Blade preferences undergo a change

The Wichita Eagle (TNS)

Elk hunting had been good, and hunters and their game gathered at a ranch building after sunset. Readying for the tasks to come, many longtime mountain hunters pulled long knife blades over whet stones or stroked them down sharpening steels.

Amid them Justin Bremer, a 26-year-old from the Kansas flatlands, pulled a finger-sized knife from his pocket, and from it pulled a thin, 3-inch blade.

With just a feather’s worth of pressure Bremer sliced skin from his elk. The next morning he used the same tiny knife to take huge quarters and long rows of steaks from the cow elk as easily as sliding open a zipper.

“I’ll never have another Buck, or other big knife,” Bremer said. “There’s just no way they can be as sharp.”

Bremer is one of a growing number of outdoorsmen utilizing knives that come with replaceable blades that are truly scalpel sharp.

The concept of replaceable blade knives has been around several decades, such as utility knives used for opening boxes. Assorted medical professionals have used replaceable or disposable scalpel blades for years.

Outdoors cutlery will probably never be the same after Havalon brought their popular Piranta folding model, the one Bremer used on his elk last week.

As well as being “scary sharp” from the start, the replaceable blades hold an edge far longer than most fixed blade knives. With the same blade, Bremer basically skinned and disassembled two elk. In the past he’s done several deer with little loss of sharpness.

Most models are pretty affordable at $40 or less. That usually includes six to 12 replacement blades, enough to last most sportsmen a year. By shopping online, Bremer finds replacement blades for less than $1 each. Still, such knives are far from perfect.

One of the main knocks on replaceable blade knives is that the blades are thin and can break easily. They’re hardly as sturdy as an old-time Barlow or folding Buck that could be used for loosening screws and prying the tops from paint cans.

Several other knife manufacturers have now added replaceable blade models to their lines, most with better blade support.

Bremer said he’s used several, including the Outdoor Edge Razor-Blade, which offers a much wider, 3 1/2-inch blade that’s largely covered by a metal sheath that makes it almost as solid as a fixed blade knife. Bremer said he’s yet to find anyone who thinks the knife cuts as well as styles with more open blades. His non-folding Gerber Vital offers some added support to the blades that are basically the same as within his Piranta.

Still, the part-time taxidermist said he prefers blade flexibility for working around hard areas, like bone. He also doesn’t think the short blade length of most disposable blade knives is a hindrance, saying “. the main job of a knife is to cut, and these really cut.”

And because the knives are far sharper than anything most outdoorsmen have ever used, they often ended up cutting more than they intended during their first use. Bremer has several stories of handing his knife to a friend field-dressing or skinning big game. Several have self-inflicted cuts to their fingers because the replaceable blade so easily sliced through the intended chore.

“I tell people they have to be careful or they’ll end up bleeding right there beside their deer,” he said. “You just have to pay a little better attention and not get in to a hurry. These things are going to cut whatever they touch. I love them.”

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AP-WF-12-23-15 1321GMT