Hunting Knives

                Hunting knives are one of the most useful tools you can have out on the hunt. While you won’t be going around trying to make a kill with your knife, it can be extremely important in setting up a kill shot. Some quarries, such as wild turkeys, require decoys, blockades, and other prep work that can take hours before you even seen a bird, much less get a clear shot.

                A hunting knife is used for nearly every stage of the hunt, from setting up a shelter to cleaning a kill. Each hunter will have a few specifics they look for in a knife, but there are several features that most have in common. The basic parts of any knife are a blade and handle. The most common blade compositions are a steel carbide or stainless steel. Steel carbides hold a sharper edge, but are less resistant to corrosion than stainless steel.

                There are also other, more exotic blade materials for knife composition. You can get ceramic bladed hunting knives, which offer an extremely sharp and corrosion resistant edge, but are more brittle than metal knives. Many experts compare them to glass; they will shatter if dropped on concrete. There are also other metal alloys used, from titanium, to layered ‘sandwiches’ of different alloys. Each material brings different strengths to the table, but they all have their drawbacks. Commonly the tradeoff metals make is between the ability to keep an edge and the ability to resist corrosion. So a corrosion resistant knife will require more sharpening, whereas a knife that never needs to be sharpened must be kept free from water and other corrosive agents.