Best Skinning knife for $200

[sns2]

Originally Posted by fishnguy

^ You have made the right choice, there is 100% no doubt about it on my part. I just thought you said that one was a keeper, lol.

A2 is a very subpar and very inexpensive steel that is easy to grind, has very forgiving heat treatment, and very easy to sharpen. There is about zero reasons to use it in knife making when we are talking about high performance knives. It has poor edge retention and just above average toughness and it rusts easier than most other steels (carbon steels aside). It’s like if we were talking about performance vehicles, someone brought up a Lada because it is cheap to begin with and easy to work on through out the lifetime of the vehicle, while the amount of actual work involved is much higher due to constant maintenance requirements. Basically, you would be much better off with a whole bunch of other (stainless) steels if toughness was a concern that are often used for kitchen cutlery, such as AEBL, NitroV, etc and are also inexpensive, but a lot tougher. But we aren’t (or shouldn’t be) concerned with toughness as much as we should be with edge retention on a hunting knife. Pretty much every other steel is superior to A2, carbon steels aside. Even for a fillet and boning knives, you aren’t going to be chopping bones aside from fairly gentle fish ribs and whatnot. There is still an argument against A2 to use in fillet knife because it stains and rust easily; and back to the edge retention. I guess the point being, I was surprised when you said A2 back when you got it (think I may have even said along the lines? Haha). Especially given the price.

Anyway, Magnacut is an excellent choice: it is plenty tough (>A2), good edge retention (>>A2), and it is plenty stainless (>>>>>A2). This is what I was going to ask Dan make me a semi skinner out of, before he stopped replying, lol.

It was a fantastic design of knife, so I will get another with better steel, and all for a better price. Win Win!

This really is a harmless pursuit inching towards addiction.