Production folders and one custom.

[wsdstan]

Here are a few of the folders that are suitable for most hunting and bushcraft tasks.  My preference has always been fixed blades but there is no question that there are a lot of folding knives that would do as well.



From the top down:

Buck 110 with "epoxy paper" handle.  A very light frame lock.  The 110 style has been made for a long time and Buck's Custom Shop makes some dandy ones.  My first hunting knife was a rosewood handled 110 and I still have it although this lightweight version is a good skinner and dressing knife.  3 3/16" blade.

Buck 112 with rosewood handles.  This is a frame lock with a 2 3/4" cutting edge.  This one came in a trade and is a shorter blade than the 110 but works well.  It is heavy and comfortable in hand.

Buck 422 with plastic handle with molded finger grips.  2 5/8" cutting edge. Frame lock very similar to the 112 above it.  Slight difference in blade shape but a good deer knife and I carry this knife in my ATV most of the time.

Gerber 4660815A   3 3/16" liner lock blade.  Nice knife for EDC as it is light and wears well in a jeans pocket.  Synthetic scales with good texture.  There are better deer knives but this one would get the job done if it was all you had.

Opinel No.8 with a 3 1/4" blade.  A gift from a friend I sure wish lived closer to where I am.  Wood handle and a twist lock.  One of the easiest knives to sharpen and it is pretty good in the kitchen and around the camp for cooking and whittling.  It would not be my first choice for a deer knife but I like to carry it around at times.  Blade is carbon and stains easily. 

Gerber 97223 frame lock with a 3 1/8" cutting edge.  Brass frame with Rosewood inserts.  I like this knife as it was given to me about 35 years ago for a Christmas gift and for a time was probably the best knife I owned.  It was made at a time when nobody had clips on their folders or used a sheath to carry it in.  A bit heavy in dress pants but since I don't wear them in my retirement years it carries just fine in a jeans pocket. 

Case Trapper with a 3" cutting blade and a 3" spey blade.  Traditional yellow handles, probably Delrin plastic, with stainless bolsters.  Spey blades might have been useful back when you were sterilizing heifers you wanted to put some weight on prior to sale but nobody I know uses this method these days.  This knife would be far more useful with another short cutting blade or an awl of some type.  It fits nicely in a small leather sheath and is used for cutting hay bale strings from round bales.  It is a good knife that would be better if they talked to the folks who really use them.  It is a friction folder and having cut myself a bit with non-locking knives I tend to use it very little.

A Kissing Cranes version of a small SAK.  Stag handles.  Stamped Robt Klass Solingen on 2 9/16 blade.  Has two cutting blades, a screwdriver bottle opener, a can opener, a corkscrew, and an awl.  Stainless steel marked Rostfrei.  This is also a friction folder.  One of those things you buy on impulse and in the five or six years I have had it I have not used it for anything, not even pulling a cork from a bottle of wine.  It would work around camp but be a poor deer knife.  Having no pliers a Leatherman of some kind is more useful than this one.  It is very well made and the scales are great and might be real stag.

This last knife at the bottom of the photo is a custom knife.  It might be what I would call an assembled knife as I doubt the maker did any blade work on this one.  He worked out of Cody Wyoming several years ago and didn't have a good go of it.  The damascus steel on this one is from an unknown source and is a liner lock.  I like the blade shape and the scales.  The scales were big horn sheep but the maker apparently only had one good one so he did one side correctly and the other he filed and painted with gold paint to look good.  It didn't.  I got this cheap in a trade with him for another knife and decided to file the scales down to good material.  I like it better this way. I use it a bit for but not for anything except cutting bale twine and sometimes cutting meat into strips after it is grilled. 

These are few of the knifes in my drawer and maybe some of you have some you could post in this thread. 

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

For most of my adult life my goto belt knife was a Schrade LB7 in one or another of its Uncle Henry or Schrade configurations.  I've used them for most everything a knife can be used for and more than a few things they should not be used for.  I bought a few of them new but picked most of them up at garage sales.  I've given them as Christmas, birthday and "Coming of age" presents.  I think I've probably still got every one I ever used.  To date, I've never had one break or become lost.  I've had them loosen up some and when Schrade was still Schrade, they would fix them and send them back. 

Schrade made good utility knifes and a few nice ones too.  I have always particularly liked the carbon steel blades.  Easy to sharpen. 

When I was about 12 I spent the bertter part of one afternoon hiking around a dove field with my Eastern Arms dogleg 410.  I didn't get any doves but I shot about 4 boxes of shells and kept the birds moving for the men hunters.  At the end of it as we were plucking doves (I got to help do that even though I hadn't contributed to the pot), one of my dad's friends handed me a little brown box.  He said, "You're going to need that for this next part.  Keep it, take care of it". It was a Schrade-Walden 3 blade Stockman.  I still have it too....



Alan

[Plumber]

Here are a few of the folders that are suitable for most hunting and bushcraft tasks.  My preference has always been fixed blades but there is no question that there are a lot of folding knives that would do as well.



From the top down:

Buck 110 with "epoxy paper" handle.  A very light frame lock.  The 110 style has been made for a long time and Buck's Custom Shop makes some dandy ones.  My first hunting knife was a rosewood handled 110 and I still have it although this lightweight version is a good skinner and dressing knife.  3 3/16" blade.

