Interchangeable blade (scalpel) knives. Love em' or hate em'?

[Jeff Johnston]

I like those interchangeable blade knives for one thing: Skinning animals when they are in a controlled, well-lit area like a skinning shed. I've just seen too many (four) hunters cut themselves when they are changing the blade in cold weather when their hands or numb, or worse yet, lose the blade in the animal when the flimsy thing breaks or pops loose. Then everyone who handles or eats the animal is paranoid from then on out. And i just don't think they are made for the brunt of animal dressing work where you'll always encounter tough bones and thick muscle. So i can't figure out what's all the rave, but many guys I know will fight me on this. The whole issue seems to be more tribal that it should. What do you think?

 

[Kyle Wright]

Decidedly not a fan. In addition to a blade being functional, I personally believe a knife ought to be pretty. Interchangeables are not.

 

[cwiatrek86]

I tried to love em but I just couldn't get there. Too dang sharp and broke too many blades

 

[mteague90]

I normally use a benchmade grizzly creek to field dress deer. It’s been my companion in the bush for the past decade.

But last year i decided to use an outdoor edge knife. The blades don’t last very long, and when they get gummed up with fat and stuff it’s fun changing them. Expecially in the cold. After doing 2 deer with it, I cleaned it and put it away. No thanks.

 

[aenglehardt1]

The havalon should come with a gift certificate to the ER for stitches, I don’t even try to change those blades anymore without a leatherman or pair of pliers. I will say Hogue makes a much better version that has a less than 50% chance of partial amputation. I have used it for two seasons now and will never go back. All that said I still pack a good fixed blade but really like the exchangeable blades for fine work and skinning for capes and shoulder mounts.

 

[johnmaskell1986]

I used one once skinning out a head and dont see the point in them.
They are way too sharp and delicate for what they are intended for in my opinion.
Get a decent knife made with good steel and you will forget all about them.

 

[csmcclain]

Broke plenty on game, and started moving towards a fixed blade. The final straw was when a blade snapped under almost no pressure in my yard while I was cleaning a nilgai skull. Couldn’t find it no matter how hard I tried—even ordered a metal detector. Just to ensure no one would ever step on it, I had to temporarily fence off the area, tamp down the area to hopefully burry it, go buy 25 sheets of sod and a bunch of topsoil, then lay it.

My little 2-hour skull mount project became a week-long affair. Never again.

 

[deadeyejunior]

As much as I love a quality fixed blades, I love the shit out of a Havalon. Skinned and quartered countless animals with them. I've found they make a thicker blade called the XT, they dont break as easy.

 

[gelhaargerald]

Huge fan of them. I have tried a lot of different knife sharpeners and I am just not good at it. I really like the longer fillet ones for cleaning up the meat after you debone it all.

 

[Pete Correale]

A buddy gave me one last winter… Not gonna lie, it works great for cleaning birds, and there is no denying how nice it is to quickly swap out for a new blade.

 

[Pete Correale]

Huge fan of them. I have tried a lot of different knife sharpeners and I am just not good at it. I really like the longer fillet ones for cleaning up the meat after you debone it all.

Depending on how hard the steel is, nothing works better than a good electric knives sharpener… Softer steel is easy to sharpen up on a standard double sided stone.

 

[nunleycd]

I use them to skin out skulls for euro mounts. Especially getting the eyes out of the sockets. But I lost one in a bear a couple years back and cut myself trying to find it so I stick with a good fixed blade now

 

[brianereed129]

For me they have their place in the kit. I mainly use them to get to the sternum and then once I have the deer open cut the diaphragm. Fixed blade does well too. Just my preference.

 

[clint]

I use both. Recently switched from the havalon to the hougue interchangeable. Blade release is super slick. Comes with a plastic box to put the used blades in. Hougue offers a blade that has a rounded blunt point. Still scares the shit out of me though inside a chest cavity.

 

[threebutteranch]

I stay away from the scalpel blades for no reason other than the growing number of used blades I find on elk hunts every year.