Ok, the last two threads have me asking myself how good my knives really are. I have an assortment of knives, but the ones I use most are as follows:

A very old Western made from old carbon steel that used to belong to my grandfather.
A newer western made from an unknown steel
N newer buck folder that is stamped 278 with some "E" looking symbol after it.

All three take a really nice edge, but after 2 deer or 1 pig they are noticably duller (is that even a word) and they get sharpened again. When I sharpen them, they are VERY sharp. If I can't shave my arm hairs off with them, they are not sharp enough.

The question is this. How long do you go between sharpenings on your skinning and quartering knives?

I actually put one on a stone maybe twice a year. I’ll give one a couple of licks on a steel while I’m working; scraping the fats and oils off the cutting edge helps a lot. Once you get a good angle in the blade, it usually doesn’t take much effort to keep it in place.

I guess I’ve never had a good knife. I hit mine on the steel half way through quartering a deer. If I have a lot of work to do I have three knives going. They all get back to shaving before I go to bed. If you keep a knife sharp it doesn’t take long to get them back to where they need to be. I don’t like a dull knife for anything. I hit my pocket knife a few licks every week. Maybe I’m wrong but I feel a man with a dull pocket knife is pretty lazy.

Back in 2005 I bought a knife made by Red Woods. I gutted 36 deer and hogs with it before sharpening it. 32 deer were just gutted and 2 deer gutted/skinned. 2 smaller hogs were gutted and skinned out of the 36 total. I had to sharpen it after that. I must have gotten very lucky on that knife because any other knife I have owned would not last nearly that long before needing to touch up the blade edge. I still have that knife and use it some, but I have never been able to put an edge on it like it originally had.

Scalebuster, I agree. All my knives are always very sharp...I even carry a spare Smith diamond hone in my truck at all times.
Tactical cowboy, yes, when re sharpening my knives, it only takes a few strokes to bring the edge back, but I've been hearing about knives that have gone the distance without even needing that. See stxranchman's post...

Before I started making knives my son gave me a Buck 192 drop point, it never lasted very long. I quarter all my deer and couldn't get half way without it needing sharpening. Even after I started making knives I put a more severe angle on the secondary bevel, it did the same thing. That's one problem with production knives they don't get that personal attention that customs do.

Almost every knife being discussed on this forum is beveled at or about 20+ degrees/side, so... relative to some knives, none of them are ever “sharp” in their most pristine state. It’s all relative and unless you’ve tried a Scandinavian or other low angle bevel of 12 degrees/side you may be very happy with the steep angle bevel knife you have grown accustomed to and believe to be “sharp”.

A lot of it has to do with what type of steel and how well it was hardened. I got a microtech socom alpha last year just because I wanted one, and was pleasantly surprised after I gutted, skinned and quartered two elk we shot and it was still popping hairs after. It has Elmax steel.

Miracle knives just don’t exist, but some do perform better than others. RBK’s have changed the game. I carry a Havalon Baracutta and generally can get through a deer or a hog before swapping out the blade. It is just to easy. Over the years I’ve bought several packs of blades that I re-sharpen during the off season. Dull blades are dangerous, so I prefer to use a razor blade when Breaking down game.

I love customs though, I love the craftsmanship and quality, the looks. Everything about them. I wish I had a dozen myself.

When skinning game and deboning, pay attention if you hit bone you will have a dull knife. Forrest