Small game blade length

[sandness]

My brother would like me to make a good hunting knife, primarily used to dress pheasants. I'm no hunter, so I don't really know what's needed. I'd like to know what a good blade length would be.

I've been scouring through bird knife posts and google, and see that a slender profile is common. I sketched out a blank with about a 1" wide, 5" long blade- that sound short? long? wide? perfect? It will likely be ground from 1/8" 1080.

[ranger1]

I have only made a couple of bird knives,I stayed at 3" on the length and 1/2"wide, so far had great reviews.Working on one now with 3/8 wide blade.

[sandness]

Really? So does making it that narrow help? And what sort of grind do you put on so little metal as that?

[cwp]

You don't need much, but most anything will work. This last hunting season, I dressed out my deer and my brothers deer with a 3/8" wide x 2.5" slipjoint.

I think the main thing is the flow and design. If you like the one you sketched out that is 1" wide and 5" long, make it and see how it feels to you, ask him how it feels, is the blade to big, to long, to wide? Then incorporate all of this into your design and make him a knife. Have fun with it.

That said, the last bird knives I made were for my nieces when they finished hunters ed. Those were about 4" blades and about 1/2" wide.

--Carl

[NJStricker]

I would say 5 inches is a little on the long side. "Bird knives" are basically used to slit open the body cavity to remove the innards and slice off the breat meat and bone from the rest of the carcass. Nowadays most people actually use shears--safer and more convenient. 3.5 to 4 inches should be plenty for length (but also look at the size of the original Marble's bird and trout knife).

[SteveA]

Best knife I ever used for pheasants was the year all I had was a little Chicago Cutlery paring knife. Did pretty well on rabbits with a little 2-3 inch blade on a pocketknife sometimes, too. That was before I was trying to make knives. Now when I make blades with upland game in mind, they're only 2-3 inches. Only one of those has actually been used, but he liked it fine.

Steve