Best Skinning knife for $200

[Coiloil37]

For my money I don’t like acid washed, patina or mirror polished. However, the scratch pattern MUST be consistent and perpendicular to the cutting edge. If the scratch pattern is haphazard, parallel to the cutting edge or inconsistent I don’t like it and wouldn’t consider owning it.

I’m also aware lots of guys love the acid wash and patina or mirror polished look. For what I see of those blades the acid wash looks good. Not my style but they look as good as any I’ve seen.

[Pathfinder76]

I just picked up anther D2 Dozier fixed blade for an EDC type arrangement. I’m not generally hard on things, but we will see how it holds up to harder use than I would normally subject a hunting knife to.

[badbrass]

Originally Posted by Pathfinder76

I just picked up anther D2 Dozier fixed blade for an EDC type arrangement. I’m not generally hard on things, but we will see how it holds up to harder use than I would normally subject a hunting knife to.

So what exactly are you going
To give it a hard working over? In what way?

[Pathfinder76]

No, but you use an everyday knife a little differently than a hunting knife.

[fishnguy]

So here goes some crazy stuff, lol. Not sure if anyone would appreciate these as much as I did, but here goes.

My in-laws bought this microscope for my kids for Christmas. We looked at gazillion different things, cool stuff. Reminded me my biology classes in school. Today, of course, I slid a few knives in there to take a look. Not sure what took me so long, lol.



Here are a few pics. This is one is a handmade knife (Robert Erickson), the one in the photo above. You can see the grind going parallel to the edge (no edge in this pic, just the blade surface). All pics - thus, knives - will be oriented in the same way so you can compare the grinds.



Amazingly perfect lines, no? Robert does a great job. Here is the edge that, after the last sharpening, I only used to cut some cardboard with, some other things, but nothing really rough, I don’t think. The steel is AEBL. Look at those chunks missing!



Note that you can clearly see the bevel on that pic.

This is the surface of a knife made by Dan Crotts that I posted sometime earlier in this thread. The grind is clearly perpendicular to the edge.



Here is the edge. You can clearly see it was machine sharpened. I have never used the knife, aside from cutting some paper maybe (?). The steel is Elmax, but makes no big difference here, I guess.



Here is the blade of a kitchen knife made by Buck for Americraft. I have no idea what the steel is. Not the best pic.



Here is the edge. I do not believe I have used the knife after sharpening aside from cutting some paper (I hardly ever use it because it is heavy and just not as comfortable as my other kitchen knives). You can see the bevel here as well, but it is significantly less pronounced than on the Erickson knife.



Here is another one. This is a Victorinox utility knife.



The knife is used daily for cutting fruit and other tasks in the kitchen. I would say that this is probably the most used knife in our kitchen. I sharpened it not that long ago and, I think, I ran it on steel yesterday or the day before. Not sure if this the burr from steel you can see or the edge is starting to go. The knife is very sharp (maybe it won’t shave, but it will slice paper in any direction you want it to, I am sure).



This is stonewashed finish on a Carothers knife. Not exactly interesting.



Here is the edge that was clearly machine sharpened. Note the perfection of that edge though. They make some amazing work at Carothers. The steel is 3V (what they call Delta 3v due to their proprietary heat treatment), but probably doesn’t make much difference for the purpose of the pics. The knife was never sharpened by me and I had only ever sliced a few pieces of paper with it.



Here is one more. This is the surface of a Spyderco knife.



Here is the edge that never cut anything, I don’t think.



I don’t really have any knives that are truly in bad shape or even remotely close, lol, but this one is probably is as close as it can get to it in my house. I don’t remember the last time I sharpened it (pretty sure it was sharpened with Lansky years ago), but I also do not remember the last time I used it. This is also a Buck-made Americraft knife. Here is it’s edge. You can see the difference between this, new, and knives that are taken care of.



Not sure if anyone cares, but I thought it is pretty cool. I did look at more knives, lol, but this is probably enough pictures (I didn’t take any others either).

