Saber tooth tigers had 6-inch fangs and 3-inch claws. Bears have 3-inch fangs and 4-inch claws. Human beings were never much of a match for either of those animals armed only with our dull teeth and our short fingernails. Physically, against them, we didn't stand a chance. But we had two things going for us. Our brain (our superior intellect) and our ability to make tools. One of the first tools man ever made and one of the, if not most valuable tools that was ever invented in the history of mankind was the knife. And that may have started off with just a rock that was banged against another rock to produce a sharp edge or corner. But it evolved. Into the wonderful and intricate ability of primitive man to carve or flake delicate and extremely sharp arrowheads, spearheads, axes and edges from flint and obsidian.
Moving forward a couple of hundred thousand years, we figured out how to beat raw copper into primitive tools and knives, spears and weapons. Which in turn evolved once again when the discovery of a harder metal known as bronze was created by adding tin to copper. And then, when some early geniuses discovered how to smelt and extract iron from iron ore, they developed an even harder material, iron. Which some early smiths discovered could be made even harder and stronger with the addition of some carbon. That turned the iron into steel, which is what we still have today. And as to the subject of this discussion, the steel cutting instruments we know as knives.
Now most of those inventions from sharp rock to steel knife were designed for two purposes, preparation of food or weapons. Since the knife was a very labor-intensive creation to make, primitive man-made use of his knife as a tool for a multitude of purposes including food preparation. Sometimes, but rarely, they were used for killing or subduing an animal. But always used for dressing it, skinning it, removing the meat from the carcass, and then preparing the meat for food. In addition, that same knife could be used as a weapon against an animal that might be attacking or most assuredly, knowing the nature of man, against another human being that might be the attacker.
Side note: A friend of mine, Coach Otsubo once told me, “Track and field was invented when two cave men spotted the same deer and ran after it. Wrestling was invented when one those cave men got to the deer first”
The knife was, at that point in time, already a universal tool – just as it is today. From primitive man all the way up to the time of modern hunters, they didn't have the luxury or the practical necessity of carrying 6 different knives for six different operations. Man, the hunter generally carried just one knife that was designed to do everything from skinning game to chopping onions or fighting off the bad guy who came in to steal his pelts or furs… or his wife.
If we only look back a short amount of time, basically 100 years or so to our great grandmothers kitchens, you'll also find that she didn't have 12 different kitchen knives to use in food preparation. She probably had just one or two knives that served all the purposes that she needed to prepare delicious and nutritious meals to feed her family. Knives were expensive and people had little money. And resourceful people made do with what they had at hand. And so it was also with our great grandfathers, the hunters.
Hunting knife design
In life, there are two ways of developing solutions to problems. One is theory based and one is principle based. Some people favor one, some people favor the other.
I once had the privilege to work at a company that actually invented both the laser and the telecommunications satellite among many other ” Secret” Government projects. I worked with some of the most brilliant technical minds on the planet. I started there as a machinist and worked my way through the apprenticeship program to master machinist, prototype machinist, tool and die maker and eventually mechanical engineer.
Well, one time I asked one of the engineering CNC programmers how they determine the correct feeds and speeds for the thousands of 0-80 Tapped holes they were drilling and tapping into complex communication chassis for the satellites that were being built. Now an 0-80 tap hole is only .046 thousandths of an inch in diameter, So. They're exceedingly small and very delicate. If you were to drop an 0-80 tap on the floor, it’s likely to break. That's how small they are.
I was expecting a technical answer about material hardness, chip rate, RPM, Z axis feed rates, peck rate and of course the complex formulas needed to figure out all those parameters. I was a little surprised when the engineer who was a former machinist, said, “Simple, we crank up the RPM's until taps start to break and then we back off a little until they don't. That's the proper feed and speed.” This was a perfect example of theory versus principled based approach to finding a solution.
I have to say that I go by the principle-based train of thought almost every time. That's just my personality, I have found that it can be applied to almost every aspect of life. Now don't get me wrong, I know a lot about the theoretical side of things also, but I'm a hammer, nail, and Crescent wrench, roll up your sleeve’s kind of guy. You could say that I've learned a lot more by doing than by contemplating. Again, don't get me wrong, I've got a college degree in history, and I was an engineer, so I'm not saying that theory doesn't have its place. It's just not the way I go about doing things.
The school of theory is based on what is predicted, calculated, or presumed to happen and the school of principle is based on what actually is happening and has happened previously, (experience).
Sometimes they match up and sometimes they do not. What is good on paper is not always good in practice.
