It is very important to choose the right hunting knife. Many factors must be taken into account: length, width, shape, material of the handle and blade, sharpening angle. Much depends on the purpose of the knife.
Types of Hunting Knives
With all the variety of characteristics of the proposed hunting knives, they can be divided into two groups:
- General applications that are used to achieve production. Their blades are even, the handle is necessarily equipped with a limiter.
- Special purposes (skinning, cutting meat from bone, butchering carcasses of animals or birds).
They are also subdivided according to the type of blades and sharpening of the upper edge. It can be straight and rounded. Handmade hunting knives are especially original in their execution.
Hunting knife selection
Currently, a large selection of hunting knives from manufacturers of different countries is offered. Russian manufacturers are also not inferior in quality and variety of the offered copies. Their design is quite simple: the handle and blade. The blade has a cutting part, which is called the blade and is subject to periodic sharpening. To comply with safety precautions and ensure safety, a cover made of durable and soft material (usually made of thick genuine leather with a wooden or plastic insert) is also very important. It must have a safety strap to prevent the weapon from falling out of its sheath.
When choosing a hunting knife, you must be guided by the main characteristics:
- The shape of the knife must match the purpose of its use (the blade can be straight or curved).
- Sharpening of hunting knives depends on their purpose.
- The handle should be comfortable when cutting carcasses. It can be located as a continuation of the blade, and at an angle to it. They make it from various materials: wood, metal, birch bark, ceramics, plastic. In order to avoid slipping out of her hands she must have a limiter.
- The method of attaching the handle to the blade. The handle attached with a nut is much stronger than with glue.
- The material of the blade of hunting knives. The hardness of steel depends on the carbon content. The most valuable brands are damask and damask. For hunting knives, it is considered optimal from 50 to 60 HRC (according to Rockwell). Steel must be corrosion resistant.
- The length and width of the blade. The optimal length is 12-13, the width is 3-3.5 cm.
Knife sharpening methods
Despite the hardness of the steel of which the knife is made, after a certain time its sharpness decreases. Therefore, it is necessary to restore this function periodically. Sharpening of hunting knives can be done in various ways using:
- whetstone;
- musat;
- tool kit;
- special pocket sharpeners;
- grinding machine (mechanical, electrical);
It should be remembered: the smaller the angle of sharpening of a hunting knife, the finer it is intended for finer work. For hunting knives, it is 15-30 degrees. For example, for cutting and landsliding - 30, universal - 20, when skinning and separating meat from bone - 15 degrees.
As a rule, grinding machines are used at manufacturing plants and in special points of tool sharpening. But very often, hunters do this on their own, using the other above-mentioned devices for sharpening hunting and fishing knives.
Sharpening a knife with a bar (stone)
Consider how to sharpen a hunting knife using a bar at home. When sharpening a knife in this way, you need to choose a flat wide bar with a length of at least 25 cm with a non-coarse structure. In this case, you must follow the sequence of actions:
- The bar must be fixed on a flat and fixed surface.
- Lubricate with oil (vegetable, technical) or soapy water so that the metal chips do not stick to the bar, wait a few minutes.
- With smooth movements, start sharpening with a moistened bar, holding the knife over it under pressure along the entire length of the blade. We perform such an action on both sides in turn. In this case, the initial sharpening angle of the hunting knife must be observed.
- The process must be repeated several times until a new one appears on both sides over the old edge.
- Then the bar changes to a fine-grained stone and fine-tuning is already done without pressure, with light sliding movements.
For more convenient fastening of the grindstone, you can make a frame in the form of a right angle and fix the bar in it in an inclined position. You can use a special device for securing emery with an adjustable slope.
To control the quality of sharpening of hunting knives, you can try to cut a newspaper sheet in an upright position in one motion. The sharpening angle can be checked in the simplest way using conventional scissors. We must take them in hand, insert the blade between them, gradually squeezing the blade of the knife. At the same time, for better visibility, direct them to a bright light (lamp) to make sure the density of compression. Then carefully remove the blade and measure the angle between the scissor blades with a protractor.
Knife sharpening
A musat is a file with a cross-section or a cross-section cut on both sides, having a handle. For its manufacture, very hard steel or diamond coated ceramics is used. Muscat usually only corrects not too dull blades. Moreover, the cutting edge is not damaged even with repeated use. If the knife completely lost its cutting properties, then in this way you will not sharpen it.
The process is carried out as follows:
- with one hand the musat holds in an upright position (on a non-slip surface);
- in the other hand we take the blade at an angle of 15-20 degrees, stretch it from top to bottom (away from you and to yourself) along the entire length of the blade (first on one side, then on the other side). Such repetitions must be done from 4 to 6. When using ceramic or diamond musat, one time is enough.
Sharpening a knife with special kits and pocket sharpeners
The set for sharpening knives includes several stones with multi-colored handles, special guides and oil. The technology of sharpening with these devices is simple and does not require special skills. Each compartment has its own fixing angle. The color of the handles distinguish the granularity of grindstones. When using this method, the sharpening of the blade is perfect.
Pocket sharpeners offered in specialized stores are small stones of various shapes (round, square, oval), which are placed in the palm of your hand. As a rule, they are made from quality materials. They are located in special recesses made in a plastic case at a certain angle. It is convenient to take such sharpeners with you for hunting or fishing, as they are compact and easy to use.
Dependence of the sharpening method on the steel grade
For different grades of steel, not all sharpening methods are equally suitable. So, for example, very popular Damascus steel knives cannot be sharpened on electric machines, as it has a heterogeneous structure. It consists of alternating soft and hard layers, so the blade should be sharpened with extreme caution, otherwise the edge of the blade will become ribbed and will crumble in the future. Knives made of such steel should be sharpened manually, gradually changing the granularity of the stones in the direction of reduction.
Damask steel is characterized by high hardness. Knives from it must be sharpened for a long time. In this case, often use electrical and mechanical machines. It is necessary to start with coarse-grained stones moistened with water, gradually approaching fine-grained.
It should be noted that with the automated sharpening method it is not possible to achieve the sharpness and accuracy that is ensured during manual work. The main advantage is the speed of this process.
Handmade hunting knives require a special approach when sharpening blades, as they can be made from non-standard steel grades. Therefore, it is recommended to sharpen them manually.
We conclude: the correct sharpening of hunting knives is a very important process for maintaining the appearance and durability. This hunting attribute should be used only for its intended purpose and do not forget to keep it clean, periodically lubricating with oil (both blades and wooden handles) to prevent loss of gloss and drying out.