Parts of a Hunting Knife: How They Are Made

Hunting knives vary from traditional kitchen knives in a variety of ways, including their design and intended application.

Hunting knives are smaller but more powerful, with high-quality blade materials such as carbon steel and stainless steel, among others.

In order to have a better understanding of how they function, we will examine the primary components of a hunting knife as well as their construction.

If you like hunting knives and want to learn more about them, this is the article for you.

Parts of a Hunting Knife

There are a lot of moving components in a hunting knife, and they all have to function in their own unique way. Here are the standard components of a hunting blade.

The Blade

The blade is the most crucial component of a knife; it is the knife itself and performs all of the tasks for which the complete tool is intended. The hunting knife blade is designed to be as tough and durable as possible.

Different hunting knives have distinct blades. The blade of a hunting knife comes in a variety of shapes, including those listed below.

Clip Point

This is a typical blade profile for hunting knives, giving the impression that the top section of the blade has been lopped off. It’s light and convenient for making fast cuts and jabs.

Drop Point

Instead of pointing upwards like a clip point, the “point” of this knife points downwards, and the blade has a little but discernible downward curvature.

The handler determines whether or not the drop point’s tip has more strength. This is a hunting knife with a row of sharp teeth along the spine of the blade.

Sheepsfoot

This knife has a cleaver-like blade and may be used to make precise incisions and chopping motions.

While the top portion of the blade is straight and smooth, the lower cutting edge is curved slightly downwards towards the tip.

Some more grip room is available at the top of the blade.

Needle Point

This blade has a simple design and is best used for stabbing. Its two blades are honed to a point, allowing you to thrust efficiently into whatever you’re stabbing or cutting.

Spear Point

There are similarities to the needlepoint blade, but the spear point has a considerably smaller belly, making it quicker to slice and also providing the blade with greater power to cope with tougher materials.

Gut Hook

A drop point blade with an upward-pointing hook, ideal for gutting a game after a successful hunt.

The hook is sharp enough to pierce the skin and rip through the muscular tissue with lightning speed.

The Handle

Following the blade, the handle is the most noticeable feature of a knife. If you don’t have a handle, you’re stuck with a useless blade that might easily cause significant injuries if your hand slipped while you were using it.

Rubber, plastic, metal, and wooden components are just some of the materials used to manufacture handles.

Gripping the handle firmly is essential, thus it’s important that the design include grooves that work in all conditions. Even with a damp hand, the grip must be tight.

A hunting knife’s handle is often made of heavier materials to provide heft and durability. When purchasing a knife, be sure to hold the handle in your hands at all times.

The Tip

The tip of the blade, often known as the point, is where most of the harm is done while stabbing an animal.

It’s vital since it dictates how well that blade performs its function. It doesn’t matter whether you’re carving a mask out of an animal’s skin, tunneling through a tree, or excavating a hole for a tent.

It’s essential that the point be both sturdy and acute enough to do all of these actions without dulling or breaking. A knife that has lost its point is no longer a knife.

The Bolster

The link between the blade and the handle. The elevated area prevents your hand from passing through the gap, which is how you avoid cuts.

In addition to improving the knife’s effectiveness and strength while cutting through various materials, the added weight also improves the user’s balance and control when cutting.

Bolster also provides a comfortable and safe place to rest your thumb when not in use, which is essential for a hunting knife.

The Spine

The spine is the opposite edge of the blade. In some knives it comes smooth, and in others, it comes serrated with all kinds of shapes. Some spines also come sharpened near the tip to further make the blade more efficient. Unsharpened spines make it easier for the hand to be placed upon for extra support when cutting materials.

The spine lies on the blade’s opposing edge. It may be found in both smooth and serrated forms, with a wide variety of patterns available.

Knives use a false edge, which is a partially serrated area that can be used for various purposes such as sawing or slicing.

Some spines are already sharpened towards the tip to maximize cutting potential. Cutting materials is made simpler when the spines are not pointed, since the hand may rest more comfortably on them.

Procedures for Crafting a Hunting Knife

Creating a hunting knife is an individualized procedure in and of itself.

These days, stainless steel is the material of choice for the raw materials utilized in making hunting knives.

Some are strengthened with carbon so they can cut through difficult materials and keep their edge for longer.

Molybdenum is one chemical that is gaining popularity because it can be used to make tools that are both sharp and durable while also being resistant to corrosion.

The Manufacturing Process

The following are the five stages that go up the manufacturing of a hunting knife.

Blade Construction

Creating a blade’s tang is the very first step. Blanks are first cut from a larger metal sheet. When put through a punch press, the blanks take on the outline of the blade they will become.

A saw or laser cutting machine may be utilized on occasion, although such tools might be too costly for some.

After the blanks are carved out, the stocks and the tang are given holes by punching or drilling.

The blade is then given a rough shape using a grinding machine to provide a graduated thickness along its length.

This will guide the sharpening afterward.

Hardening

In order to strengthen the blank blade’s tensile strength, it is put through a hardening process that makes use of heat transfer techniques.

Using a ceramic pan, the blades are heated to 871 degrees Celsius in a conventional oven for around two hours.

All of the baked goods are dunked in oil or water as soon as they come out of the oven.

Quenching binds the metal crystals into complex patterns on the blades by quickly cooling them. A result of this is that the blades become brittle.

After reaching a temperature of 260 degrees Celsius, the blades are cooled gradually in a process known as tempering. This lessens the brittleness while yet leaving enough of it to permit honing.

Sharpening

Once the blades have cooled down completely, they are taken to the next phase which is polishing and sharpening. The polishing can be done by machine or hand, and it is done using a flat belt sander.

The purpose of polishing is to get rid of all the marks from the previous processes.

Afterward, the blades are put through grinding machines that are set to remove a certain amount of metal—leaving behind a uniformly sharpened knife.

Honing

Honing is the procedure that gives sharpened blades their distinctive edge. The blade is sharpened to an angle between 17 and 30 degrees using rough grinding equipment.

What this does is assist the knife to keep its edge as sharp as possible for as long as possible.

Assembly

In the assembly phase, the various components of the knife are joined together.

The blade is riveted to the stock to provide stability. The bolster and the rest of the blade are then permanently attached to the handle.

After this step, the hunting knife is ready for use and may be personalized with artwork or other modifications.

Takeaways

The method outlined here is the standard method for producing hunting knives. You may get hunting knives that are crafted using a variety of additional cutting-edge techniques and premium components.

Luxury hunting knives are a dime a dozen, but the few that are made to order are works of art.

Hunters, you could have picked up some interesting facts about the production of the knife you use today.

Check out our website if you’re interested in learning more about knives; you could discover something there that suits your needs.

As a fan of hunting, you should learn how to keep your knife in excellent condition.

If you take care of your hunting knife, it will reward you with successful hunts.