Start sharp and stay sharp — that should be the goal for your hunting knife.
When it comes to keeping a sharp knife on a backpack hunt, we have experimented with a lot of different options — from using replaceable-blade knives that don't need sharpening, to a wide variety of sharpening devices and methods for fixed-blade knives.
In the video below, Mark from Exo Mtn Gear demonstrates his sharpening technique and share some tips for using our go-to knife sharpener for backpack hunts, the DMT Dia-Fold...
THE ENEMIES OF SHARP
As mentioned, we want to start sharp and stay sharp. This means that your knife is ready at the beginning of the hunt. Make sure to touch up your blade, if needed, before you pack up your gear and hit the mountains. (See our favorite at-home sharpener below.)
To stay sharp, use care when breaking down your animals. When skinning, work in the natural direction of the hair, which makes cutting easier and also leads to less hair on the meat. As you start to quarter the animal or remove meat from the bone, stay sharp by avoiding blade-to-bone contact as much as possible. Every so often, quickly wipe your blade of blood, hair, and fat that tends to build up and make cutting less efficient.
And, if your blade begins to dull, take a few moments to touch it up with the sharpener. Too often, hunters feel too much pressure and hurry when breaking down animals and don't make decisions that make them safer and more efficient in the grand scheme of things.
It is much easier to keep a knife sharp than it is to make a knife sharp.
FINER DETAILS
This article isn't meant to go into every fine detail on knife selection or sharpening, but some great topics to learn about, if you haven't already, would be blade steels, blade angles, and bevel types.
For example, you may struggle with sharpening your knife if you're trying to use a method and technique that is correct for a flat blade bevel, but your knife has a convex edge to it. (Don't know what that that means? This should help.)
In terms of blade steels, there are a lot of great options these days. The modern premium steels, such as S30V, S35VN, S90V, or MagnaCut, all come at a cost, but if you are investing in a high-performance knife that you will use for years to come, and could even pass down to friends or family, you will be impressed by their performance and longevity.
WHAT ABOUT ______?
There are as countless styles, types, and brands of knives. Our context, as always, is lightweight, high-performance gear for backpack hunting. So that influences the knives we use and recommend.
Not every hunter needs to choose a 2-ounce skeletonized knife with ultra-premium blade steel.
If budget is more of a concern than size and weight, the Morakniv hunting knives are wonderful for their price.
And if you are a fan of replaceable-blade knives, that is certainly understandable. We continue to use them for specific tasks (most often for caping), but they are not our primary hunting knife — primarily for safety reasons.
RECOMMENDED GEAR
There are a lot of quality knives and accessories on the market, but here are some the favorite items we have used for our personal hunts...
- In-The-Field Sharpener: DMT Dia-Fold (Fine/Extra-Fine)
- At-Home Sharpener: Work Sharp Precision Adjust Elite
- Folding Everyday/Backpacking Knife:
Benchmade Mini Bugout
- Lightweight Hunting Knives