Thread: Various Knives

question for you...been pondering this all day.
Ive got two if not three old wooden handled skinning knives possibly green river possibly ex freezing works....very old and very easy to get and keep sharp..only issue I have is not a fan at all of curved skinning blades....how hard would it be/it it feasable/possible to heat and reshape blade to straight??? without having to go whole hog and heat to red and beat them to pulp and start again???

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

question for you...been pondering this all day.
Ive got two if not three old wooden handled skinning knives possibly green river possibly ex freezing works....very old and very easy to get and keep sharp..only issue I have is not a fan at all of curved skinning blades....how hard would it be/it it feasable/possible to heat and reshape blade to straight??? without having to go whole hog and heat to red and beat them to pulp and start again???

Cold working destroys steel so no you cant move metal into different shapes without heat and enough heat (red at least) so it will move under the hammer without cracking so what you contemplate would ruin the blades. It is the heat treating of good carbon steel that makes them take and hold an edge and a correctly heat treated carbon steel blade will hold an edge but still be reasonably easy to keep sharp.

For me this is all the curve that a skinning knife should have and the way I worked toward making then since 1968 when I was given an old green river skinner with the big upswept blade to kill a few sheep on the high country station I went when I left school school. Hated the design and that was when I started critical analysis of knife design and working on better (for my use) shapes in both blade and handle for easy and safe use and handling.

Originally Posted by Von Gruff Knives

Cold working destroys steel so no you cant move metal into different shapes without heat and enough heat (red at least) so it will move under the hammer without cracking so what you contemplate would ruin the blades. It is the heat treating of good carbon steel that makes them take and hold an edge and a correctly heat treated carbon steel blade will hold an edge but still be reasonably easy to keep sharp.

For me this is all the curve that a skinning knife should have and the way I worked toward making then since 1968 when I was given an old green river skinner with the big upswept blade to kill a few sheep on the high country station I went when I left school school. Hated the design and that was when I started critical analysis of knife design and working on better (for my use) shapes in both blade and handle for easy and safe use and handling.

well sometimes I do actually listen (my teachers would be amazed to read that) and took what you have said onboard...I did something less drastic..I sliced a piece off rear of swept skinning bade, made rear edge almost parrallel with handle... gave knife a decent point by doing so ,not having as much blade up above centreline is much better for me...really happy with end result and knife is nice to use so will GET used again now.
thankyou for the advice.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

question for you...been pondering this all day.
Ive got two if not three old wooden handled skinning knives possibly green river possibly ex freezing works....very old and very easy to get and keep sharp..only issue I have is not a fan at all of curved skinning blades....how hard would it be/it it feasable/possible to heat and reshape blade to straight??? without having to go whole hog and heat to red and beat them to pulp and start again???

Another thing to think about is reshaping the blades to take some of the big upsweep off them. Careful grinding to minimise heat and you can do a great deal with an old knife that has good steel by re-shaping them. Not hard to do at all.