A hunting knife is usually used to hunt animals or birds, the hunting knife is most famous among the people whose hobby is hunting. In general, the word hunting stands for the killing of the living animals usually it is the wild animals, which is the hunt for the food, trade purpose which can be export, recreation, etc…
While selecting hunting knife there are many elements which should be kept in the mind like the length of the blade, the thickness of the blade, shape of the blade which plays an important role and depends on the type of hunt you are going for, the blade grind, what is the material used for the handle and the shape of the handle, the type of tang and steel.
Blade length of Hunting knife
Usually, for games, the length of the blade is 3.5-4.5”, it is suggested only for the experts to use these types of knives. While hunting was the 1-2” of the blade that is the cutting edge gets pierced into the animal. The thickness of the blade is 1/8” with 5/32” which makes your knife flexible and the geometry supports the purpose of hunting where the grip is good.
The shape of the blade is very important for the hunting and these factors are kept in the mind when we go for a hunting knife that is a point of the spear, drop point of the knife, clip point of the knife, upswept point of the knife you are using and the skinning of the knife. Only the experts can use any one of the above mentioned more efficiently. In most cases, the shape of the hunting knife is a personal choice.
Other than the shape of the blade, Blades are also divided into fixed blade hunting knife and folding blade hunting which you can further study in “Best hunting knife buying guide”.
Grinds
They are of 4 types that are hollow, flat, convex grid, Sabre. All the mentioned grinds have their advantages and disadvantages.
The hollow grind is made by taking the two concave scoops out of the blade side. This is the most commonly used method in today’s world. The hollow grind should be done with full concentration if something goes wrong then this will become the worst among the grind and if it is done well then this will be the best grind. There are very few well done commercially available hollow grind blades.
The hollow grid is also easy to sharpen since it has a thin edge, the other factor which is to be kept in mind is, thinner edges are more week. This grinding is not commonly used in hunting as it can’t penetrate too far again it depends on the type of hunting.
Flat grind
The name itself tells it is completely flat; it is generally not used for hunting it is best known for the slicing in the commercial market.
Convex grid
Convex grid is where the blade curves down to the convex towards the edge, due to this character the edge is very sharp more or less the shape ends up being like an ax. This type of grind is most commonly used for hunting wild animals.
Sabre grind
This a strong grind at the edge, it’s one of the less popular because of the bad grind, despite its bad grid, saber grind which was used for hunting from century by the Scandinavians.
Tang
The material used for the handle are wood, leather, stag these are the materials used for years but now due to the improved technology, there are lot more materials such as stabilized wood, Kraton, reinforced fiberglass of nylon, plastics of various types. If the leather is used then a lot of maintenance is required. Have a look at Gerber knives for the best tang in the market as this is my personal favorite.
Full tang
It is usually in the shape of a knife handle and extends fully to the length of the handle. This adds to the weight of the knife.
Partial tang
This is not to the length of the handle and usually hidden.
Stick tang
This is to the full length of the handle which is narrow and tightened by a screw at the butt.
Conclusion
The strongest of the above would be the full-length tang which is more suitable for the hunter, anyways all the three are used for the hunting knife.
Coming to steel there are three types of steel material used to make hunter knife, as follows;
- Pure carbon steel with little to no chromium e.g. 1055 steel
- Carbon steel with little addition of chromium and vanadium like 1095 cro van steel
- Stainless steel with chromium percentage greater than 12.5%
The composition of the blade is of prime importance here, due to being the main item of use. In the case of stainless steel, they can bear a tough outdoor environment due to good corrosion resistance but carbon steels are better in terms of hardness and wear resistance. The ideal combination will be high wear resistance and corrosion resistance. That’s why the best steel which we can use is 1095 cro van steel in outdoor hunting applications.
In today’s market, you can’t go by personal choice because most of the knife comes with the steel finish, you can find more good quality knife made out of carbon since they use low-grade steel for the making of the blades. The carbon blades can be sharpened easily than stainless steel. But they are not common in today’s market.
Finally, you can make your choice of hunter knife keeping all the above factors in mind, which will help you in smooth hunting.
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