knife for skinning the whole deer

[Dee]

Yep! And you can also use a rope with a board. You hook it to your wire, and stand on the board while skinnin. As you get closer to the ground, just wrap the rope around the board to take up the slack. With a wench or come-a-long you can get it so tight you just TOUCH the area with a sharp knife, and it peels. Got to be careful though or you'll tear the hide.

[kyelkhunter3006]

The Edgemaker Pro is really just a V-shaped steel.  It will remove a tiny amount of metal, more than a regular steel will, but it's not going to give you a great edge. It'll just "feel" sharp to you.  They're ok for touching up an edge out in the field.

I don't think that you're really getting a good working edge on the blade.  I agree with the others, you're getting a wire edge and breaking it off while you cut.

I've got 10 different Frosts knives from Mora's to Fish and Fillet's, and they will all take and hold a razor sharp edge.  Good steel and good heat treatment on them.  For what you pay, you get more than a 100% return on the investment.

You don't need or want a knife with a thick blade for processing deer.  A good, thin, sharp blade will do it all.  It'll split the rib cage easily too.  Use an axe or a saw on the pelvis.

If you think about it, the professional meat processors use knives that are really thin and easy to sharpen.  Most of those blades are around 1/16" thick, not much thicker than a fillet knife. Some might be close to 3/32"  Almost all of them are flat ground too.

I have a Lansky system and love it.  Sharpen anything, fast and razor edged.  I also have a Chef's Choice Pronto Diamond Sharpener that works pretty well too.  It's a pull through, but it uses diamond coated wheels that rotate as you pull through.  It will put a shaving sharp edge on a knife as long as it's thin enough to fit in it.  I mostly use it for kitchen knives and fillet knives.  It's still not as good as using a stone set though.  It's attributes are "quick and easy".

[fl.hillbilly]

  as someone who skins a good many hogs and hate to sharpen knives  I ll recommend a havalon piranta http://www.havalon.com/xt-60knp.html  the blades are replaceable and ultra sharp . A
 big plus is the knives are not that expensive and the replacement blades are araround .12 cent
apiece.

[Swampman]

I use a Benchmade Outbounder 180.

[Dand]

I had a Puma folder that looked a lot like the Buck 110. Once I worked to get the blade real sharp with one of those Lansky jigs. I did 3 caribou and was fine until I made a mistake and ran the edge hard over the tail bone. Wore that knife out with 15-17 years of hard use mending nets and crab pots and every other abuse, plus quite a few other caribou and a few deer, maybe a brown bear.

Now I carry a Browning folder as I like the design of one of their blades that works like a gut hook but doesn't look like one. I've used it on 2 moose, though I also used a Fixed Morseth blade for some work too.

I think the OP needs to work on technique or might have a poorly tempered knife.
Like others said you don't need a big knife. I prefer a 3 inch blade for most stuff.

[oldfort]

I use Bob Dozier or Gene Ingram knives on my deer. I also carry a Buck 110 AK Guide folder with a S30V Bos blade. We do not gut a deer. We skin it and cut off the shoulders. We fillet off the backstraps and hams. It all goes into trash bags. The head and horns go home with us. Everything else stays in the field. Good luck.

[mcwoodduck]

I use Bob Dozier or Gene Ingram knives on my deer. I also carry a Buck 110 AK Guide folder with a S30V Bos blade. We do not gut a deer. We skin it and cut off the shoulders. We fillet off the backstraps and hams. It all goes into trash bags. The head and horns go home with us. Everything else stays in the field. Good luck.

You do not take the tender loins that are inside?
Wow are you missing some good cuts.

[Drilling Man]

I use Bob Dozier or Gene Ingram knives on my deer. I also carry a Buck 110 AK Guide folder with a S30V Bos blade. We do not gut a deer. We skin it and cut off the shoulders. We fillet off the backstraps and hams. It all goes into trash bags. The head and horns go home with us. Everything else stays in the field. Good luck.

  Try that in Alaska, and it will get you a HUGE fine.

  DM

[dukkillr]

Alaska is not the only state where that would be illegal.

[Dee]

I was wonderin the same thing duck. The only thing that stays in the field when I kill a deer, is the gut pile, and sometimes I make sure that it is in a good place for coyote bait. If I butcher my own, I bone out every thing. Even scrapes make good chili.

[mechanic]

Here in Ga. it is illegal to remove the head before bringing the deer out and to be processed, (at home or where ever.)  I have caped a couple out and left the head on the hide with the hind quarters in it until I got it out.  Don't know if that was legal or not, but I can only carry so much so far...........

[saddlebum]

My critters get gutted, rinsed out with water and then they hang for a week in a cool place before they get skinned. They get skinned, quartered, boned, cut and wrapped in a day. Wrapped in plastic wrap and then freezer paper. I don't like carving that dry stuff off the meat so I wait to skin until cut and wrap day. The head twists off when I peel the hide down to it. All my scraps and neck meat go to ground sausage which goes into anything. I prefer deer steak in my chili..........Now I'm hungry!!

[oldfort]

DM

At what point in AK can you transport butchered game taken from your own property?

In KS, I take butchered game from my farm, with a legal tag, to my home in town, wash it, and store it in the garage fridge in a cooler of cold water, changing the water each day for three days. Then I process it and package.

Does that break AK laws?

[Drilling Man]

DM

At what point in AK can you transport butchered game taken from your own property?

In KS, I take butchered game from my farm, with a legal tag, to my home in town, wash it, and store it in the garage fridge in a cooler of cold water, changing the water each day for three days. Then I process it and package.

Does that break AK laws?

  Last i read the law, you have to take ALL of the meat from the 4 quarters, and also the rib and neck meat, and the antlers go out with the LAST load.  On a bear, you have to take the meat OR the hide, your choise.

  Once you get everything packed out, then the law says you can't let the meat spoil, and you can't sell the meat or antlers.

  That's the highlites of it...  Bacially, the law is, you must take all the editable meat, and the antlers are NOT more important than the meat.

  I don't see where you would be breaking any Alaskan laws...

  DM