Preparing for any sport is important Hunting is no exception. Gathering the clothing and equipment needed and making sure that the gear is ready to be used properly. Guns cleaned, Bows sighted in blades sharp not only on the arrows but, on your knife blade as well. No matter the type of game that you are hunting if it is a successful hunt, your hunting knife will need to go to work for you.  If you are skinning your game to be mounted you may need a couple different blades to cape out the animal hide. If you are skinning to preparing the meat and de-boning the meat you may use the same type of blade but, would want more than one knife to speed up the butchering processing by not having to stop and sharpen your knife blade for the cutting of the meat from the bone. 

I heard from Grandfather when I was a very young man, that it is a dull knife that will cut you. As I have grown I find that statement to be true. First if you known that the knife in your hand is sharp and not a butter knife you are going respect that tool and take care in its proper use. If your knife is as dull as that kitchen butter knife you will use more force to cut something and possibly have the knife slip and now you have just cut yourself.

I try to keep all of my knives sharp and ready for use. The reason I said all of my knives is because if I was going squirrel hunting I would not take my deer / elk hunting knife and if I was going bear hunting I would not take my bird folding pocket knife. Having the right tool for the job makes the work go easier and hunting is no exception the right tool or knife is important in the closing out your hunt.

When you are finished using your knife it is important to clean it as soon as you can. Two reasons when preparing food and especially meat you do not want the bacteria lingering on your knife just waiting for the next time you need to use your knife. You do not what that hunting tool to be all rusted and cutting meat you are trying to prepare to eat.   You can sharpen that knife or any knife when you get a chance but, cleanliness is next to godliness; keep your knives clean and ready for the next time that you will need it.

I am older now and have a small collection of different hunting knife for the different type of hunt that I am lucky enough to go on. The first knife I bought was a fixed blade Buck knife for deer hunting. When I went rabbit hunting after deer season I looked a little out of place skinning my rabbit with my deer knife. Crocodile Dundee didn’t have anything on me looking back now. Hey it worked. Fried rabbit with mashed potatoes and gravy doesn’t get any better than that. Like hunting buddies say we love all wild game they’re great with mash potatoes, gravy and biscuits. So my next knife was a Schrade Old Timer folding pocket knife great for hunting small game and skinning raccoon. When I gotten the chance to go coon hunting. It was ten years or more before I bought another knife and to this day I do not have a large collection but think that I have the right tool for different hunts.

My Rabbit and Squirrel knife:  

       My Deer knife the first knife that I bought:

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 Upland bird hunting: 

  Turkey hunting:

Predator coyote and foxhunting:

Elk hunting and skinning knife:

Bear Hunting: These are some of the knives that I own and use some a lot more than others. Not because I do not want to but, because I cannot go off  Bear hunting or Elk hunting whenever I want too. Don’t you just hate it when WORK gets in the way? No wonder some say that it is a four letter word!! I have made a Bowie style hunting from scratch you can see it in my posting  Hand Made Hunting Knife at this site.

Early man even before the Stone Ages era was the creators of a primitive first knife. To more accurate necessity was the creator of the knife blade the sharpen edge of a rock, animal bones or sea shell could be used to cut things. If I was to break off small enough to carry around, then it could be used in many applications. This primitive knife helped in the gathering of food and preparing of it, to becoming a hunter and finding their prey to eat.

       The piece of sharpen rock or sea shell was fasten to a wooden handle at some point to make it into what we thinks a look like. Now you have a blade and a wooden handle, a real knife. This blade could be fastened to long stick and now become a great tool for hunting and protecting the group from harm. This was all done sometime before the time of ancient Egyptians.          

      Hoko Knife

Man started to work with metal this first metal works was with bronze. Bronze was formed into blades for knives and the entire knife was made of bronze. This was in the time of the Greeks and was also called the Bronze Age. 3300 -1200 BC

      Bronze knife   Bronze weapons and artifacts

By the time The Roman Empire was in command ironwork had been developed and Steel was being used in the building of knife blades.  

   Roman Knives

From that point and even today Steel is used in making of most knives.