Buck 112 with rosewood handles.  This is a frame lock with a 2 3/4" cutting edge.  This one came in a trade and is a shorter blade than the 110 but works well.  It is heavy and comfortable in hand.

Buck 422 with plastic handle with molded finger grips.  2 5/8" cutting edge. Frame lock very similar to the 112 above it.  Slight difference in blade shape but a good deer knife and I carry this knife in my ATV most of the time.

Gerber 4660815A   3 3/16" liner lock blade.  Nice knife for EDC as it is light and wears well in a jeans pocket.  Synthetic scales with good texture.  There are better deer knives but this one would get the job done if it was all you had.

Opinel No.8 with a 3 1/4" blade.  A gift from a friend I sure wish lived closer to where I am.  Wood handle and a twist lock.  One of the easiest knives to sharpen and it is pretty good in the kitchen and around the camp for cooking and whittling.  It would not be my first choice for a deer knife but I like to carry it around at times.  Blade is carbon and stains easily. 

Gerber 97223 frame lock with a 3 1/8" cutting edge.  Brass frame with Rosewood inserts.  I like this knife as it was given to me about 35 years ago for a Christmas gift and for a time was probably the best knife I owned.  It was made at a time when nobody had clips on their folders or used a sheath to carry it in.  A bit heavy in dress pants but since I don't wear them in my retirement years it carries just fine in a jeans pocket. 

Case Trapper with a 3" cutting blade and a 3" spey blade.  Traditional yellow handles, probably Delrin plastic, with stainless bolsters.  Spey blades might have been useful back when you were sterilizing heifers you wanted to put some weight on prior to sale but nobody I know uses this method these days.  This knife would be far more useful with another short cutting blade or an awl of some type.  It fits nicely in a small leather sheath and is used for cutting hay bale strings from round bales.  It is a good knife that would be better if they talked to the folks who really use them.  It is a friction folder and having cut myself a bit with non-locking knives I tend to use it very little.

A Kissing Cranes version of a small SAK.  Stag handles.  Stamped Robt Klass Solingen on 2 9/16 blade.  Has two cutting blades, a screwdriver bottle opener, a can opener, a corkscrew, and an awl.  Stainless steel marked Rostfrei.  This is also a friction folder.  One of those things you buy on impulse and in the five or six years I have had it I have not used it for anything, not even pulling a cork from a bottle of wine.  It would work around camp but be a poor deer knife.  Having no pliers a Leatherman of some kind is more useful than this one.  It is very well made and the scales are great and might be real stag.

This last knife at the bottom of the photo is a custom knife.  It might be what I would call an assembled knife as I doubt the maker did any blade work on this one.  He worked out of Cody Wyoming several years ago and didn't have a good go of it.  The damascus steel on this one is from an unknown source and is a liner lock.  I like the blade shape and the scales.  The scales were big horn sheep but the maker apparently only had one good one so he did one side correctly and the other he filed and painted with gold paint to look good.  It didn't.  I got this cheap in a trade with him for another knife and decided to file the scales down to good material.  I like it better this way. I use it a bit for but not for anything except cutting bale twine and sometimes cutting meat into strips after it is grilled. 

These are few of the knifes in my drawer and maybe some of you have some you could post in this thread.

I had a Case trapper like yours, but sold it to a friend from Chile. Now I'm down to two Trappers. 

That blade you don't like works for skinning mink.

[wsdstan]

Those are nice.  I like the scales on the bottom one but the top one looks like an earlier model.

I have talked with a few ranchers about the spey blade.  A few of them said they knew their grandfathers used them but most said they never saw anybody use one on a cow.

My uncle raised mink after WWII in the mountains of Colorado.  I never talked to him about skinning them.  He did it for a few years but the difficulty in obtaining meat for the mink wore him out in a short time.  He passed on a few years back so I can't ask him.  I can see the use for fine detail work with the sharp end of the blade which probably gives you good reach in tight places.

[wsdstan]

Alan I had similar experiences with doves shooting my Winchester model 37 and averaging about no doves per box the first year I went.  Nobody gave me a knife though.   

[Plumber]

Those are nice.  I like the scales on the bottom one but the top one looks like an earlier model.

I have talked with a few ranchers about the spey blade.  A few of them said they knew their grandfathers used them but most said they never saw anybody use one on a cow.

My uncle raised mink after WWII in the mountains of Colorado.  I never talked to him about skinning them.  He did it for a few years but the difficulty in obtaining meat for the mink wore him out in a short time.  He passed on a few years back so I can't ask him.  I can see the use for fine detail work with the sharp end of the blade which probably gives you good reach in tight places.

When I broke my first Trapper, Buck replaced it in 1971, and that's the one on top.

[Plumber]

I have a lot of respect for anyone who raises mink. I don't think there is a harder animal to skin. 

[wsdstan]

I have never skinned one although last winter I thought I might get one that lives in out marsh above our irrigation reservoir.  Wasn't to be.

[Plumber]

It took a while to find a picture of the Case Trapper I sold.

[wsdstan]

That looks to be XX model, much better steel and material for the scales than the one I have.