Best Skinning knife for $200

[Dom4]

Originally Posted by BcK

i use a benchmade bugout it cost a little more then 200 but it’s 1 of the most amazing knives you can buy.

What model is it if you do not mind sharing?

[Lefty-Canuck]

Nice work, I just picked up a blade made from Magnacut can’t wait to give it a go.

LC

[sns2]

Originally Posted by Lefty-Canuck

Nice work, I just picked up a blade made from Magnacut can’t wait to give it a go.

LC

Lefty, I’ve got a helluva pile of posts and you still have twice as many

Forum misses guys regular posts like you. Skilled, knowledgeable, willing to help, and a great sense of humor. That was a wicked moose you got there buddy.

[fishnguy]

Originally Posted by sns2

Forum misses guys regular posts like you. Skilled, knowledgeable, willing to help, and a great sense of humor. That was a wicked moose you got there buddy.

And looks like that CIA dude from the Homeland series, Saul something, I think. Haha.

[Pathfinder76]

Originally Posted by Lefty-Canuck

Nice work, I just picked up a blade made from Magnacut can’t wait to give it a go.

LC

I’ve completely taken apart two deer with mine and now skinned two more. Still sharp. :-)

[fishnguy]

Originally Posted by Pathfinder76

I can’t remember honestly. James told me, but I’ve forgotten.

Here is the buck. My 14 year old shot him. Long story, but he shot him with my rifle as it was on the pack ready to go. I had seen him coming for just a few seconds. I thought he was going to pop out at about 460 yards but he did at 250 so I rolled out of the way and he took over. His first whitetail and first buck. He has a messed up right side, but on the left had 6” bases, 10” G1, 13” G2, 10” G3 and 25” main beam.

Heck of a deer, Chuck. Congrats to your boy and yourself. I saw one almost identical buck a few years ago and if we lived closer, I’d say that this is the same deer, lol.

Congrats to your daughter as well! They are doing it better than many of us grown men are, haha.

Edit: did anyone tell you that you have a great smile?

[Pathfinder76]

For some reason I get that a lot.

[Pathfinder76]

So I have always dislike lanyards on a knife. To me they are a crud collector. But I’m changing my mind. Kind of. I’ve started putting the brightest para cord on them before I go in the field. It makes the knife more visible and allows me to put it on a branch so it’s not lost on the ground somewhere. I’m actually looking for some that has a light reflecting component. To me that would be perfect.

Anyway, after I use the knife and clean it I cut it off and throw it away.

[DirtShooter]

You can find some reflective paracord on amazon

[sns2]

The best part of his son’s deer, equally as impressive as the rack, was his chutzpah to shove old Dad aside and grab the rifle. I am still smiling about that

[Dean2]

So after two years of using the Crotts semi Skinner, in the vaunted D2 steel with proprietary heat treating, I thought I would provide my thoughts. Very nicely built knife, very pretty to look at, comfortable in the hand, light and easy to maneuver. It however does NOT live up to its reputation for being an edge so long lasting you can do more than one animal without touching it up. Maybe 2 deer, but on moose, if you split the hide and hair, you are going to need to touch it up before you start working on the meat and skinning. Elk it holds up a bit better but their hide and hair are not as hard on an edge as Moose.

I also find the short blade a bit of a handicap on larger animals, works fine on deer, but moose could use a little longer cutting edge. The Buck 110 is just enough longer to make the difference, but to be fair I have used a 110 as my primary hunting knife for nearly 50 years.

Below is a picture of a Buck 110 made with S30V beside the Crotts. The one in the picture is for show as my wife gave it to me for our 35th wedding anniversary in 2017, we hit the 40 year mark in 2022, but I have an identical knife without the engraving I hunt with. We did a bull moose using these two blades. The Buck did the majority of the work, including splitting hide and hair as well as separating sockets and cutting cartilage. I intentionally did not touch up either knife during the process of breaking down that moose. The Buck was noticeably sharper at the end of the job than the Crotts was. When you consider that you can get a Buck 110 in S30V for about a quarter of the Crotts, seems like a much better deal to me.

