Summer 2024
Article and photos by Wm. Hovey Smith
The brief answer to the question is, “The best hunting knife is the one that you have in hand.” However, that was not always so. On the beach at Adak Island, I picked up a piece of fractured basalt with a retouched edge that some Native American had produced on the spot to butcher a seal or walrus hundreds. or perhaps thousands, of years ago.
Hand-knapped knife by Ken Austin, with a stone blade from Central Georgia.
As I discovered when I skinned and fleshed the hide of a South Dakota bison with a knife made by Master Flint Napper Kin Austin of Raleigh, Mississippi, any steel knife will outperform a stone knife any day. An obsidian knife may have a sharper edge, but the many irregularities on the blade quickly gum up with fat to the point that the edge becomes fat- and hair-matted to the extent as to not be functional until it is cleaned.
At the time I was writing mainly for Guns and Gear Magazine, with occasional pieces to Knife World and other publications. In my articles I used knives with blades as short as 2 inches to two-handed cleavers with a hooked, 14-inch blade to process deer, bear, wild hogs, and other animals. The cleaver certainly did quick work on cutting the ribs and backbones of game animals, but the tiny Gerber folding knife also put deer in the freezer.
The Gerber folder is the smallest knife the author has used to clean game.
In the Catalina Mountains above Tucson, Arizona, Buzz Downs and I were hunting bandtail pigeons. His dog, Saucy, was with me, as I was scouting among some ponderosa pines. Saucy took off down the slope barking fiercely at something. When I arrived, she was nose to nose with a mountain lion that had its paw raised to swat the dog. I shot the lion with the rifle barrel of my multi-barrel drilling. I skinned it on the spit with a dull Boy Scout knife that I had mainly brought along to eat my sardines.
It is nice to have some specialized knives. One with a deep belly for skinning, another with a thick back to use with a block of wood to drive through a moose’s pelvis, a flexible thin-bladed boning knife, and a heavy cleaver back at camp to remove the ribs and cut the backbone into manageable chunks for the stew pot. These may be custom made and very expensive, or any of less costly products from say, Brazil.
Having a variety of blades like these from the Buck Compadre Serice can be very useful.
Regardless of the knife used, the key to easy game processing is to work the animal while it is still warm from body heat. The hide will come off much easier, the blood will drain more quickly from the carcass, and, if at home, the meat can be put into the freezer more quickly.
If you go hunting, carry a knife, preferably a sharp one. You never know what you might encounter.
Wm. Hovey Smith is an expert on hunting with primitive weapons. He makes his home in Sandersville. Check out his YouTube Channel or contact him at hoveysmith029@gmail.com