[fishnguy]

After posting, I remembered about this knife that I have and, surprisingly, easily found it. I know for a fact this one hasn’t been used for a long time (probably… 12-13 years) and have never been taken care of that well when it was used. Can’t read the steel (even though it is there), but I see it says Stainless Japan. Given it is a Cold Steel knife and Japan, probably a VG-1, -2, -10? I don’t know. Whatever. The interesting thing I noticed when I looked at it is this:



Rust! Lol. Funny enough, the knife looks… not pristine, but all nice and shiny, some scratches here and there, but there is no way you would see any rust with a naked eye, it looks clean. The rust is also only in the micro-scratches. Think of it next time your (especially carbon steel) knife looks nice and clean. Not that it particularly matters, perhaps.

Anyway, here is the edge it had. Not the dullest I have seen, it could still cut more or less. Couldn't cut paper at all though, not even close.



You can clearly see it is dull.

I quickly sharpened it without putting too much effort into it (I think I went 220 -> 600 -> ceramic honing rod). Not crazy sharp, but it will cut your fingers and paper, straight, curly, whatever.

Here is the edge after:



And lower magnification to show the entire edge (about 20 degrees per side):



Anyway, I thought it is all pretty neat.

Here is a lame bonus. This is linen micarta on the Crotts knife:



This is canvas micarta on another knife (none of the above):



Ok, that is it with this microscope stuff. Unless! I’ll actually make the highest magnification work, lol. Can’t make it work to save my life, probably. It’s a cheap piece of equipment, but very well could be me that is the problem.

[Phil McCracken]

^^^

Very interesting pics. Thanx for sharing...

[CNP]

My old and slow laptop needs a pacemaker after all the bandwidth it had to sort through lol.

Yes interesting pics

Coiloil in a post not far above yours claims to prefer knives with perpendicular grind lines. You show an Erickson knife with parallel grind lines and perpendicular lines on a Crotts knife. It got me to thinking about how many (most?) knife makers spend considerable time and effort in sanding out those perpendicular grind lines and eliminating all grind lines as much as possible. Some knifemakers will say that perpendicular grind lines aren't finished knives. I'm not saying that, but there is a suggestion out there that perpendicular grind lines shouldn't be visible (by the naked eye) on a knife.

I do my best to sand out the perpendicular lines. It's work that I don't enjoy but tend to think it's a necessary evil. After some of the comments here, I will be making some knives that will show perpendicular grind lines and see how that gets judged by the critics.

[graybeard]

Fishnguy:
That is pretty cool, thanks for the pictures.

What is the approximate power of your microscope to see the blade surface like that?
Thanks,
GB

[Phil McCracken]

Originally Posted by CNP

My old and slow laptop needs a pacemaker after all the bandwidth it had to sort through lol.

Yes interesting pics

Coiloil in a post not far above yours claims to prefer knives with perpendicular grind lines. You show an Erickson knife with parallel grind lines and perpendicular lines on a Crotts knife. It got me to thinking about how many (most?) knife makers spend considerable time and effort in sanding out those perpendicular grind lines and eliminating all grind lines as much as possible. Some knifemakers will say that perpendicular grind lines aren't finished knives. I'm not saying that, but there is a suggestion out there that perpendicular grind lines shouldn't be visible (by the naked eye) on a knife.

I do my best to sand out the perpendicular lines. It's work that I don't enjoy but tend to think it's a necessary evil. After some of the comments here, I will be making some knives that will show perpendicular grind lines and see how that gets judged by the critics.

Same here...

Personally, I will stick to a parallel sanded finish...

[fishnguy]

Originally Posted by CNP

My old and slow laptop needs a pacemaker after all the bandwidth it had to sort through lol.

Lol. Sorry about that. I have been debating to resize them to much smaller, but then thought some may be interested in expanding and seeing the actual size for detail. Not sure, lol.

Originally Posted by graybeard

Fishnguy:
That is pretty cool, thanks for the pictures.

What is the approximate power of your microscope to see the blade surface like that?
Thanks,
GB

It says x25 of the eyepiece and the objective is x10, so x250. Except for the last pic, showing the entire edge, which was taken when looking through the x4 objective lens. But it is a pretty cheap (I would guess less than $100) piece of equipment, so I wouldn’t necessarily rely on those numbers.


As for the sanding and grind, can’t say I particularly care. The hand-sanded blade brings some to finish (to some), but I do not see it as any value for me personally on a knife I am going to use. Of course, rough perpendicular lines are no bueno either, but a nice finish will do. In addition, it will probably add quite a bit to the price of a knife made out of, say, s90v, lol.

