Alsatian

Has anyone here used the Gerber Vital "scalpel type" knife? What is your experience with this blade? I just ordered one, based on watching an elk dressing video by Randy Newburg. I have cut up five elk now (in the past, not using this Gerber Vital) and have usually used bigger knives. That scalpel-type knife just looked like something I wanted to try out. "super sharp" and ability to replace a dulled blade with a new "super sharp" blade sounded attractive to me. During the process of cutting up an elk, my knife dulls noticeably and I stop to sharpen the blade on a kind of rasping, V-shaped sharpening steel located in side a plastic holder device. Once dulled, that field sharpening device doesn't get the knife back to true sharpness. Again, just thought I would try something different.


I am also planning to carry a knife that I assume is a special purpose "skinning" knife that I inherited from my father when he died in 2002. This has a long curve, and the blade arches back beyond the line of the wooden handle. I just never thought about using this knife, but in looking around on-line I see this shape is typically thought to be useful for skinning. It is sharp, so I'm putting it in my pack. If I'm fortunate enough to take an elk, it will get the call for skinning. It was made by Herter's, which used to be a big outdoor equipment supplier back in the 1970s. I remember my dad ordered a lot of stuff from them. Often Herter's sold equipment that could be used to make outdoor sports equipment yourself -- rifle stock blanks, fishing rod blanks, stuff for making fishing lures, stuff for making fishing nets, etc. My dad did a lot of that home project stuff. He made fishing poles, fishing lures. He made the stock for the .30-06 Springfield rifle that I use when elk hunting -- very possibly with a wooden stock blank from Herter's. He made fishing nets. He would sit in the living room watching the Chicago Blackhawks on TV and knit his fishing net up. I guess this kind of do-it-yourself equipment is a thing of the past in our modern age, but I thought it was kind of cool that my dad made those things.