How to Choose Your First Hunting Knife

A hunting knife is one of the most critical pieces of gear for a new hunter. Aside from your gun or bow, I’d say it’s the most essential piece of gear.

Not only should you be carrying a knife as a safety precaution every time you go into the woods (hunting or not), it becomes an absolute necessity once you’ve been successful in harvesting game.

Now for the hard part. With literally thousands of options out there, which knife do you choose?

Any seasoned hunter you meet will undoubtedly have multiple knives for all types of situations. I’m no different, and I’ve spent a lifetime acquiring knives as I found a need for them. Today we’re going to talk about which one to buy first.

Our first hunting knife must have two key components- strong and sharp.

Without those two things, nothing else matters. If your knife can’t hold its edge in the field or breaks while trying to cut up an animal, you might as well not even have it with you.

Knife Strength is determined by the quality of the knife as well as the style.

Style

A fixed-blade knife will almost always be more robust than a folding knife. That’s not to say that there are not some folding knives out there that would pass the strength test because there certainly are, and I own a couple. But as a general rule, fixed-blade knives will be stronger.

Quality

A 20-dollar knife off Amazon will likely not fill the quality bucket. Not saying it’s impossible, just highly unlikely. That being said, I’ve bought knives in the $40-$80 range that I feel have excellent quality for the price. Buck Knives is one of the brands I think bridges the quality-cost gap nicely.

You can also go high-end on quality, spend hundreds of dollars on top brands like Benchmade, or even get into custom handmade knives. I’ve been lucky enough to get a couple of Benchmade’s as birthday gifts over the years, as well as one knife that was custom-made for me by my uncle when I was 12 (pictured above under the orange Benchmade). I’ll be honest, the quality of those knives is stellar, and once you start using that caliber of a knife, you won’t want to go back.

That said, I’ve forgotten my good knives while hunting deer before, and I completely field dressed, skinned, and de-boned an entire deer with a folding Buck knife with absolutely no issue.

Knife sharpness is reflected by the knife's quality and your sharpening skills.

Before we discuss this any further, we need to define sharpness. There’s a simple test to see if a knife is sharp, and it’s pass/fail. Can you shave with it? That’s how sharp I want my hunting knives.

Quality

Simply put, a higher-end knife will hold a sharper, stronger edge much longer than a cheaper knife. I like a knife to get through skinning and field dressing an animal without needing sharpening halfway through. In my experience, most knives that fall into the $50-$100 price point and up will likely do that.

Sharpening skills

Knife sharpening is a craft and something that needs to be learned. However, it’s essential as a hunter and only comes with practice. There are many different tools available to help you hone that skill. Pun intended.

Size and shape are two other things to consider when looking for your first knife.

The blade length we’re looking for in a good hunting knife is usually between 3 and 5 inches long.

I know that probably seems shorter than you might expect, but the fact is that when we’re field-dressing an animal, we need to get into some tight places with that knife, so we want it to be short enough to be agile.

The shape of the handle should be whatever feels comfortable and sturdy in your hand.

The most common injury from hunting is slipping with a knife while skinning or field-dressing animals. As I mentioned, I want my knives razor sharp, so any slip can cause significant damage. Notice on the orange knife how I wrapped the handle with paracord. The original handle was so slim to save weight that I didn't feel I could get a good grip on it while cutting.

In my opinion, the shape of the blade should be a drop point(top knife) or a straight back(bottom knife).

This is a much stronger tip with less chance of breaking when deboning and field-dressing animals.

When a knife comes to a sharp, thin point, it has a much higher chance of breaking(pictured left) when we’re doing something like separating a hip socket on a deer.

Another knife feature worth considering is called a gut hook. (pictured below)

It essentially helps you with the skinning process of an animal when making your first cuts. First, the bottom of the hook goes under the skin. You then pull the hook along, and it makes your first cuts for you without needing to hold the skin with your fingers right beside your razor-sharp blade.

One last type of knife worth considering is a replaceable blade knife.

This particular one is a Havalon. The great thing about these is that whenever the blade gets dull, you swap it out for a brand-new razor-sharp one. I carry one of these in my pack for skinning and field dressing. It's important to note that this is a secondary knife. It's for skinning and detail work while field processing and doesn't replace a solid blade knife. Therefore, this should only be used as your secondary knife if you already have a good fixed blade.

A good knife is one of the most essential pieces of gear you'll need as a new hunter. You don't need to break the bank on this, but don't go cheap either. Instead, buy something quality, and you'll have it forever. So many hunting memories will eventually be tied to your knives.