Smith’s Fixed Blade Gut Hook Knife – Review

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If you’re in the market for a fixed blade hunting knife with a gut hook check out the Smiths Fix Blade Gut Hook Knife.U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- I recently picked up a Smith’s Fixed Blade Gut Hook hunting knife while attending the Shooting Sports Showcase in Talladega, Alabama. If you’re looking for an economical hunting knife you ought to check it out. It has a definite curled-up tip for your skinning jobs. Let’s cover all of the attributes of the Smith’s Fixed Blade Gut Hook knife right fast. Smith’s Fixed Blade Gut Hook Knife To begin, as mentioned above, it has a definite upswept skinning tip. Much like the gutting knife design that the big beef packing plants use for their gutting jobs. You will also need to carry along a clip-point knife on your hunting trips to cut the pattern on your animals. When I say cutting the pattern, I’m referring to the “H” pattern that you cut when you make a cut down the belly line and then out to each hoof. Theoretically, though I guess really you could just make one small 2-inch cut in the belly line and then use the gut hook to make the rest of the five cuts thereby skipping my above suggestion to carry a clip point knife to cut the pattern. Many hunters only think of using a gut hook to make the markdown the belly line so you don’t cut through the thin belly muscle and pop a gut, thereby contaminating the carcass. Who hasn’t popped a gut and regretted it? But most hunters never think about using their gut hook to make the cut from the belly line out to the hooves. No matter how you decide to mark the pattern you must now skin the hide off of the animal. This is where an upswept tip like on the Smith’s Fixed Gut Hook knife excels over a clip point. If you’re not saving the hide then it’s not as crucial of a deal but if you’re saving the hide off of your trophy to turn it into a tanned rug or to mount the animal, then you don’t want any cuts in the hide. Sure, a taxidermist can sew up cuts but it doesn’t enhance your trophy any so don’t do it. And yes, you can skin your animal with a clip-point knife. It’s just that you can skin faster and be a little more careless when using a drop point or an upswept point like this one without as high of a chance of making a cut in the hide. The handle on the Smith’s Fixed Blade Gut Hook knife has a non-slip texture to help ensure better gripping ability, which is always nice when skinning an animal in a cold, wet and dark environment like we often encounter while dressing out our animals. It also has a hole in the butt end if you’d like to put a lanyard on your knives. For a sheath, it has a black Cordura constructed sheath. The knife snaps tightly in the sheath so you shouldn’t lose it under normal hunting conditions. The overall length of the Smith Fixed Blade Gut Hook knife is 8.6”. Now to describe the blade. As mentioned above, the tip of the blade is what I’d classify as upswept in design so it is definitely a skinning knife. Then it has a gut hook on the top. It has a slight concave edge in the middle of the blade which I’ve seen on a few modern knives. (I’m not saying that is bad or good but can someone clue me in as to the benefit(s) of the concave design)? The MSRP on the Smith’s Fixed Blade Gut Hook hunting knife is $24.99 and as is usual, we will close with the specs.

• 4″ 400 Series Stainless Skinning Blade w/Guthook.
• 8.6″ overall length.
• Custom non-slip Handle
• Cordura Sheath
• Lanyard Hole: Tether Ready

About Tom Claycomb Tom Claycomb has been an avid hunter/fisherman throughout his life as well as an outdoor writer with outdoor columns in the magazine Hunt Alaska, Bass Pro Shops, Bowhunter.net and freelances for numerous magazines and newspapers. “To properly skin your animal, you will need a sharp knife. I have an e-article on Amazon Kindle titled Knife Sharpening #ad for $.99 if you’re having trouble.”