# Outdoors > Gear and Equipment >  Why are kiwi knives more curved?

## fluffchucker

Thinking butchering and skinning here.
Just wondering (as you do) why in NZ the knives tend to be more curved.
Most British knives are straighter. Given that NZ has/had a background originating (in some ways) from Britain.
How come the difference and what are the advantages to either?
FC

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## 7mmsaum

Curved allows skinning and butchering with the same knife thats often carried for days/weeks in the field

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## MassiveAttack

Because we are always little bit bent.

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## fluffchucker

Would not a drop point do as well.
Also they are used in meat processing where that doesn't apply.
Just interested to know where the influence came from.
No it's the Aussies who were bent. That's why they got deported (I assume you're referring to bent as in crooked and not in a sexual connotation. After all that would be so non PC)

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## northdude

we dont really give a shit about pc here i guess the curved blades are easier to process game with using a dagger type of blade doesnt work all you tend to do is use the tip but a curved blade you can use more of the blade thats my thoughts anyway  :Thumbsup:

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## rossi.45

the knives we used in the past were mostly all made somewhere else  .. . Green River etc so probably it was about cost and what everyone else was using  . . it was a great day when custom knife makers arrived and showed a better way

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## scottrods

curved blade no good for field work though. Can't really do around the arsehole.

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## Friwi

Take a look at the design of a pukkobknife from Scandinavia : theses nomadic tribes have been using those blades for centuries , to do pretty much everything around camp and rein deer ( lots of castration as well). Their blade are not particurly curved.

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## R93

I don't own any curved blade knives and mine are all NZ made by a member of this forum.

As mentioned above they are not great for certain tasks if time is an issue.

I don't like spending to much time processing a carcass on the hill and worked for years in an industry where speed was money. 

Clients don't like standing around waiting for their head skins to be removed either. 

My do everything, except bone knife by John Worthington.

Had one for years. Would have it a little longer in the blade if I could get the bugger to agree to it😆



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## Micky Duck

I believe the curved blade comes from the freezing works industry as a skinning knife
look to our rural past we had sheep farmers who wouls slaughter and skin sheep nearly daily for food and dog tucker,deer cullers and private shooters skinned deer in the thousands so we sort of grew up/got used to using them.
personally I prefer a straighter blade the green river "bushmans friend" was a great knife now thats just their boner knife.

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## 7mmsaum



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## WillB

Hard to go past the Mora. Less than 40 bucks great steel easy to sharpen very light hygienic plastic sheath little long for some tasks but basically brilliant

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## HILLBILLYHUNTERS

These short skinners i made seem to do most jobs ok .

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## tiroatedson

I have no problem doing arseholes with a skinner. I carry this knife everyday for work. It's what u get used to. Sorry no photo. It's a Svord farmer knife. It's straighter towards the haft than the traditional skinner. 


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## Pengy

> Hard to go past the Mora. Less than 40 bucks great steel easy to sharpen very light hygienic plastic sheath little long for some tasks but basically brilliant


Or a Bahco

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## fluffchucker

Thanks for all the feedback. Knives are a personal thing. So it's interesting hearing peoples preferences.

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## Pointer

The reason behind a curved blade is the same as a circular saw.  For any given amount of feed rate there is more of the cutting surface in the cut as opposed to a straight cutting edge. Something that people that use slashing actions like meatworkers in primary breakdown roles and samurai have known for centuries  :Have A Nice Day:

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## Gibo

> The reason behind a curved blade is the same as a circular saw.  For any given amount of feed rate there is more of the cutting surface in the cut as opposed to a straight cutting edge. Something that people that use slashing actions like meatworkers in primary breakdown roles and samurai have known for centuries


Anyone would think you know a bit about saws?  :Wink:

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## Pointer

I dunno about that one, as I get on I can't help but believe the old saying "the more I learn, the less I know"  :Have A Nice Day:

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## Gibo

> I dunno about that one, as I get on I can't help but believe the old saying "the more I learn, the less I know"


Just bend over more so you are applying more learning surface?  :Wtfsmilie:

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## Tahr

There is another thing about the skinning blade shape, and that is that the sweep of the blade follows the natural ark of the arm's movement, making their use more natural and effortless.

I'm a bit like R93 and mainly use straighter blades nowadays because I mainly bone meat and don't skin anything now apart from Tahr. So I still take a skinner shaped blade when I'm chasing Tahr, and it works pretty well on the boning too.

Here I have both bases covered (skinner at top).

