Last nights Forged in Fire had the contestants making gut hook knives. I have one I won and my brother had one , a different style, but they never seem to work. Does anyone like them or have good luck with them. I think they are just a gimmick to catch the eye of the newbie but maybe I'm wrong and don't use them right or sharpen them correctly.

I have a couple gut hooks, but don't use them. Much prefer a drop polnt blade and guide with my fingers.

I have a blade with a gut hook at the tip of the blade that I've used a good bit over the last 15 years. I always make my first incision right above the diaphragm on the brisket with the blade of this knife and then flip the knife over and use the gut hook to finish the incision the rest of the way down. I've never knicked anything with it but I keep it sharp and am careful. I cut myself pretty bad as a teenager gutting a deer so I'm pretty careful regardless. I think any sharp knife is capable of gutting or skinning any animal. Operator error is when bad things happen

I agree with Dennis. That's what I do.

I don't have one so I cannot comment on their usage but I tend to agree with Dennis. Drop point and guide with fingers.

If they are sharp, gut hooks work fine. A good sharp gut hook is just about as fast as a zipper for undressing them.

I go from the brisket down, ring the legs and pull the gut hook between the rings and the brisket line. 5 cuts with the gut hook and you are reading for the skinning and shucking.

I use the drop point n fingers to guide as well.

I don't use them for me they are to ugly to carry. Like someone said once a guthook is for someone that does not know how to use a knife. Widow

I don't like them, I'm rough with a knife and broke one off splitting the pelvis of a deer. No more gut hooks for me.

I have an outdoor edge knife that has a special blade / gut hook. It is basically a rounded off (dull end) blade that you can put under the skin and it will not tear or cause any damage. It is also about 3" long so I am not trying to fiddle with a tiny gut hook and a blade point that can cause punctures. I can go all the way from the guts thru the rib cage if I do it right.

My son is good with a gut hook edge knife. After better than 50 y ears I still use a Queen folding blade knife my dad bought me when I was 14 years old. I am used to it, and it works fine for me.

They work fine if you can keep them sharp enough. A rounded point like Rick suggests or a finger on each side of the blade serves the purpose very well.Nothing special needed. I don't see any reason for ever splitting the pelvic bone. >>>----> Ken

There was a deer processor up the road from me when I was growing up and I always got a kick out of stopping in to see the deer that came in during rifle season. You wouldn't believe the amount of deer that came in poorly "gutted". Heart and lungs still in some, bladders and intestines left in below the pelvis bone and some of the incisions looked like they were made with butter knives.

I think the gut hook was originally intended to take pots and such off campfires. I don't believe it was sharpened and then over the years it became what it is today. Least that is what I've heard.

If you take regular ole box cutter with the replaceable blades and put a 'carpet blade' in them... it works great. The 'carpet blade' is a replaceable blade that is razor sharp and shaped just like a 'gut hook' blade. Made for cutting carpet, but works great on hide as well! ;)

Doesn't get any simpler than that...

No never have.

im sure they work but its an extra blade that has only one purpose. if i have an extra its a wood saw blade. i just dont need/want a gut hook.

Use one every time.

They're ugly? Good night nurse.

Don't care for a gut hook myself. Been using the same damascus drop point for almost 40 years.

x2 what ranman says

Dressed my first deer 55 years ago so I'm a ways past a newbie. There's nothing gimmick about a gut hook. Used my first one about 20 years ago,it belonged to my huntin buddy and I liked it so much, he bought me one just like his. Still carry it every time I hunt. But like any knife or part of the knife, it must be sharpened.

They work great as long as you know how to sharpen them.

I have loved mine for 25 years. Gerber.

The one I have is the bottom one in irjack's picture. It works great because it is easy to resharpen on a pocket knife sharpener.

I've used an original Wyoming knife for around 35 or so years.

The Wyoming knives work great. I've used one on deer, elk, caribou, and hogs. I've also used small pocket knives and a big Buck Kalinga to field dress and gut animals. It's not the knife that matters... you just gotta be smarter than what you're workin' on!

Don’t use a gut hook per say but I use a benchmade belt cutter . Blows thru gutting incisions as well as leg to cavity incisions like skin isn’t even there. Did two elk last year and two deer this year. New favorite tool.

I have one and do like and use it. It works fine. It's very similar to using a tail splitter for fur hides. Or unzipping your zipper. I can and do get along just fine without one, but if I've got it handy I use it.

Bjrogg

A drop point and guide with fingers like Dennis stated is what I normally do. However I have used guthooks and if sharpened well, they work and work well. I've used the guthook on my Outdoor Edge Whitetail Skinner many times and it works as intended.

I have never been in that big of a hurry where the 5-10 seconds saved with a gut hook would matter.

I have used 1 like fdp's for years and had no problems.Can't say I like them the best. But they will open up a deer like it had a zipper.

I don't really consider the knives in irjecks picture to be gut hook knives but rather gutting blades. I had one of those Outdoor edge switchblades and I lost it before I ever had a chance to use it. I also think the Wyoming knife would work great. because of the big throat. The problem I have with gut hooks is hide bunches up in them.

Starfire x2

Best field dressing knife I've ever used.

I think the hide bunching up can be caused by a "not super sharp" blade just from personal experience with gut hooks. I use a gut hook not for speed but for efficiency and primarily safety. Works for me, maybe not for you and that's cool too.

I use a stand-alone Buck guthook -- it's not part of a knife, it's a separate tool that fits in a pouch about 3" square, so its nothing to carry. I've cleaned a lot of game over the years without one, but I like a guthook because it lets my "main" hunting knife have a upswept skinning blade -- great for skinning but no good for gutting. I have also used a stockman pocketknife, using the sheepsfoot blade for gutting and then my upswept skinning knife for everything else.

I like the gutting blade of the Swing Blade knife and the Gerber Gutting blade (I just don't know why they made it a stand alone knife. A fix blade knife with a "Gut Hook", is a blasphemy on a knife, even a folder with a single blade. You have to pay close attention to the knife angle as you are pulling on it, or you will get the guts with the knife point. I have used the Buck Knife JRW shows, mostly because my younger brother bought it for me, and used it once to say I did. I hated trying to clean the fat and blood out it, because of the Liner Locks used in it. DANNY

I tried one for the first time this year. I don't think it was sharp enough. didn't like it much.

If your guthook is clogging with fat and hide piling up in the hook, it's dull and not sharp enough to do the job. A sharp hook will zip through hide like a zipper with a really clean slice/cut and wont bind up hide.

Funny, I bought a folding three blade knife that has a drop point, gut hook, and saw on it. I've slowly stopped using the saw over the years, and never had the guts (pun) to use the gut hook. I just feel like I have more control with my fingers.

I'm slowly persuading myself to get a nice two blade pocket knife like a muskrat with two clip points, or a trapper with a clip and skinner. I just have never needed as much knife as I currently have.

Shinkers, you might look a Moose pattern for a 2 blade pocket knife while you are looking. You might like them. The one I am talking about I know is sold at Smokey Mountain Knife Works and it is the blade style made by Rough Rider. There are other manufactures who do the same blade style and configuration. DANNY

If you have already registered, please

sign in now

For new registrations

Click Here