Very interesting thread with lots of beautiful knives. However, I do have one pet peeve with just about every hunting knife out there: The smooth surfaces of the handles. Whenever I purchase a knife, whether folding or fixed blade for hunting, my number one concern is functionality and in my humble opinion, being able to effectively grasp a knife while one's hands are wet, covered with fish slime or animal blood is my primary concern. To me, sharpness is slightly secondary to handling when skinning or gutting any animal. I appreciate beauty as much as anyone, but whatever tool I purchase is for use, not display.
I have found that Rapala makes good fileting knives with rubberized, textured handles. They also make them with wooden handles. My first knife of this type came with a wooden handle, so I had to roughen up the surface with a Dremel tool. The handle looks ugly and butchered, but it says in my hand when being put to use.
I inherited beautiful a Sauer skinning knife, which I proceeded to use on a deer and ended up giving myself a nasty cut in my left hand when blood made the handle slippery and caused me to lose my grip on it. I ended-up having to coarse-sand the laminate handle and apply coarse-textured paint which mimics ceramic particles upon drying. Same thing with another custom-made skinning knife.
The last hunting knife I bought is a Benchmark with textured rubber handles. The shape of the blade is not as effective as others for skinning/gutting, but the damn thing stays in my hand.
It would be advantageous for custom knife makers to offer knives with rough textured handles, since I am quite sure I am not alone and many hunters would appreciate it. Please excuse the rant.
usaknifemaker.com