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## Gibo

> There is another thing about the skinning blade shape, and that is that the sweep of the blade follows the natural ark of the arm's movement, making their use more natural and effortless.
> 
> I'm a bit like R93 and mainly use straighter blades nowadays because I mainly bone meat and don't skin anything now apart from Tahr. So I still take a skinner shaped blade when I'm chasing Tahr, and it works pretty well on the boning too.
> 
> Here I have both bases covered (skinner at top).


Be interesting to see how much (or little) those two blade curvatures differ. Even straight bladed drop point blades are curved. Not like anyone with sense would dress/skin with a true straight blade.

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## BRADS

> Be interesting to see how much (or little) those two blade curvatures differ. Even straight bladed drop point blades are curved. Not like anyone with sense would dress/skin with a true straight blade. 
> 
> Attachment 50370


We both no a guy that used a staple once


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## Gibo

> We both no a guy that used a staple once
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


And a broad head  :Grin:

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## Tahr

Gibo, this might give you an idea.

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## Gibo

Yeah good comparison thanks.

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## Pointer

@Tahr actually said what I was going to next...

Gibo you are spot on. If there was no curve we would use a sharpened steel ruler. If now you look at every knife you own as simply a sharp radius, you will see how their shape dicatates their use. 

For more precise work, its obvious a smaller radius is required. The interesting bit is where the fulcrum is. 

Take the Blahco on the previous page, compared to the second skinner   @HILLBILLYHUNTERS made. The bahco has a smaller radius, much further away from the handle at the end of a straight blade. This shifts the fulcrum forward, generally to the wrist, which makes the knife used in a 'picking' motion, great for cutting out the ring gear and head skinning etc. Smaller picking strokes of the radius in the cut. 
Hillybillyhunters skinner on the right has a much larger radius, much closer to the handle, shifting the fulcrum to the rear, generally the elbow. This makes the knife more productive to use in long sweeping cuts, and is why it is favoured by freezing workers in a primary breakdown role and for people doing a lot of skinning. Being a larger radius it is less useful for delicate work although a good knifeman will make it look easy, and the radius affords a motion that doesn't use the wrist and avoiding repetitive strain injuries which is important if you are unzipping 25,000 sheep a week. Watch a good butcher or slaughterman at the works, you will see very little wrist action at all.

Theres your useless bit of info for the week  :Have A Nice Day:

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## Tahr

This is some silly old senile bugger using a Bark River skinner.
Don't be too hard on him.  :Have A Nice Day: 

https://youtu.be/idZ3ALeWUC4

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## erniec

For a lot of us its what we have used for a long time and what we have got used to.
The skinners we were given to use by our fathers,uncles the joker next door we used most of the time to knife off what was a struggle to punch off.
Any good knife is a pleasure to use but what you are familiar with is more comfortable/natural.
Practise helps and we got plenty on dog tuckers etc.
The skinners are best for "skinning" especially doing cattlebeasts.

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## mikee

> This is some silly old senile bugger using a Bark River skinner.
> Don't be too hard on him. 
> 
> https://youtu.be/idZ3ALeWUC4


 @Tahr, have you tried one of these

Bark River Kalahari 

One knife I like the "look" of but would probably lose just as fast as a 10 dollar bahco  :Have A Nice Day:

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## Tahr

> @Tahr, have you tried one of these
> Attachment 50386
> Bark River Kalahari 
> 
> One knife I like the "look" of but would probably lose just as fast as a 10 dollar bahco


I've got its small brother the "Mini Kalahari". Its a great knife so I imagine the Kalahari will be too.

Here's mine.

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## kiwijames

> Gibo, this might give you an idea.


Good to see you still have my Loveless.

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## MSL

I think a few of the knives in the photo have been moved on

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## Tahr

> I think a few of the knives in the photo have been moved on


4. But I've bought more than 4 since  :Have A Nice Day:

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## rambo-6mmrem

> 


yep the old Bahco from mitre 10 a mate of mine uses them hes a cronic loser of knifes and they at under $20 suit him to the ground
he helped with a big deer cull on a trophy block and field dressed 30 deer in a weekend with out needing to sharpen

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## fluffchucker

Maybe I didn't define well enough.
It's the back of the knife. Not the edge.
The back sweeps up. 
I assume this is to accommodate the sweep of the edge.
Also that design leaves the hand and back of the knife clear of the animal. More control
Still wonder where the influence came from.

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## Shelley

Hmm back in the day, when things were forged on a hot fire and shaped with a heavy hammer it was probably easier to have a curve than a straight edge, I imagine someone decided they were easier to use that way and asked the blacksmith to make another with more curve and it went from there.

As for the geographical popularity I would presume a travelling worker who was good at his job but not good at settling down would have impressed with the knife and after he left others would have wanted a similar knife and got other smiths to make them.

Idle speculation but based on some knowledge of similar historical events.

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