I’m looking to get a new set of butchering knives. I don’t need top of the line, as I only do a few deer and other animals a year. The set I have now I feel is too soft of stainless and dulls very quickly. I used set yesterday that were probably older than myself and was impressed on how much longer they held a good edge. Unfortunately now name or stamping on the blades, so I don’t know what they were.
I use a Swing Blade by Outdoor Edge. They are around 50 dollars but it is fantastic and wouldn’t got back to a plain knife again.
Happy birthday Randy, don’t know much about the knife market but maybe check to see if theres any old knife brands that have their economy types. Call stores or maybe online, online would probably be the cheapest but it might take awhile to get them.
Was just looking on line this morning for a new field knife for the boy. Think there are way to many crap knifes on the market now as compared to 50 years ago or longer. I would guess back in the day there where not cheap foreign knives to choose from and American ones needed to be quality as they where carried and used all the time.
Im in the same boat as you. My field knife is most likely 20 or 30 years older than my self. Holds a great edge and cuts like a dream. No name on it.
Im not a real serious butcher when it come to cutting deer. Usually buy a couple of cheap rapala or similar filet knifes each fall to cut deer. Use them the rest of the year and replace next deer season. That 1st edge on these cheap knifes can be pretty good. Even with that Ive found they are not great for cutting nice looking steaks.
Was looking at trying one of these for the boy.
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I use a Swing Blade by Outdoor Edge. They are around 50 dollars but it is fantastic and wouldn’t got back to a plain knife again.
Good to hear someone else likes these. The boy field dressed his deer on his own this year and sliced right into the gut sack. Thinking that swing blade might come in handy to keep him from doing that again. That and he had been using a cheap flea market knife that he had to have for the last two year and has come to realize even tho it looks cool its not much of a knife.
The Swing Blade is great for field dressing, but I like a longer blade for deboning deer. I use a Chicago Cutlery 5 inch boning knife or their fillet knife. Not too expensive and easy to sharpen.
Standard Buck 6″ knife is all i use anymore. Have 2 of them. A work sharp knife sharpener. It’d never needed sharpening when doing a deer or cow.
You guys using the swing blade for field dressing have any issues with the short blade? I see its around 3.5″s. Guess Ive just never used that short of blade.
Did find myself a older but still new Buck 118 this morning while talking to a guy about refinishing a older knife. Looking forward to getting this as my new field knife. My old one is going back to dad after borrowing it for the last 20 years.
I only use two knives on my deer. I use a Outdoor Edge Flip N’Zip for field dressing and skinning. Their customer service is second to none.
All of my butchering is done with one knife. I don’t know the name but I bought it from DeerDummy.com. It is made in Portugal and I swear by it. I only sharpen once a season after that it only needs a hone. It has the perfect amount of flex for boning but enough backbone to get the job done. I’ve been using mine since 2008 and I’ve cut around 20 deer with it. I sure there are other great knives out there but this one is great and the price is decent.
https://www.deerdummy.com/store/product/show/1/Store/4/Deer-Cutting-Knife
This may sound dumb to most but…
I have found some of my best quality knives at garage sales.
As Randy mentioned about the old knife he used, they used to have a different carbon content in the steel before they switched to primarily stainless.
Most of the knives dont look pretty but they are tools not display items. Most go for $.50-$1.00. Granted I have a few that are just garage knives but I sure have some dandys too.
Just a thought.
There is only one knife used by good processing people. They will almost always be a version of this:
Forschner Boning Knife, VF-40517 2 16.95
Curved, Flexible, Fibrox,6 in.
Do a quick search and you will not be disappointed.
Check out these knives. I have the drop point for my field knife and I am looking and getting a fillet knife from here as well. I absolutely love this knife and I would recommend it to anyone. They are a little pricey but they are an American made product and they have a lifetime warranty. Great knives!
You will get far better value for money by looking at commercial knives for the restrauant and butchering industry, rather than the junk that is generally pawned off on today’s hunters/anglers.
For home use, I use Universal knives. These are top-quality knives, but no-frills. Dozens of different sizes/shapes available. You won’t find these in stores, but google for commercial knife suppliers.