[obsessed1]

Originally Posted by Dean2

So after two years of using the Crotts semi Skinner, in the vaunted D2 steel with proprietary heat treating, I thought I would provide my thoughts. Very nicely built knife, very pretty to look at, comfortable in the hand, light and easy to maneuver. It however does NOT live up to its reputation for being an edge so long lasting you can do more than one animal without touching it up. Maybe 2 deer, but on moose, if you split the hide and hair, you are going to need to touch it up before you start working on the meat and skinning. Elk it holds up a bit better but their hide and hair are not as hard on an edge as Moose.

I also find the short blade a bit of a handicap on larger animals, works fine on deer, but moose could use a little longer cutting edge. The Buck 110 is just enough longer to make the difference, but to be fair I have used a 110 as my primary hunting knife for nearly 50 years.

Below is a picture of a Buck 110 made with S30V beside the Crotts. The one in the picture is for show as my wife gave it to me for our 35th wedding anniversary in 2017, we hit the 40 year mark in 2022, but I have an identical knife without the engraving I hunt with. We did a bull moose using these two blades. The Buck did the majority of the work, including splitting hide and hair as well as separating sockets and cutting cartilage. I intentionally did not touch up either knife during the process of breaking down that moose. The Buck was noticeably sharper at the end of the job than the Crotts was. When you consider that you can get a Buck 110 in S30V for about a quarter of the Crotts, seems like a much better deal to me.

I have been looking forward to a review by you Dean! Interesting that your knife didnt seem to equal your old buck in edge retention and im certain you gave it a really fair shake! I must say your Crotts is a stunningly beautiful knife! But beauty doesnt get the job done.. i find it interesting that the buck S30v out performed the D2 by such a margin. While i dont have a custom in d2 i do have many pocket knives in D2 and a few factory hunting knives as well also had some in S30v( they have been moved on as gifts to friends) my two customs are in magnacut and i have been very impressed overall. Thanks for taking the time to post this and i sure do miss your knowledge and participation on AO the last year.. hope 2024 brings you another fantastic year!

[Dean2]

Originally Posted by obsessed1

I have been looking forward to a review by you Dean! Interesting that your knife didnt seem to equal your old buck in edge retention and im certain you gave it a really fair shake! I must say your Crotts is a stunningly beautiful knife! But beauty doesnt get the job done.. i find it interesting that the buck S30v out performed the D2 by such a margin. While i dont have a custom in d2 i do have many pocket knives in D2 and a few factory hunting knives as well also had some in S30v( they have been moved on as gifts to friends) my two customs are in magnacut and i have been very impressed overall. Thanks for taking the time to post this and i sure do miss your knowledge and participation on AO the last year.. hope 2024 brings you another fantastic year!

I should have been clearer, we have now done three moose, 2 elk and 3 deer using the same two knife system. In each case, the Buck had a MUCH sharper edge, though it wasn't as distinctly noticeable after doing a deer. Both knives were touched up between each animal, did not try to do more than one without putting the edge back to razor sharp on both. Cleaning is enough work as it is, goes much better with really sharp knives. My hunting partner is now so convinced at how good the S30V steel holds up that he got me to pick him up a Buck 110 in S30V from another AO member that was selling one on here yesterday. He is going to retire his Old Timer 110 clone he has been using for 40 years. That knife is very easy to sharpen but it has always been softer than even the original Buck 110s, from the 70s and 80s, with the 62 Rockwell blades. His Old Timer is about the same hardness as the more recent 420C blades Buck has used on their everyday 110s.

[sns2]

Dean, thanks for taking the tie to share with us your impressions of your knife. Well written as usual. I will chime in and agree with Obsessed1 in that I too miss your knowledge and experience here, and hope to see more in 2024.

[M.C. Gusto]

Thank you for the update. I’ve had the same results in the past when comparing some knives I’ve used for skinning. My last two customs I choose s30v, magnacut might be my next blade steel. I’ll wait for future updates from this thread to decide.

[Irina]

Does anyone have experience with a cold steel master hunter knife?

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by Dean2

So after two years of using the Crotts semi Skinner, in the vaunted D2 steel with proprietary heat treating, I thought I would provide my thoughts. It however does NOT live up to its reputation for being an edge so long lasting you can do more than one animal without touching it up. Maybe 2 deer, but on moose, if you split the hide and hair, you are going to need to touch it up before you start working on the meat and skinning. Elk it holds up a bit better but their hide and hair are not as hard on an edge as Moose.

