Finally, got to use my own knife!
- Thread starter Self Made Knives
- Start date
Justin Presson
Well-Known Member
Awesome man! But wait its not bloody...pic doesn't count
Ed of all trades
Well-Known Member
The deer doesn't count. You forgot to untie it before you took the pic. Not fair shooting a deer that someone tied up for you! Glad you got to use your knife, looks like a good one. Ed
Self Made Knives
Well-Known Member
Ha! Hey, yeah, blood would've been better for sure, but I was a long way from the truck and didn't want a bloody phone too. That knife is almost too pretty to get bloody.:biggrin:
Last edited:
Daniel Rohde
Well-Known Member
That great! nothing like getting to use your own knives to do some work!
bladegrinder
Well-Known Member
Congrats on the deer Self. no more pictures though?
MVPeterson
Well-Known Member
Congrats!
Justmatt76
Member
That's awesome, nice knife and congtrats on the deer.
Self Made Knives
Well-Known Member
Knife review. Can you give an objective knife review of one you made yourself? I'm not sure, but here it goes. After I found the buck, I field dressed him (gutted) and drug him back to a clearing. Once home, I hung him and then skinned it. Quartered him, got backstraps, and inner backstraps. Once in the house, none of the wife's kitchen knives were sharp enough, so I just kept using my knife and ended up butchering and packing up the whole deer with it.
First thing, size. I've got really big hands and this knife was made to fit me, so its a little on the large side. The size was great for skinning, awesome for quartering and backstraps. Gutting was fine for the most part, except the knife did seem kind of big to reach in for the windpipe. This deer wasn't real big either, so maybe that was part of it. This blade really wasn't designed for butchering, so it was obviously a little short for that. I did struggle trying to cut larger steaks with it, cutting edge just too short for that.
Second thing, design and finish. I love the design, very secure in the hand, makes skinning and quartering a breeze. Maybe I'm biased? Love the design. One thing I did notice though, it was kind of slick when it was wet with blood. It has highly polished, stabilized giraffe bone scales. Not real bad, but a couple times I did think I wish it wasn't quite so slick.
Last thing, blade steel. This one is 14c28n. FREAKING AWESOME STEEL!!! I was talking with Chuck at Alpha Knife and he said he didn't think it was all that great. He said he wasn't really planning on ordering anymore of it and suggested I switch to something else. I heat treated it myself and did an acetone/dry ice cryo on it. I didn't have a hardness tester then, but I tempered it to be around 60rc or so per the specs. I'm not exaggerating, this stuff slices meat like it was jello. Even after gutting, skinning, quartering, and butchering the whole deer, it was still extremely sharp. Not sure why Chuck doesn't care for it, I love it.
Overall impression was this is a very good knife for a deer hunter. I might make a smaller matching caper to go with it one of the days, but I was very happy with its performance. I've put the pics on here before, but for those of you who might not know what knife I'm talking about....
First thing, size. I've got really big hands and this knife was made to fit me, so its a little on the large side. The size was great for skinning, awesome for quartering and backstraps. Gutting was fine for the most part, except the knife did seem kind of big to reach in for the windpipe. This deer wasn't real big either, so maybe that was part of it. This blade really wasn't designed for butchering, so it was obviously a little short for that. I did struggle trying to cut larger steaks with it, cutting edge just too short for that.
Second thing, design and finish. I love the design, very secure in the hand, makes skinning and quartering a breeze. Maybe I'm biased? Love the design. One thing I did notice though, it was kind of slick when it was wet with blood. It has highly polished, stabilized giraffe bone scales. Not real bad, but a couple times I did think I wish it wasn't quite so slick.
Last thing, blade steel. This one is 14c28n. FREAKING AWESOME STEEL!!! I was talking with Chuck at Alpha Knife and he said he didn't think it was all that great. He said he wasn't really planning on ordering anymore of it and suggested I switch to something else. I heat treated it myself and did an acetone/dry ice cryo on it. I didn't have a hardness tester then, but I tempered it to be around 60rc or so per the specs. I'm not exaggerating, this stuff slices meat like it was jello. Even after gutting, skinning, quartering, and butchering the whole deer, it was still extremely sharp. Not sure why Chuck doesn't care for it, I love it.
Overall impression was this is a very good knife for a deer hunter. I might make a smaller matching caper to go with it one of the days, but I was very happy with its performance. I've put the pics on here before, but for those of you who might not know what knife I'm talking about....