  A Viking Knife for the Viking era around 800’s

 Viking Dagger

The development of the iron-working process has come a long way in the way we make steel or the different kind of steel from stainless steel to harder steel.  The way knives are manufactured by hand to being stamped out in large presses steel is still the main material used in the making of knife blade.

Handmade knives

People now days make knives by hand using craftsmanship or pride on making something out of raw material that is available to us all. Not many of us can say that we made anything we and put thing together but, to think it out, design it, fabricate it with material at hand, assemble it, polish and sharpen it to it is a useful tool, a knife that saying something.

Manufactured knives

There are great knife manufactures product knives day in and day at better quality than that can be produce by hand.  The sharpening angle and surface is a key component in having a great knife. Today’s machinery can produce, grind, sharpen and polish a lot quicker and with more accuracy that most people can do by hand.

 Additional History of the Knife can be found on this site and others on the web.

Ever since I was a very young man I have own a pocket knife. My father had given me a small Old Time pocket knife that folded to less than 3 inches. I can still remember whittling a piece wood into a floating goose on my first Clubs Scout camping trip it also was less than 3 inches by the time I stopped whittling to make it just right. The pride that I got from using that knife was a small step into the rite of passage from a boy towards being a man.

When I was a lot older I bought some very cheap folding knives and disassembled them to see what made a folding knife work. I never did quite get the right combination to make the quality knife that I wanted. I was very fortunate   to come across a man that when I was taking my Boiler Operator license test while we were all sweating in the July heat taking our test, the test examiner was very busy working away on something. When I finally finished with my exam and took it up to the instructor I could see a small folding blade pocket knife laying on piece of cloth that looked perfect to me. I asked him where did he buy such a good looking pocket knife?  The look I got at that moment I knew that I had just Failed my exam!  He then explained that he had made it by hand from start to finish and that I was the first person to see his work completed. I was honored to see such a fine piece of work on a knife. Mr. Leland Fulk was from Ohio that man could make a pocket knife that anyone would be proud to own.

I listen and looked over what Mr. Fulk had said, now with all this knowledge I start on my new knife. Well that did not happen I have come to terms that a folding pocket knife maker I am NOT.  I love hunting, so I guess my knife making project will have to be a hunting knife. I went to the gun cabinet and on the shelf I picked up my old hunting knife, a fixed blade Schrade –Walden and thought I can make  this.

 I had a friend find a piece of stainless steel that would be good for a blade. He worked for a stainless steel mill and picked me up a piece of scrap steel big enough for a knife blade.

I drew out the outline of the knife blade onto the steel and went to cut it out on the band-saw. That ended up being a very rough outline of a blade. I then started to grind the blade down to the finishing outline being careful not to overheat the blade and discolor the steel.

I found a couple of pieces of Walnut blocks of wood that I cut into half to make the wooden handles from. I drew the outline of what I want the handle to look like I made one whole handle out of each block of wood. I would have an extra handle incase I mess up on the first one.  If I didn’t, then I would already have a handle for my next knife. My glass is half full at this stage. The handle turn out the way I had imagined. I would that great care and cut the handle into two equal halves down the middle but not completely in two. Only deep enough so that the tang of the blade would seat into the handle and I would epoxy the blade into place when the time comes.

I made the Bolster is the thicker part of the blade that is against the handle out of chunk of copper that I had found. It was easy to cut and grind the copper into the shape that I was looking for.

Now I had to work on the sharpening angle of the blade. It was easier said than done to match the profile of the blade and curve of the blade. Once that was completed I worked and worked on polishing the blade. I thought it would be better to polish it now instead of after the knife was completely assembled. I finally gotten it to where I thought it was looking  great and a friend of mine said if you use croaks cloth that I would get an even better polished finish. He was right but some friend added more hours did I mention more hours to my hunting knife project.

