

So let me get this strait. First roll window down then shoot deer. Then roll window half way up and then sharpen knife. Ok got it. HA HA HA. That's a great idea you learn all kind of good stuff here.

[realllynow]

ive been looking for a easy way to get a great edge on a blade.
thank you for the tip man.