Like your bow and broadhead -tipped arrows, a good hunting
knife is standard equipment for bowhunters. Here’s a
look at the wide range available, along with other cutting tools and
sharpeners designed for the sportsman.
I’d owned and lost more than a dozen jackknives before I bought my first hunt-
ing knife, but I hadn’t learned much about cutting tools. The knife I bought as a
teen had a long, narrow blade more suited to stabbing than cutting, and a
smooth and slippery plastic handle. I learned later that the tang
collected blood and din, the leather
sheath collected odor, and the gleaming blade wasn’t rust proof.
Today, I use two hunting knives, worlds apart in form but both capable of chores from
digging a broadhead loose from a log to field dressing and butchering big game.
The knife I love to show off is a fixed-blade model that retails for about $95. It has a
heavy, stainless-steel blade with thumb serrations on the back and a
groove for my index finger below. The polished stainless guard and hilt
flow smoothly into the tough Micarta handle. The knife is a work of art that feels like part of your hand when you use it.
But I rarely do. That knife weighs nearly a pound and on hunting
trips it’s usually back at camp or in the truck. The knife I carry is a
folding lock blade from Western Cutlery with a green, checkered Valox
handle and simple Cordura sheath. The 3 1/2-inch stainless steel blade
is longer than I need and yet the knife and sheath together weigh under
four ounces.