Now a good hunting knife is a tool just like a rifle. And over time, since the first battle where the use of firearms actually decided the outcome, fought between French and Swiss mercenary forces at the battle of Marignano in1515 (the French won) all the way up to the present time, one of man's other most prized possessions became his hunting rifle. He depended on the rifle to provide food for the table and protection for his family. With a hunting rifle both men and women were able to provide food for the family. It was essential to their survival that they were able to provide meat on a regular basis and the use of a hunting rifle became one of our necessary and required, skills. Because there was so much dependence on the hunting rifle, although entirely practical, that prized possession also became something quite symbolic, representing a legacy that was passed on down from father to son or grandson. I now have my father's hunting rifles, both his dear rifle and his shotgun. Along with his hunting knife.
But still the rifle Is just a tool, just as the knife is a tool, and that knife should be as reliable as the hunting rifle that you may have inherited from your father or grandfather. You need to have a knife that you can hand down to your son right along with your hunting rifle. It is a legacy tool that that should be passed down from one generation to the next. But in order to do that, you have to have a good knife, that is quality built, quality designed, and you have to know how to treat your knife so that it's preserved for future generations, just like you do the way you take care of your guns.
On hunting
I was born and raised in” The Great North Woods” of Northern Wisconsin. It is a vacation land paradise with forests, lakes, rivers, and pristine wilderness. It was not unusual to have white tail deer grazing in our yard, and our bird feeders had to be hung especially high so that the bears wouldn't destroy them.
I grew up in a world of hunting and fishing where it was not just a sport or pastime but was and still is, a way of life, and a way of life that many still depend on to put food on the table. The place where I came from is not a “rich” area. When I say hunting and fishing is a way of life, it’s not a hobby. It still is a way many depend on to sustain and supplement the food for their families. Entire families grew up hunting and fishing. Dads, mothers, brothers and sisters and children all owned rifles or shotguns. And when deer or bird season rolled around, the whole family goes hunting. In fact, so many go hunting during deer season that all the schools up there close for the week of hunting season every year.
I got my first BB gun when I was seven or eight, my first .22 rifle when I was around 10, and my first deer rifle, a 30-30 lever action Winchester, when I was 12 years old. My dad bought it for $100 from his friend. I still have it.
People there depend on their firearms to feed their families. Not getting a deer during the season could be a crucial hardship for many families over the long winter months, so they know the importance of a good quality firearm and how to maintain it. That is why many of those shotguns and rifles are passed down generation to generation. Growing up in that environment, you also learn to appreciate the necessity of a good quality hunting knife, because once you knock your game down, the next tool you're going to reach for is your knife. A good knife can spell the difference between an arduous chore, wasted meat, a damaged pelt and a quick, clean job of dressing out the animal. Which also means you're going to be able to sell a good clean pelt or skin, so you'll learn right away what you need in a functional, efficient and durable cutting tool. I know I did. In fact. The second knife that I ever made was a hunting knife that I made for my Dad on his birthday.
My Dad has now passed away, but before he did, he handed down to me, his Remington 30-06 deer rifle, his Browning 12 gauge shotgun and the hunting knife I once made for him. And I know when the time comes, I'll pass them on to my son. So as hunting and fishing, guns and knives, and me go a long way back, it was also for me, a way of life.
Now most of you know that I've designed and built some of the most important tactical knives in the world. I know what it takes to make a good knife – a knife you can depend on with your life. But maybe some of you aren't aware that I also know how to design and build a good hunting knife.
As human beings, we are largely meat eaters. Somewhere in our distant past, without realizing it, primitive man discovered that meat produces a much higher concentration of protein than nuts, grains or vegetables. And cooked meat is much easier to digest, which requires less energy to turn that digestible meat into nutrition. It is now believed that the transition to a meat-eating diet is what enabled our primitive ancestors to develop a larger brain. And after that, the rest we can quite literally say is history.
Meat became a substantial part of man's diet, and it paid off for us as a species. Meat tastes great. It gives us increased muscle mass, strength, and stamina. And to drive my point home, think about this. There were no vegan Vikings.
Now bear in mind, the knife is mankind's oldest and most useful tool. And there are many good reasons for that. But in terms of sustenance and meat eating, think about this. With a sharp stick, it's easy for me to grub up some tubers or tasty roots to snack on. But, if I found the carcass of an Irish Elk, taken down by a pack of Dire Wolves, that sharp stick is no good for peeling flesh off those bones. But a knife sure is. And those knives, although they were made from stone, obsidian and flint, were very effective. Thus was the humble beginning of the hunting knife. And for the sake of this discussion, I'm not talking about the spears, arrows, or weapons used to bring down the game. I'm talking about the knives used to harvest and process the meat after the game was killed. The same role that modern hunting knives fill today. – Different materials – Same tasks.
Now, as we all know, our most useful tool eventually evolved from stone to steel. And into the sharp-edged tool as we now know it today. But there were a few notable pauses. The most notable of these were The Copper Age, the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age, before some brilliant ancestor of ours figured out how to add carbon to simple iron and steel emerged as the victor. Damn, our ancestors were so smart.
