good to know..
appreciate the info

...and congrats on the buck!

 

I’m sorry you had a bad experience with them. Please share which one you have and what blades broke. I have to agree that the Havalon blades are thin and can’t take prying at all. I have used them for cutting plastic bands at work to test them and they don’t like cutting thick plastic bands around a pallet of cardboard. I will say Havalon has great customer service and support. I had a piranta that the linner lock broke. I sent it back and they replaced it no questions asked

 

Tried havalon a few years ago. Great knives. Along with outdoor edge. But either are not made for field work. Skinning, caping imo.
Sold my havalon, kept outdoor edge razor lite

 

What about GOAT blades?

 

Wow. The complete opposite. The whole series is my go to knives. From caping, deboning, butchering, processing. Even the bone saw replacement blades. Which mind you the made elk leg bones be like butter.
I use my Buck 119 knife to gut and a different saw to cut the pelvic and ribs. But after that the Havalons come out. My only issue is they are sharper than hell. (Which is the reason I use them). But it would only take one slip and you lost a finger or jabbed yourself way too deep.
And if the game animal is fatty, the replacement blades are so much easier. Use to have a knife sharpener in my pack. Not any more.
To each their own I suppose. I won’t ditch mine anytime soon.

 

I have 1000s of dollar in knifes from over the years, my go to is a havalon for the field. Makes packing out and breaking down animals a breeze, can’t stand sharpening a knife in the field.

 

Thats what i use now for field dressing.
I use halavons for other things not field dressing anymore.

 

Outdoor edge are burlier

 

They're junk too. My first skinning job with a brand new one, the blade started coming out and then it woulnt stay locked in for crap. Called and they said I was using it wrong. I thought thats what I bought it for. Can you say Chineea?

 

Can you send me your Havalon knife and any extra blades you have???? I’ll gladly take that “junk” off your hands!!!!!!

Bisch

 

Buck 113 Ranger Skinner is hard to beat. Had mine for years, never failed me.

If you have a larger budget, I prefer to use my Winkler Blue Ridge Hunter now. Expensive, but man what a blade.

I'd like to try a Blackfoot 2.0 but thats just for fun, I could use either the Winkler or Buck 113 for the rest of my life and be content.

 

Bought my piranta in 2017. I can't count how many animals it's field dressed at this point. Quartered up a handful with it including an elk, and also use it to debone/process. Never broke a blade.

Either user error, or you bought knockoff blades.

 

Check out Bradford knives, I have 3. Really nice quality never had an issue.

 

The certainty work, I had a self inflicted accident with one super excited breaking down an elk solo. It scared me enough to shift to fixed blade. All my fault but if you slip up with one, it can be really bad.

 

Morakniv Companion can be your new companion

 

I use the outdoor edge razor lite or a havalon for the back side initial cut when preparing to field dress. This allows me to get nasties on the blade and dispose of it so I can keep my main blade clean. Once that is done I switch over to my Bark River mini kephart. It will do the rest of the deer from skinning to the final break down. It’s got a convex edge that is very stout. Made in 3V which is crazy tough and holds an edge a longgggg time. I highly recommend bark river.

 

Just picked up this fixed blade today to start using for hunting.

 

very nice, who is the maker?

 

Morakniv. Cheap, sharp, decent steel. I personally prefer the carbon steel blades as they're harder and hold edges better. But their stainless ones are fine too and less maintenance. They're easy to clean. The more complicated a knife is, the more time you spend getting dried blood out of the nooks and cranny's. Plus, Mora's are so cheap, if you lose it, it's not really a big deal. I have a few nice knives, but I take my Mora's hunting most of the time.

Spend a while learning how to sharpen. It can be frustrating at first, but after a while it will be second nature. You shouldn't ever have to sharpen in the field. Make sure your fixed blade is sharp before you hit the field. You should be able to field dress 3+ deer before you see any significant edge degradation on a decent steel.


I never liked the idea of replaceable blades...just doesn't make sense. Sure, they're super sharp, but they're not going to last long because they're thin and (obviously...) designed to be replaced often. Which means you have to keep buying blades...no thanks. A good fixed blade will last you decades.

 

Morakniv. Cheap, sharp, decent steel. I personally prefer the carbon steel blades as they're harder and hold edges better. But their stainless ones are fine too and less maintenance. They're easy to clean. The more complicated a knife is, the more time you spend getting dried blood out of the nooks and cranny's. Plus, Mora's are so cheap, if you lose it, it's not really a big deal. I have a few nice knives, but I take my Mora's hunting most of the time.

Spend a while learning how to sharpen. It can be frustrating at first, but after a while it will be second nature. You shouldn't ever have to sharpen in the field. Make sure your fixed blade is sharp before you hit the field. You should be able to field dress 3+ deer before you see any significant edge degradation on a decent steel.


I never liked the idea of replaceable blades...just doesn't make sense. Sure, they're super sharp, but they're not going to last long because they're thin and (obviously...) designed to be replaced often. Which means you have to keep buying blades...no thanks. A good fixed blade will last you decades.

You can easily get 3 deer on one blade from a havalon. They hold an edge longer then you would think.

Mora are nice but the scandi grind is a pain to sharpen by hand, need a jig. Any high end knife with super steels is terrible in the field to sharpen. I’ve yet to have a bench made, mkc, etc make it through an entire elk and even be close to a havalon in sharpness

 

I hear great things about the Montana Knife Co knives. Might be worth checking out. I sharpen all my own knives. It’s definitely worth investing in a good sharpening system.

 

I have the worksharp grinder which I really like.

I will check out the montana knives

 

I feel like if you are snapping multiple blades in just the gutting process, you are doing something wrong. My knife encounters almost no stress when gutting a deer. What are you cutting that puts so much force on the blade?

 

opening cut and diaghram.

Looks like the blades were 60A from wiebe NOT havalon not the 60XT I usually use. This might have made the difference

Used the knife with a 60xt blade to skin the buck this morning. No issues.

 

^ agree. I just used mine to cape out a skull.. No problems and I put a bit of pressure on mine at times around the burrs....

 

after two blade failures today field dressing a buck I am done with the Havalon junk.

I have recommended them on here but that was a mistake, I retract those recommendations!

Going to upgrade to a nice fixed blade model of some sort soon

i think my best knife ive had is my kershaw wildcat ridge, like that knife,

 

No issues with my havalon piranta that is many years old. I mean I guess I can complain that’s it so sharp it’s easy to cut myself…hahahah

 

That’s unfortunate. I’ve used my havalon on at least 10 deer, gutting, quartering, and butchering with no issues. I do carry a pair of pliers for blade changes, a bit safer than fingers.

 

I used to think replaceable blade knives were cool until I found a blade someone left in the woods next to a gut pile.

I agree with everyone above who recommended Mora. Such a great option. Easy to get razor sharp and cheap enough to have multiples

 

I used to think replaceable blade knives were cool until I found a blade someone left in the woods next to a gut pile.

Yeah I don't like that.

 

Tried the Outdoor Edge version, prefer the old fixed blade.

 

If you're looking for recommendations, I've had good luck with the Outdoor Edge 3.5" Razor EDC Lite. I also like to bring along a fixed blade. I have a good amount of custom fixed blades, but I recently picked up a Day Six Dragonfly that will be going with me on my next hunt. The Dragonfly is a pretty cool, dual blade concept, that uses quality steel and the second blade is concealed in the handle. Might be worth a look.