Hi Kevin,

Good Questions. While I don't have experience with boning knives, I've made a few skinners. The blade of a skinner doesn't necessarily have to be short, you just have to take into consideration that it's all about the slicing motion. When planning out a skinning knife I try to think about parabolic curves: there really isn't any point of contact on a parabolic curve that could be considered "flat". Its always coming in on an angle, leaving the cutting edge in contact throughout the cut without having to change the angle of the blade. Pure slicing action. Beyond that, its up to you to make it look good. (But I might leave out a guard, or anything else that can catch on stuff)

Good Luck!

-Evan

|quoted:

Hi Kevin,

Good Questions. While I don't have experience with boning knives, I've made a few skinners. The blade of a skinner doesn't necessarily have to be short, you just have to take into consideration that it's all about the slicing motion. When planning out a skinning knife I try to think about parabolic curves: there really isn't any point of contact on a parabolic curve that could be considered "flat". Its always coming in on an angle, leaving the cutting edge in contact throughout the cut without having to change the angle of the blade. Pure slicing action. Beyond that, its up to you to make it look good. (But I might leave out a guard, or anything else that can catch on stuff)

Good Luck!

-Evan

thanks.

If it was my uncle, I'd go back and talk with him a bit more as to what he wanted. The word "Skinner" covers a wide range of shapes.

|quoted:

If it was my uncle, I'd go back and talk with him a bit more as to what he wanted. The word "Skinner" covers a wide range of shapes.

Great advice, We have been discussing It on Facebook messenger as we live on other sides of the state. Yesterday I shared a couple of blade designs with him and let him pick, he chose this one. I am going to be sketching out a few handle designs next. however, i will also state I can redesign the blade when I share the handle. I like having a blunt section above a blade as I have cut myself on the extension of the bevel, I am going with a hidden tang as I have read a full tangs tang can get cold if your out and about in winter well a hidden tang can feel nice under those conditions. my uncle likes to hunt deer and elk.

i think the blade is a bit broad for a skinner.

Note: drawing is at 1/1 scale at full size. the sketch pad is 14x11

One of my standart knives is a skinner. When I started making it, I talked to some friends - a hunters (I am not a hunter) and watched some of them process an animal. They all wanted a short blade to be able to cut and work inside the animal - chest, belly, etc.(I hope I translated it correctly) with a curve. The curve was giving them a longer edge on a standart length blade and a small contact point when cutting. I made a blade with a short straight part, a choil big enough to "choke" the blade nd a curve. I added a little hump on the tip to help the blade slide and cut under the skin, without digging in the meat. The blade looks like a longer and slimmer Nessmuk knife. I also like to think, that I came with the design, but this is not true - I have looked at a billion knife pictures and I am sure I have een the blade or similar blade somewhere.

Here is the knife:

And here is a drawing of the blade. Just remember that the tang is longer.

If you like it, I will send you the CorelDraw files with the blade.

The other good skinner is the Grohmann #1 knife. I made some of them and I can say that this is the ugliest, but most confortable knife ever and all the hunters agree!

Thank you for sharing the information with me =). I did take those considerations in when I did my initial designs. I forgot to share the second one. I have seen in-person skiing (of a duck). My uncles and cousin are hunters. The second design I did has a similar point but with a gut hook as a friend of mine likes a blade with one I thought I should present two designs and let him pick. He picked the one I shared first, so that's what I have to make him, but I will apply your advice for my next design. It's a bit hard to see in the drawing, but the entire blade has a slight curve. also, I got the prototype/template done and a production unit I may have to abandoned and restart, as I screwed up the hot cut. (blush emoji) I went with a small riccoso as I thought a longer one might get hung up.

I do not own CorelDRAW.

PS: I also need to state the skinners might be a bit large. However, my uncle wants them for butchering deer. 

Here's a skinner I made for a friend. He wanted it to skin moose so it's on the bigger side. It,s made of 5160 oil quenched. If this can inspire anyone.

Please note that this is my 3rd knife i've ever made in my life.

So I may be a bit late to this discussion, but I am an avid hunter and butcher all my own game. A lot of folks think a large knife is needed for deer skinning, however if the kill is fresh a large majority of the hide will pull away from the fascia below (after cut) by pulling down on it. I made and use this small blade for skinning and hold it like the attached photo. My index finger goes under the skin with the point and does not allow for puncture of the guts or digging into the meat. It also opens up hide like a zipper.

For boning I use a slightly larger blade (I do the gutless method) and need about 4.5” to get to the rear hip and dislocate the ball joint of a deer. 

personally I like a blade for skinning that has a nice long curve.  I made this for a client and he really likes it.  It has a very rounded nose for a nice slicing/skinning stroke.  The antler was supplied by him from his hunt last year.

/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1918,cg:true

I'm not too picky when it comes to dressing large game, but one I enjoy making and using is my White Iron Hunter design:

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]