Erickson just posted a couple of knives with perpendicular line as well:



Probably all depends on the design and size (those two look quite a bit larger than what I have, although the same steel).

Can’t say I wouldn’t buy a knife simply because the lines aren’t going the same way I prefer. I like a stonewashed look myself as well. But neither would be the deciding factor, really. As you can see, I posted one of each, as well some stamped blades.

Edit: I should add that I probably would not buy an overly expensive knife for use with a mirror finish though. I may only have one such custom knife (not even sure) and maybe one or two old Puma’s that aren’t going to be used any time soon, not by me anyway.

[DirtShooter]

Originally Posted by Pathfinder76

I just picked up anther D2 Dozier fixed blade for an EDC type arrangement. I’m not generally hard on things, but we will see how it holds up to harder use than I would normally subject a hunting knife to.

Make sure to bushwack with it.

[Boatbuilder]

I like the scratch pattern to go the length way on my blades. Much easier to hand sand this way. Gives a much cleaner look to me.
Jim

[obsessed1]

Originally Posted by Pathfinder76

I just picked up anther D2 Dozier fixed blade for an EDC type arrangement. I’m not generally hard on things, but we will see how it holds up to harder use than I would normally subject a hunting knife to.

What knife pattern did you choose for an edc ?

[sns2]

Originally Posted by obsessed1

What knife pattern did you choose for an edc ?

I think he may have gone with an 8” cleaver. Not 100% sure though.

[Pathfinder76]

Lol. That does have some utility.

I grabbed a small evo hunter.

[Pathfinder76]

[Athabasca1]

Pathfinder76; very nice knife.

[Phil McCracken]

Nice Pathfinder. How long is the blade?...

[Pathfinder76]

Thanks. 2.75”

[Boatbuilder]

Originally Posted by CNP

My old and slow laptop needs a pacemaker after all the bandwidth it had to sort through lol.

Yes interesting pics

Coiloil in a post not far above yours claims to prefer knives with perpendicular grind lines. You show an Erickson knife with parallel grind lines and perpendicular lines on a Crotts knife. It got me to thinking about how many (most?) knife makers spend considerable time and effort in sanding out those perpendicular grind lines and eliminating all grind lines as much as possible. Some knifemakers will say that perpendicular grind lines aren't finished knives. I'm not saying that, but there is a suggestion out there that perpendicular grind lines shouldn't be visible (by the naked eye) on a knife.

I do my best to sand out the perpendicular lines. It's work that I don't enjoy but tend to think it's a necessary evil. After some of the comments here, I will be making some knives that will show perpendicular grind lines and see how that gets judged by the critics.

Its all a matter of preference for everyone. Its a lot easier to sand the blade lengthwise than perpendicular. Most people won't try to hand sand the lines perpendicular. They just leave it after grinding

[spurly]

Originally Posted by Pathfinder76

Very nice little knfe

[Dom4]

Originally Posted by Pathfinder76

Very nice looking piece! Is that your creation?


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[Pathfinder76]

It’s a Dozier knife.

[obsessed1]

That's a cute little stubby. You going to rig it for pocket carry?

[Pathfinder76]

I might make a kidney worn pancake sheath for it.

[Dom4]

Do any of you guys have any experience with Ron Post knives out of Ontario. I have been looking at them and the designs are very appealing to me. I’d love to know if any of you have any experience with them?


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[sns2]

Originally Posted by Dom4

Do any of you guys have any experience with Ron Post knives out of Ontario. I have been looking at them and the designs are very appealing to me. I’d love to know if any of you have any experience with them?


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His knives are very popular with the trapping crowd, as well as guys on CGN. I spoke with him a year ago, and he seems a nice fellow. I also noticed that Halford Hides carry his knives. Good luck.

https://www.halfordsmailorder.com/pr...qs=Post+knives

[Dom4]

Originally Posted by sns2

His knives are very popular with the trapping crowd, as well as guys on CGN. I spoke with him a year ago, and he seems a nice fellow. I also noticed that Halford Hides carry his knives. Good luck.

https://www.halfordsmailorder.com/pr...qs=Post+knives

Thank you I’m looking at getting myself one and my dad a custom one for his birthday coming up. I haven’t read a bad review yet so I might just have to do it. Thanks for the insight I appreciate it.


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[spurly]

Originally Posted by spurly

Very nice little knfe

What model is this one?