Looking around today, I can only wonder. What happened to us? But that's a question for a whole other article.
Anyway, back to hunting and knives. I don't know how many of you reading this are hunters, but I suspect quite a few. So, if you've ever hunted or backpacked for that matter, you know that you are limited by what you can carry on you or with you in your pack, and that's not much. Yeah, I know there are guided hunts with pack animals, but I'm gonna keep this simple. This is about you, yourself, and you.
So, if we look back a couple of hundred years years or so, you will note that most hunters, mountain men, trappers, or providers who were in the woods hunting for game generally only had the luxury of carrying one knife. This knife had to be capable of dressing, quartering the animal, skinning the game, preparing it for food, and even starting the fire it was cooked on. Although some also carried a small caping knife for delicate tasks, that was indeed the exception.
These knives, the ones I’m describing here, were what I've always called.” All-Rounders.” And that was, and still is for most of us, what we still expect our hunting knife to be.
What are my recommendations for a modern all round hunting knife in terms of design, size and materials?
The design of a hunting knife blade needs to be governed by these two basic requirements: It needs to have a point to pierce and a good belly (curve) for cutting and slicing. The blade should be at least 4 – 5 inches long to give you enough edge to use. I know, I know, some guys are using scalpels and knives that use replaceable razor blades. That's all well and good, but I'm talking about “All-Rounder” knives here and not some specialized accessory. I’m not saying they're bad, just saying I don't use them.
As to the blade style, since this knife will be used for gutting as well as skinning and dressing, you need that point for piercing and reaching up and around joints and tendons. Sorry, I apologize to the sheep's foot and wharncliffe crowd – Great knives for EDC – Not so good for hunting. Please don’t hate on me.
You will also note that most traditional, real hunting knives had a decent blade height, the distance from the edge to spine in the belly or along the curved section of the blade. Just take a look at the traditional Buffalo hunter’s knife. On a modern all round hunting knife this can be accomplished by either a recurve style blade or a Bowie style blade.
It is important to note that in the early years of the North American explorers, the British knife Company, Sheffield produced thousands of IXL Bowie knives, sold to the frontiersmen cutting their way through the wilds of the untamed North American wilderness. And those blades were almost always a clip point, Bowie style blade. They were the constant companion of countless mountain men, hunters, trappers, frontiersmen and pioneers who all relied on hunting to put food on the table and in their belly.
In fact, the Sheffield IXL Bowie knife was a very sought after trading item across the Wild West. They were bartered as a trading item by Comancheros and other traders to all of the Indian tribes across the United States that they had commerce with. It was in high demand, even exceeding pistols and rifles. Remember, a gun was only useful until you ran out of bullets, then it became a teepee hanger. A knife never runs out. And a good, steel knife could serve so many needs.
And also remember this when the Europeans arrived In North America, all the indigenous cultures or tribes of the New World were still a Stone Age Culture. They had never developed the process of metallurgy for bronze, iron or steel. Yes, I know they did use copper for some tools and utensils in some areas of North America, since copper is one of the few metals that can be found in its pure form right in the ground. Remember. I'm from the great Northwoods of the United States and one of the largest copper nuggets ever found (5,720 lbs.) was dug up in Minong, Wisconsin, just 20 some miles away from where I grew up. And we even found golf ball sized copper nuggets in the dirt when we dug up the basement for the addition to our original 20 by 30-foot log cabin that I was raised in.
Sorry to drift off.
That Bowie style blade, the IXL Bowie, successfully cleaned and prepped a whole lot of wild game. I'm just saying it was the epitome of a great, simple, efficient, “All Rounder” design.
The grind of the blade or main bevels should be rather high, at least between 1/2 and 3/4 of the blade height to produce a blade that has good slicing capabilities and to take a fine edge. The blade thickness should be at least .125 – 1/8 inches thick, up to .156 – 5/32 inches thick but no thicker. A thicker blade say .187 – 3/16 of an inch to .250-1/4 of an inch thick is not a hunting knife. It gets too heavy and the blade thickness to grind thickness ratio becomes too steep. Unless of course your blade is 2 to 3 inches high. But then in that case, you've got a camp knife or a small machete, not a hunter.
The handle of a hunting knife should be comfortable. And not have any sharp ridges, exaggerated checkering, protrusions or sharp jimping, although there should be some texture to the handle. The handle cannot be perfectly smooth. The reason is because blood is extremely slippery. And if you can think of the slipperiest thing that you've ever had on your hands, blood is slipperier. So you need to have some traction when you have the knife in your hand, but the reason that you wouldn't have exaggerated checkering or ridges or jimping is because of the same reason that you don't find any of those things on the handle of a hammer. Those things cause sores and blisters when you use any tool for any extended period of time even for just a few minutes if you are really using it hard.
