Thread: The next knife

Like most of us, I have my own ideas on what makes a good hunting knife design. I started with a Mercator, then a Buck 110, then...... 40 years later I bought a Fallkniven phk. On arrival I realized it was a club of a thing, so took to it with a grinder and put it on a serious diet.
Other than the handle being slightly too small, I was pretty satisfied with it, so you can imagine my disappointment when I lost it somewhere in this photo....


I used my pocket knife for field dressing that weekend, but it's not ideal, and so after getting severe sticker shock at knife prices I'm building the next one.

First step is design. I like a blade 4.5-5" long, straight enough for boning and ring gutting, enough belly for skinning, not especially heavy and comfortable in the hand.

A modified semi skinner was contemplated


But it is too deep in the belly and too heavy, so I ended up with this.



which has been turned into a cardboard template, and a piece of 4mm O1 is waiting for the saw. I'll play with the template a bit before any cutting happens, but I'm fairly sure this is where it will end up.if