Ok, Already to put this puppy together. Blade sanded and polished, Bolster polished and fitted onto the tang and against the blade, tang of the knife is epoxy into the walnut handle. The handle is a little higher than the tang but that is perfect. I can sand the handle down too match the blades tang perfectly. Let the epoxy set finish fine sanding the handle and tang to match up perfectly. Add tongue oil to the handle and Wet stone the blades knife edge.  Have a harness shop make a leather sheath. I have my first hunting Knife ready for Deer season. A friend took the knife to the local jeweler and engraved T.W.  N-88 (by Ted Waggoner November 1988)

I could not believe all the fun I was missing so two years later, I decided to made knife number two. It turned out very nice. I do not think I am going into mass production but, I do have two grandsons.

I hope that when they grow up that they will enjoy their first pocket knives that grandpa gets them. I will show them the proper use and care of a tool, their knife. When they take that rite of passage that all men do, I will share the two knives with them as a gift.

If you hunt, fish, camp or do anything outdoors and want to survive one of the tools to that survival or having a successful outing will be a knife.  The history of knives has evolving since the being of man and the Stone Ages.  When Hunters and Gatherers used sharpen edged broken off pieces of stone as a knife or the blade they held in their hand. Other primitive knives were made of animal bones and sea-shells sharpen using a stone. Sometime along the way man started to fasten a wooden handle onto their makeshift blade before the time of ancient Egyptians. Then there was the Bronze era around the time of our Greek ancestor’s the knife blades were made of bronze. When The Romans were in command steel was used for a blades. We use different forms of steel but, even today most knives are made of steel.

The Parts of a Knife, most of us think there is a blade and a handle that is what makes a knife but, there are other parts that are important in the makeup of a knife.

The Point of a knife is the very tip of the blade it can be a clip point, drop point, bowie and Gut hook to name a few.

The Tang, this is the extension of the blade that fits into the handle.  A folding knife does not have a tang because the blade is not inside the handle.

The Bolster is the thicker part of the blade that is against the handle.

The Sharpening Angle is the angle from the blades edge to the where the knife can be sharpened. A dagger sharpening angle is from the blades edge to the middle of the blade on both sides. The sharper the knife, the lower the angle and longer the surface area is needed to be sharpened.

The Profile is the basic shape of the blade.

The Pommel or Butt is the weighted end of the knife some knife use this weight to blade knife. With the blade being made of steel and the handle out of wood or a lighter material the blade end would feel heavy toward the point making it harder to carry and use.

The type of cut the knife makes when used or groove it cuts is called a Kerfs. (A cut or the width of a cut made by an ax, saw, or cutting tool)

Type of Kinves

Hunting Knives: Fixed blade, Folding blade, Skinning blade, Gut Hook blade, Bone saw blade, Serrated blade and even the Arkansas tooth pick or better known as the Bowie knife is used for hunting.

Fishing Knives or Fillet knives are used for cleaning fish and are used in hunting for deboning the meat. 

Survival Knife or military knife are use to survive in many application of the wild.

Proper Care of any Knife

Like anything made of steel, if you what it to last you will need to take proper care of it.   After using any knife you will want to clean it as soon as you can. Hunting and fishing or even cooking knives the blood, body fluids, scales and meat are very hard or corrosive to the blade and metal parts of your knife.  Wash it and dry it and store it away.

Use your knife as the tool it was meant to be for. If you need something to pry with use a pry bar, if you need something to dig with get a shovel of a sharp stick. A Knife is a knife.

The most important in the proper care of your knife is keeping it sharp. There are many way to keep your knife sharp. My mother would use her croak pot lid and run the blade of her meat cutting knives across the top of that croak pot until all of the knives were sharp and ready to be use for butchering the beef or hog and when she one of having trouble in the process she would take that knife hand you a sharp one shake her head and go sharpen that knife. There are many different sharpeners out there, some are great, and some can ruin that favorite knife you are so proud of.  This is a matter of person choice. I use a hand stone to sharpen my favorite pocket, hunting, fishing and cooking knives. I use Pedestal mount sharpening kit for the everyday steak knives it is quicker than and not as personal as when I use the hand wet stone for my favorite knives.

Owning a Knife it is a bonding or rite of passage towards becoming a hunter and not just a gatherer.  Can you remember being a young man or woman sitting on a stump whittling a stick into a very small toothpick, making mothers shake at the thought of you cutting your finger off in the process. Learning to respect and use the tool, a knife the way it was intended to be used.

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