Back in the ’60’s I started shooting After I came out of army.
My knives were a mix of Schrade. Puma and a Martiini.
Plus a coupla hand ground power saw blades for serious (Buff. Croc. Goat) skinning.
Puma. Hunters Pal. and Prince. Both Staghorn.
Beautiful knives. for both quality of build. Looks and work.
50 plus yrs and still the best all rounders.
Schrade “Lil Finger’ x 2. Staghorn Engraved, and std handles.
They more a novelty for looks (beautiful looking little things)
but would NOT hold a skinning edge for more than two foxes at best.
Lovely for caping small animals though.
Martiini. the most useful. reliable. “camp knife” for all round work.
Basic. and unkillable. Around ’71/’73 For that one from memory.
Passed on from mate.
Heavy skinning. Aust Buff’s. (and croc’s, shhhh a grand a skin up to 6 ft
softer/thinner skin)
I made several 2in power saw blade skinners. moulded tyre rubber handles.
Mate worked in mould room at tyre mfg’s.
Would be VERY hard to find any Heavy duty skinner to match those blades.
Rough but more than ready.
In pocket nowadays. Either Micron 2 on keyring with house keys and stainless
torch. or a little no scales Puma. Mostly for cleaning finger nails nowadays.
Oh Also a custom Crosssman skinner I bought back in ’86. But yet to cut a skin.
Nicely proportioned and looking blade.
Plus multiple other “pocket” knives over 65 yrs or so. Some good.
Some shouldn’t exist.
Nowadays, there’s a zillion makers and quality’s. I wouldn’t know where to start.
But a 2 1\2 to 3 1\2 inch, Quality, drop point blade with “comfortable” handle would cover 99% of uses methink’s. with a Martiini size/shape FIXED. for general use.
For long periods I’d say a custom moulded (or carved scales handle)
to your hand is the better one. Better than all these fancy “hard” handles.
I.E. Multiple animals a day.
Hmmm……Not real sure. I don’t have but a few assisted knives. I like the the Ganzo 758 auto opener. I think that and a blacked out Leek are the only assisted knives I have. I gave the Pico to a buddy who needed it more than I wanted it. My brother in law swears by his SOG Flash II. Aus-8 assisted knife. Might take a peak at that, see if that is your thing.
Well I bought it over a year ago. I could have sworn I got it off Ebay but couldn’t find it in my orders. I found out that I ordered it from Fast Tech. It’s listed as discontinued now. Here is a Ebay ad for it. I am always on the lookout for another aluminum handled one. If you can find one, grab it, quickly.
Vouking Stedemon TS05 knives 30% off on Amazon. Makes them pretty affordable. Amazon ad doesn’t have much information included so I stuck a BladeHQ ad in there as well with all the pertinent info.
The Pico would be a decent design without that huge gap between the handle and the lock-bar.
After having a couple of frame-lock Ganzos and Sanrenmu Lands all of my frame-lock Kershaws look quite ridiculous.
That’s like the Grand Canyon compared to the Ganzo G722 or G742. :laughing: