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replaceable blade knives - worth the hype?

slonstdy

slonstdy

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2018
Messages
1,377
I've been doing research on how to pack out game and the proper kill kit necessities and see practically everyone carries and recommends a replaceable blade knife like a Havalon or Gerber to name a couple.
I've been carrying a 5" fixed blade Buck knife for over 15 years and have gutted and skinned plenty of deer with it without any problem which got me thinking about what is it that makes these type of knives so great? Is it the fact that they're less weight and there's never a need to sharpen a blade? I see them as a sort of sales gimmick, like for example the latest and greatest super duper rifle caliber that boasts a blazing 12fps faster than the one it was modeled after but costs almost double. I can sharpen my blade to shaving sharp and I might be concerned about weight and packability if I was hiking 15 miles but that is not my situation.
So what am I missing that makes these things a must have?
 
slonstdy said:
I've been doing research on how to pack out game and the proper kill kit necessities and see practically everyone carries and recommends a replaceable blade knife like a Havalon or Gerber to name a couple.
I've been carrying a 5" fixed blade Buck knife for over 15 years and have gutted and skinned plenty of deer with it without any problem which got me thinking about what is it that makes these type of knives so great? Is it the fact that they're less weight and there's never a need to sharpen a blade? I see them as a sort of sales gimmick, like for example the latest and greatest super duper rifle caliber that boasts a blazing 12fps faster than the one it was modeled after but costs almost double. I can sharpen my blade to shaving sharp and I might be concerned about weight and packability if I was hiking 15 miles but that is not my situation.
So what am I missing that makes these things a must have?
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Cheaper to get a new high speed knife than a new high speed (+12fps) rifle.

I passed on knives and spent my money on the rifle. :)
 
The replaceable blade knives are probably great for the guys that never took the time to learn how to sharpen anything. My father had me sharpening knives at age 8. He also showed me how to sharpen lawn mower blades, scythes, weed hooks, and drill bits. I passed it on also.
 
Still Kicking said:
The replaceable blade knives are probably great for the guys that never took the time to learn how to sharpen anything. My father had me sharpening knives at age 8. He also showed me how to sharpen lawn mower blades, scythes, weed hooks, and drill bits. I passed it on also.
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My father-in-law still has his Dad’s scythe, and despite his incredible collection of modern machinery and equipment, he still swears by it for certain tasks.

How amazing can a new knife be? This is one gear infatuation that I just don’t get. And I am a gearaholic.
 
I got one, havalon, after watching my taxidermist use one a few years back. It stays in my kill bag. I can clean a whole deer and de-bone for pack out with it, no problem. Just switch blades for the next one without having to go home and tune up your standard fixed blade. I know some guys love to just work on a blade but I ain’t one of them. So it’s a convenience thing for me, always a scalpel sharp blade waiting...


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Might as well have one or two laying around. But for me, by the time I decide my knife is dull, go dig through my box of crap and find a blade, replace it and get back to work I could have taken a few strokes on a butcher steel and been better off.
I think it’s a lot better to keep a steel handy and take a few strokes every few minutes
 
slonstdy said:
I've been doing research on how to pack out game and the proper kill kit necessities and see practically everyone carries and recommends a replaceable blade knife like a Havalon or Gerber to name a couple.
I've been carrying a 5" fixed blade Buck knife for over 15 years and have gutted and skinned plenty of deer with it without any problem which got me thinking about what is it that makes these type of knives so great? Is it the fact that they're less weight and there's never a need to sharpen a blade? I see them as a sort of sales gimmick, like for example the latest and greatest super duper rifle caliber that boasts a blazing 12fps faster than the one it was modeled after but costs almost double. I can sharpen my blade to shaving sharp and I might be concerned about weight and packability if I was hiking 15 miles but that is not my situation.
So what am I missing that makes these things a must have?
Click to expand...
I am with you and plan to stay that way. The folks who say this is a must perhaps struggle with knife sharpening. I carry a Schrade Tactical Pocket Knife with a 3.5" blade. I carry it all year long. I clean deer with it as well. Works great. I keep it sharp. It has a liner lock so never closes by accident. Has a good safe grip even when wet.
 
I have no problem sharpening a knife. But I bought a havalon for ounce reduction to go on my 1st elk hunt. Easier to pack a couple extra blades than stones or steel. By my 2nd elk hunt, I wasn’t as worried about counting ounces. Still brought along my havalon because I already had it, but I wouldn’t have bought one.
Since I already have one I use it and keep it in my deer pack also with a couple extra blades. It does a great job. Nothing special compared to a regular knife. But it’s light and doesn’t take up much room in my bag and I already have it. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t make a special purchase to have one. I usually skin and debone 2 deer before replacing a blade. I don’t cut much hair or hit much bone. Probably can do 3 deer.
 
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People who don’t use cloth diapers must not know how to wash clothes. People who use toilet paper must not know how to use a stick...

I use cut on contact fixed blade broadheads to hunt. I resharpen them. The reason I use ones with thick, strong blades, is not because I like to sharpen stuff. It’s because I don’t want it to break when its in the process of killing a deer. I am capable of, and good at, sharpening them.

I use a scalpel to take deer apart in the field. I don’t care if a blade breaks while I’m cleaning a deer because it’s already dead. It has no impact on the outcome of the activity. Having said that, I’ve never broken one, and I’ve probably cleaned 20 deer so far with it.

Pros:

my knife and a spare blade weighs less than 1.5 ounces.

zero minutes spent sharpening.

cons:

it takes about 15 seconds to change a blade.

the carbon emissions to produce the 100 scalpel blades I’ll use in a lifetime is probably 2x the emissions from making one quality fixed knife.

I’m perceived as less of a man in social circles for using it.

If I want to cut wood or some other task a bush knife is best suited for, I’m out of luck. So if I go camp hunting, I have the tools to do so. For deer hunting from a truck, no need.



Do what you want. But scalpels are efficient tools for taking bodies apart. Knives can be too if you’ve got the proper skill and technique. It’s a no brainer to me, but it makes no material difference over hunting success. I’ve just found a scalpel makes the end of the journey a little less of a hassle.
 
I think one of the disadvantages to the replaceable blade vs a real knife is that all the little nooks and crannies are easier to trap meat/blood/gunk at if u don't clean it up real good it can get stinky....I prefer a small fixed blade knife but have used both...they both work good. Honestly....how many people go hunting with only 1 knife...take both
 
Jpdarby2 said:
Honestly it has too many moving parts for me to be comfortable concerning safety. I'm sure they work great but the possibility of the blade folding over or the blade coming loose is enough to keep a fixed blade Benchmade in my hand.
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I have personally had an outdoor edge close on me somehow when up in a bears chest cavity and that blade went to the bone fastttt.
 
I got an outdoor edge for backpack hunts to save weight and space of fixed blades and stones. It worked so well on my elk that I decided to throw it in my deer pack. If I end up with a whole deer at camp, I still use my "real' knives but if I am on a backpack hunt or hiking in deep enough on a deer hunt that any kill will get broken down and packed out, the outdoor edge is now the go to. Sorta like a climber vs. lock-on vs saddle, use what works best for you under the circumstances.
 
They probably work great, but I have too much money in Spydercos to even ponder it!
 
kyler1945 said:
People who don’t use cloth diapers must not know how to wash clothes. People who use toilet paper must not know how to use a stick...
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Did anybody say these are for people who don’t know how to sharpen knives? It was simply said they are probably great for folks who don’t know how, which is probably true.

Replaceable blade knives are perfectly fine for many cutting tasks, I just don’t see anything about them that makes them a must have, particularly if you already own a serviceable hunting knife. Save the $70 and spend elsewhere.
 
@kyler1945 summed it up. I can sharpen a knife, and do so regularly. My go-to kitchen knife gets touched up every time I use it. So does my filet knife. Both live next to a sharpening stone in the kitchen. Easier to carry 5 or 6 havalon blades in the knifes sheath than it is that stone. Just because I can do a thing doesn't mean I feel obligated to.

For hogs they're immensely handy, because a hog is usually so covered in dirt that your blade is wrecked by the time you get the hide off of him. With a havalon you just pop the blade off and slap a new one on.

As cheap as they are, id say buy and try. I was skeptical initially but bought one for cutting string serving in an archery shop. Quickly grew to like it
 
I bought a havalon for back country elk hunting to save weight. What I found was the havalon blades were breaking way to easily when cutting up an elk. Their hide alone is like Kevlar, it’s ridiculous. I was breaking 3 or 4 blades on one elk. You can only be so gentle with a knife when breaking down a large bodied elk on uneven, sloped ground in the dark and cold and I was still managing to snap them. I gave up on it and went back to a ultra light weight fix blade in a hardy S90V steel that weighs the same as my havalon with 4 extra blades.
 
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