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Can you recommend a good skinning knife?

I'm new to deer stalking and am looking to purchase my first gralloching knife.

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Time Well Spent
Time Well Spent November 23, 2008

Stalking
GEORGE WALLACE says:
I remember answering a similar question some time ago but since we always have new readers, I’ll have another stab at it. (oops!)

I’m not sure whether you really mean a pure skinning knife or a more general purpose model for gralloching as well.

The pure skinner is one of those knives with a great, curved, heavy point, a bit like a miniature scimitar. Excellent for skinning deer or slashing the throats of the infidel -but buggerall use for anything else.

A more general-purpose knife will have a drop-point blade with a cutting edge of about 3½ inches. A folder with a lock blade – you don’t want it closing on your fingers – is fine and more convenient to carry than a fixed blade knife, even though a bit more difficult to clean afterwards.

My own choice for many years has been a combination of Kershaw’s Black Horse II folder and their 5in fixed blade filleter. And I use a knife with a guthook, also by Kershaw.

I had better add that I have no connection with Kershaw or the importers of their products.

It’s just that I have many knives, acquired over the last 40-odd years, but find I use my Kershaw’s almost exclusively for deer work.

I don’t know if they are the ‘best’, whatever that may mean, but they work for me so there’s no reason to spend hard-earned cash buying anything else.

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