New Knife

I'm experimenting with various knife set-ups. My father always carried a fixed-blade Buck knife that went about eight inches from tip to tip. Until recently, I just assumed having a knife of that size was necessary for gutting and skinning deer. Then I watched a video by the Montana Game & Fish Dept. that shows how to gut, quarter, and debone a deer in the field. The guy used nothing more than a small pocket knife for the entire process. That's a huge advantage for people who hike into remote areas, where every ounce feels like a pound by the end of the trip or means you have to carry less of something else, such as food or medical supplies. Currently, I don't have to worry about that since I'm rarely more than a mile from the truck, but hopefully that changes when we move back west and I get to hunt those big wilderness areas again.

That raises the question, just how small of a knife can be used without sacrificing performance? 

I had read about a guy who uses a "taxidermist's scalpel" with exchangeable blades to gut, quarter, and debone elk. At the time, I really didn't know what he was talking about but it recently occurred to me that I may use something very similar in my profession (pictured). 

So, I decided to give it a try. And it worked, somewhat. I was able to gut the deer no problem, but it wasn't sturdy enough to get the rib cage open. It also worked for skinning the deer, although probably not the most efficient. I used my fillet knife at home to debone, so not sure if it will work for deboning. My fear is that the blade is simply to small to accurately find and follow the bones and too inflexible to work around them. For the entire gutting and skinning process, I used one blade and it still has some life in it.

The advantages are obvious:

1) it is extremely lightweight 2) it fits in the license holder that I wear on my back, meaning I never have to worry about forgetting my knife, and 3) the blades are extremely sharp and also exchangeable, meaning I never have to worry about sharpening blades or carrying a sharpening stone with me. 

The disadvantages are that it is inflexible and may not work well for deboning and that its not very sturdy, which I'm guessing is only helpful for opening the rib cage. 

There are tradeoffs to everything, but if I can get a little better at using this knife I see no reason for lugging around a larger one. 

They can be found at any art store and have a variety of different blades.