Years ago it had long puzzled me why no one had invented a boning knife for the outdoorsman. Of course there were the commercial boning knives that packing plants used but every group of people wants to feel special and have their own brand don't they.
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| The 6-inch Outdoor Edge boning/fillet knife is available in the Butcher-Lite field butcher kit. |
I'll tell you what I mean by that. I'm not at all a Harley Davidson man but let's look at them. They have Harley Davidson boots, pants, hats and even underwear. Is it really necessary to have Harley Davidson undies? What do you need them for? To sneak up on your bike? But are we outdoorsmen really any different? I've seen camo cell phone holsters, pens and yes, even undies. What do WE need camo undies for? To sneak up on a porto potty?
So with all of that said, years ago when the Denver Bass Pro Shops opened I did a lot of seminars for them and noticed that Outdoor Edge had come out with a fold-up boning knife — Outdoor Edge Fish & Bone Knife. What an ingenious idea. That's the bad deal about boning knives — they work great but it's hard to find a safe sheath to carry them in while in the mountains hunting. A fold-up knife takes care of that problem.
In a future blog we'll talk about the Outdoor Edge Fish & Bone Knife and all of its benefits but for hardcore all-day boning you need an actual boning knife. Outdoor Edge has them; so finally the outdoorsman does have a boning knife made for them.
Many people think that for large animals you need a big knife. I use a 5 or 6-inch boning knife to bone everything from an antelope to a moose and to fillet everything from an 8-inch trout to a 4-foot salmon. Everyone thinks that you need a super flimsy fillet knife to fillet fish. I don't use one.
Just the other night I got back from a fishing trip and filleted my catch with my Outdoor Edge 6-inch boning knife, which comes in the Butcher-Lite 8-piece Field Butcher Kit. When I'm bear hunting, you can bet that I'm taking my Outdoor Edge boning knife for our bears.
Outdoor Edge's other boning knives combination sets include the Blaze N' Bone Knives — an orange handled boning knife, which would be nice so you aren't as apt to lose it while boning out your game in the backcountry.
You may notice that their orange handled boning knife is only 4.8 inches long. Is that a problem? Not at all. It's a matter of preference. Many good *** prefer a 5-inch knife; some prefer a 6-inch. In fact, many of my old boning knives have been sharpened so many times that they have been ground down and are barely 5 1/2 inches anyway. So grab an Outdoor Edge boning knife and give it a try on boning out your next big game animal. It will save you some money plus add another dimension to your outdoor experience.
As we close, let's finish on safety. I am by no means known as Captain Safety, but I've seen numerous people get cut with boning knives and have been cut multiple times myself. It's never been a fun experience. The only scabbard I know on the market that is semi-suitable for carrying a boning knife in the backcountry is made by Forschner and is somewhat hard to find. It's a hard plastic clamshell scabbard that snaps over the blade. You'll want one of these for your Outdoor Edge boning knife if you're hiking around in the backcountry or packing in on horses. Have fun and hopefully you'll need a boning knife in the next few days before the spring bear season winds down.
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