Dean, considering your experience falls so far outside of mine and many other experiences I would have to consider yours an anomaly. I’ve done far more elk then moose but I have done a pair of moose with mine. The last one I did I gutted, quartered, skinned and completely deboned the animal with my knife and it still shaved and easily cut paper cleanly with and across the grain. The fact you can’t get through an animal means it’s either something your doing or possibly a bad heat treat but I would highly doubt it’s the heat treat.

The logical thing to do would be unpack your experience. For starters, what are you sharpening it on (specific type of media) what angle (roughly) are you sharpening at, is it cleanly apexed and are you sure your not leaving a burr or “wire edge”?

[sns2]

A funny knife story I read on 24hr Campfire…

My favorite cutting story was when I was up in Canada in the fish cleaning house with another guy from another camp cleaning our fish. The camp owner happened to walk in for something and saw the guy cutting toward himself and proceeded to dress the guy up and down about safety proper cutting procedures. When he was done the guy said that how he did it seemed to work well enough at work. Oh, yeah the camp owner said, what do you do? "I'm the pathologist for the city of Denver."
"Oh", quick exit for the camp owner. He must have figured that the guy was qualified to fillet a walleye

[Pathfinder76]

Another one. I’m liking Magnacut!

[kevpack]

Strictly as a skinner, the old Schade 15 OT "Deerslayer", middle, with its long, curved, trailing edge carbon steel glides between meat and hide like the proverbial hot knife through butter but for gutting first place for me is the gutting blade on the Browning folder 503 on the bottom.
For nostalgia is the 1967 produced "Hunter's Pal" by Puma, of course.
These are all old school softer steels than the modern "Super Steels", of which I own and love several, but all of them can get through at least one critter without so much as a touch up and when they do need a resharpen it can happen in the field in minutes - not the 3 days of erosion my M390 takes, lol.

[DirtShooter]

Originally Posted by Pathfinder76

Another one. I’m liking Magnacut!

After seeing what your kids shot the suspense of what you shot is killing me haha.

[Pathfinder76]

You would be very disappointed. lol.

[Dom4]

You guys are making me excited to get my knives now... I can hardly wait.

[sns2]

Originally Posted by Dom4

You guys are making me excited to get my knives now... I can hardly wait.

What color scales did you order?

[Dom4]

Originally Posted by sns2

What color scales did you order?

I ordered these on the 4” hunter.

I just loved the colours of this handle.

Then black scales with orange liners for my brother.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by kevpack

Strictly as a skinner, the old Schade 15 OT "Deerslayer", middle, with its long, curved, trailing edge carbon steel glides between meat and hide like the proverbial hot knife through butter but for gutting first place for me is the gutting blade on the Browning folder 503 on the bottom.
For nostalgia is the 1967 produced "Hunter's Pal" by Puma, of course.
These are all old school softer steels than the modern "Super Steels", of which I own and love several, but all of them can get through at least one critter without so much as a touch up and when they do need a resharpen it can happen in the field in minutes - not the 3 days of erosion my M390 takes, lol.

I've got a number of old skinners with that upswept pointy tip, and while I do agree that they do well when skinning, I dont really like using them to split the legs. Hard to keep that upswept tip from slicing into the meat. Thats probably my favorite thing about the Grohmann design, between the sharp point and curved spine the geometry is pretty much perfect for splitting the hide on the legs without ever getting into the meat... and the same can be said when feild dressing. The curved cutting edge does a good job skinning too.

IMO its basically all the best features of both a clip and drop point in one knife, but superior to both... JMO.

[sns2]

Originally Posted by Dom4

I ordered these on the 4” hunter.

I just loved the colours of this handle.

Then black scales with orange liners for my brother.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That knife in the pic is my buddy’s. I have sharpened it. You will be happy with your choice.

[Dom4]

Originally Posted by sns2

That knife in the pic is my buddy’s. I have sharpened it. You will be happy with your choice.

I have never felt the canvas micarta but I am very excited to see how it is. I have heard that it provides lots of grip.

[sns2]

Originally Posted by Dom4

I have never felt the canvas micarta but I am very excited to see how it is. I have heard that it provides lots of grip.

Yes, and even moreso when wet.

[badbrass]

Yes! got one more coming from Phil McCracken! With the burl wood! and magnacut!

Originally Posted by Pathfinder76

Another one. I’m liking Magnacut!