Here's another side note. I was approached once by a very well-known tactical knife maker who wanted Emerson knives to make some of his designs. And this knife maker was very well known in the collector market and featured in magazines and such on a pretty regular basis. The designs that he presented to me featured all metal handles with all kinds of cutouts, ridges, Jimping, protrusions, checkering, and some rather sharp corners on the handles. Remember this was a well-known “Tactical” knife maker. I asked him. Very bluntly. Have you ever found a hammer that had Jimping, checkering, knobs, projections, or sharp edges on the handle? And he looked at me quizzically and said, “well, no.” And then I asked, “Have you ever used a machete? And I don't mean just one or two whacks. with a machete. Have you ever been in a jungle? Or have you even gone out into a field and cut down corn, weeds, hay or brush for more than 15 minutes using a machete?” And before he could answer, I asked, “Have you ever seen a machete with jimping, checkering, sharp edges, bumps and knobs all over the handle?” Then, at the risk of being harsh, I said, “You know, I come from the world of real users, and not from the world of “tacticool” so I'm gonna respectfully decline your offer, (?) for me to produce any of your knife designs. Good luck with your career, but we're worlds apart.” And I left it at that. Needless to say, he's not my best friend. And that’s part of some of the reasons there are those in the knife world who don’t like me so much.
Well, that's why the same principles that I just described to you in that little story also apply to your hunting knife. It's gotta be comfortable in your hand. It's gotta have a little bit of traction on it, light checkering, maybe or some grooves in the handle that are not too pronounced so that it stays in your hand when it gets wet with blood. Natural materials, bone, antlers, wood, or leather were always the traditional materials used for hunting knives. But that was born out of necessity, long before the development of “space age” materials. There are now a plethora of handle materials available that won’t absorb liquids, won’t degrade, or warp, are very tough and should last a lifetime. Micarta, RichLite, and G-10 are all great choices for handles.
The steel for a hunting knife should be any good quality alloy. And there are many of them available for modern hunting knives. I recommend the tried and true 154 CM which works very well In all regards for a hunting knife along with S35VN, or Magnacut. Those three steels in my opinion are the best ones you can find for a hunting knife. Now why did I pick those when O1 tool Steel, 1095, W1, or W2 are all fine steels that that can be heat treated to a proper Rockwell hardness and annealed so that they have good ductility, flexibility, and edge holding, all qualities needed in a good usable hunting knife? Having said all that, those steels are all very prone to rust and they must be maintained, which unfortunately many modern knife users do not do. You know who you are. They rust.
And the steels that I described as my choices, 154CM, S35VN, and Magnacut are much less prone to rusting or staining. They also can be taken to a very fine edge and stay very sharp. Now I will tell you this, I use 154 CM more for my combat knives because I bring them in at a lower Rockwell hardness. So. I would have to say that S35VN or Magnacut would be my preferred choices for a real working, hunting knife. They can be heat treated into the low 60s Rockwell and they can be ground thin enough without becoming delicate, so that they will work well as a cutting and slicing tool and they can take a very keen and razor-sharp edge that will last, probably through the entire dressing and skinning of an elk without having to be sharpened. The 154 that I bring in at 57 to 59 Rockwell might need to be touched up a couple of times during the skinning of a large game animal. But it also is still a superb steel for an “All Rounder” knife.
But having said that. A very well-known big game hunter and his guides used our Commander knives to dress and skin what, for about 5 years, was the world's largest lion ever taken out of Africa. So, as with any knife, a lot of the results you get depend on the skill and the experience of the person doing the dressing and skinning of the animal. Those Commander knives worked perfectly.
Fixed Blade or Folder
Most hunting knives have traditionally been fixed blades. And there's nothing wrong with that at all. As you know, there's no moving parts on a fixed blade, and they are made of only one piece, so they are easier to clean. But I have used folding knives as hunting knives for a number of years and they've worked just as well as the fixed blades that I carried for most of my hunting life. Just be sure that it's made of good quality materials that don't rust or break down over time. And be sure that it’s a knife that you can take apart, so that you can disassemble it for cleaning when you're done and back at camp or back home. And be sure to clean that knife thoroughly, because you do not want to have any residual matter left that has gotten into the knife as a result of using it on an animal.
Bear in mind one last thought that’s also important regarding your hunting knife. That knife will probably also double as a utility knife around camp or an emergency tool if you are ever lost or injured. So be sure that the knife that you get, no matter where it comes from, is a strong, sturdy, dependable tool that you can always count on to do its job, no matter what the task you face.
Happy hunting.,
Ernest Emerson.