Even more important than the knives, is how you sharpen them. Personally, I use a ceramic sharpening system and an old-school wetstone in superfine to put the final edge on them. Then I maintain them with a ceramic touch-up V sharpener. There are a LOT of different ways to sharpen, the best IMO is the one you understand and use OFTEN.
One note about knives from the good old days. In a lot of cases I hear people talking about how you could get old knives sharper. This is not really case, but there are reasons people think it to be true. Older knife steel is generally carbon and not stainless and is not harder, it’s actually softer. This enables a sharper edge to be put on more quickly, but the knives generally don’t maintain this edge as long. But since they sharpen more easily, many people assume this means they are “better” or “sharper” than modern knives.
When properly sharpened, any knife can have a keen edge. Beyond that, it’s all aobut how long the knife can MAINTAIN this edge when used. Harder = longer, but harder also = more difficult/time consuming to sharpen.
I have some of these old knives like Opel (from France) and they are terrific. I always touch up knives after every couple of uses, so it’s no big deal to me to keep them very sharp. But the bottom line is that they aren’t better/worse, just different.
Grouse
The swing blade works great for feild dressing your deer. the gut hook is nice because you can git it inside the deer and get less fur when opening it up. I still use a sagen saw(sp?) for going through rib bones. As for processing I use a fillet knife and boning knife for that. I have an older wustoff that I like. Fillet knife is just a standard fillet knife.
Grouse I have an older soft steel paring knife that I use for filleting my fish. It fits my hand and sharpens really easy. It doesn’t have a long blade but it does what I need it to do and thats cut quick and is guideable and works best when not over sharpened or real sharp. One of my best knives for cleaning fish.
1 thing for sure…. do NOT buy anything that has “Stainless – China” on the blade….
The only thing I do once I have the edge set on a good blade is use a Steel on a regular basis….
I cut meat for 15 years before I switched to the skilled trades. I had the same set of Victorinox knives for the last 5 years I cut meat. I still have them and they are still sharp. The knives aren’t super expensive, and if you know how to sharpen them or -most importantly- use a good sharpening steel, they’ll last for many years.
I still cut quite a bit of my own meat at home, and they have quality edge yet. To let you know how much these knives were used, the shop I worked at supplied most of the north metros meat raffles. With only 2 guys there actually cutting meat, I went through a lot of pounds of flesh with the 3 knives I used everyday.
I know Cabelas carries the boning knives and the small steak knives, but I bought my steel online. I use the 12 inch butcher knife for cutting NY strips, sirloins,and ribeyes. Cabelas doesn’t carry the 12 inch knife, but you could order them online too.
Sometimes for boning out the hanging deer, I use a Kershaw filet knife. These were on sale lately for around 10 bucks. The knife is very flexible and has a quality rubber handle that doesn’t slip when the hands get slippery from blood or fish. It’s as close as I could find to my Victorinox knives for about 40% of the price.
It really amounts to preference, but any pro meat cutters I ever knew never used really evepensive knives. They all just kept them as sharp as the day they were new.
Look at you auger blades. Mora makes excellend knives too. Sweedish steel is well known for it’s quality.
I also get my knives at garage sales. Look for Dexter brand that’s what the butchers use. Failing that old hickory is a good knife
I agree about the old knives 
This will be my next butchering knife purchase. Victorinox
Good post! I learned a lot about butchering knives. Nice to know you don’t have to spend a fortune to get what the Pro’s use.
Love my Cutco!!!
Get your self Buck Knives. The reason I said this,was years ago I had a good friend sharpen my Buck Knife,well he ground it down to nothing. I kept this knife even though it was runed.
A month ago,I dug this knife out and decided to toss it or send it in. Cost me $4.50 to send it in to Buck,for repair,got a bran new knife for free.
Lesson learned,now I have a work sharp Ken Onion model.
Gets my knives sharp.
Good rule,dont let anyone sharpen your knives,do it your self.
Fat Fish
Appreciate the recommendations! Most have been in the budget of what I’m looking to spend. Though something that I have been a little surprised at. Of all my fleshing and skinning knives I use for trapping, none of them make butchering sets or if they do, they are WAY over priced. I only need to add 2 or 3 to my set, as my critter skinning knives are perfect for skinning a deer or pig.
Thanks everyone, plenty of info to make an educated decision 
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