A hunting knife is a

knife A knife ( : knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evid ...

used during

hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

for preparing the game to be used as food:

skinning Skinning is the act of skin removal. The process is done by humans to animals, mainly as a means to prepare the meat beneath for cooking and consumption, or to harvest the skin for making fur clothing or tanning it to make leather. The sk ...

the animal and cutting up the

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

. It is different from the

hunting dagger The hunting dagger (German'': Hirschfänger'', "deer catcher") is a long German dagger, used to kill deer and boar. It was a weapon mainly used in the fancy hunts of the German nobility. This dagger developed from Medieval hunting sword A hunting ...

which was traditionally used to kill wild game. Some hunting knives are adapted for other uses in the

wild Wild, wild, wilds or wild may refer to: Common meanings * Wild animal * Wilderness, a wild natural environment * Wildness, the quality of being wild or untamed Art, media and entertainment Film and television * ''Wild'' (2014 film), a 2014 A ...

; such as a Camp knife, which hunters may use as

machete Older machete from Latin America Gerber machete/saw combo Agustín Cruz Tinoco of San Agustín de las Juntas, Oaxaca">San_Agustín_de_las_Juntas.html" ;"title="Agustín Cruz Tinoco of San Agustín de las Juntas">Agustín Cruz Tinoco of San ...

s or

hatchet A hatchet (from the Old French , a diminutive form of ''hache'', ' axe' of Germanic origin) is a single-handed striking tool with a sharp blade on one side used to cut and split wood, and a hammerhead on the other side. Hatchets may also be us ...

s when those specific tools are not available. In this case, their function is similar to a survival knife.

Design

Hunting knives are traditionally designed for cutting rather than stabbing, and usually have a single sharpened edge. The blade is slightly curved on most models, and some hunting knives may have a blade that has both a curved portion for

, and a straight portion for cutting slices of

. Some blades incorporate a guthook. Most hunting knives designed as "skinners" have a rounded point as to not damage the skin as it is being removed.

Types of knife

* Fixed-Blade- Fixed-blade versus a folding knife is both personal and practical. If the game you hunt is large and the terrain more rugged, a fixed blade knife is often a better option for its strength and dependability. * Folding knives- Folding knives have the advantage of being easier to carry and to conceal. They are also considered safer.

Type of blade

* Clip Point - The clip point knife blade is thin with a well-defined point. The blade itself is relatively flat. And this type of blade is used for the Dressing and Skinning. * Drop Point- The blade of a drop point knife is thick and curved. It’s used to dress the animal and skinning. * Skinning Blade- These types of blade specially designed for

. The blade quickly and neatly separates the skin from the meat.

Examples

Hunting knives include the

puukko A puukko () is a small traditional Finnish general purpose belt knife with a single curved cutting edge, solid hidden tang and, usually, a flat spine. Military models of puukko were popular in the Russian criminal underworld under the name "Fi ...

, the

yakutian knife The Yakutian knife (Sakha: ''Sakha byhagha''; Russian: ), sometimes called the Yakut knife, is a traditional knife of Yakuts (an ethnic group from the Sakha Republic (or Yakutia), region of Siberia), used for working with wood, hides, skins, fish ...

and the

Sharpfinger SHARPFINGER® is a brand of knife modeled after the Schrade 152 OT. The SHARPFINGER trademark is designated to a variety of knives in this design ( upswept blade) by a number of makers. History The Sharpfinger was primarily produced by American ...

. Most American designs are based on a smaller version of the Bowie knife. Knifemaker

Bob Loveless Robert Waldorf Loveless (January 2, 1929 – September 2, 2010), a.k.a. Bob Loveless or RW Loveless, was an American knife maker who designed and popularized the hollowground drop point blade and the use of full tapered tangs and screw-type handle s ...

popularized the Drop point hunting knife and William Scagel popularized the Camp knife.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunting Knife Knives Hunting equipment Fur trade

Design

Types of knife

Type of blade

Examples

See also

References