At SHOT this yr, Karen Lutto Leatherwood confirmed me across the Out of doors Edge sales space. One merchandise that stood out to me was their Vantex 4-Piece Package. The equipment incorporates all the knife designs to pores and skin and course of your massive recreation.
Let’s begin with the carrying case. It comes with a canvas roll up case which I like. When rolled up it’s 12” lengthy by 3 ½” broad and a couple of ½” thick and is held closed by a Velcro patch plus it has a strap to make sure it stays closed.
When you unroll the equipment, you see that it holds three knives and a sharpener. The sharpener has preset angled carbide and ceramic stones. I’d advise utilizing the carbide choice sparingly, as they will take away plenty of metallic quick, thereby shortening the lifetime of your blade. BUT-if you discover ways to use any such a sharpening system it may well work tremendous for you plus, it’s a tremendous light-weight sharpener to hold within the subject.
All three knives have detachable Polypropylene sheaths by which the knives snap into place firmly. I determine that you just’ll simply carry the entire equipment however you’ll be able to take away the knives if you happen to simply wish to carry one or two and throw them in your pack.
I’ll break this heading down individually for every knife.
Caping Knife
I just like the deal with and really feel like I’ve a agency grip when utilizing this knife. It has a finger choil on the blade, which permits me to choke down on it. It additionally has thumb grooves on Prime of the deal with to your thumb and the underside to your little finger. Then it’s distinctive in that it has thumb grooves that stretch to the tip of the blade. I’ve by no means owned a knife that has them prolonged that far down the blade. So when utilizing the caping knife I really feel like that I’ve a agency grip. The equipment doesn’t have a clip level knife to chop the sample however that’s not an issue, a caping knife works tremendous for this activity.
Skinning Knife
As you’ll think about, the deal with on the skinning knife is permits for a fuller grip. It too has finger and thumb grooves on the deal with. And it has thumb grooves on the backbone 2/3’s of the way in which down the backbone. The blade design is a drop level which is an efficient skinning design.
Boning Knife
This deal with additionally permits for a full filling grip. It too, because the others has thumb and finger grooves on every finish in addition to thumb grooves practically half means down the backbone. All three knives have a lanyard gap within the hilt of the deal with in case you wish to tie on a lanyard. The one downside I’ve with the boning knife is that it has a brilliant stiff blade. On a boning knife half of the nice boners like a semi-flex and the opposite half likes a super-flex however no good boner likes a stiff boning knife.
In order a abstract, how would I grade the Out of doors Edge Vantex 4-Piece Package? I really like the idea. And I just like the roll-up canvas holder. And sure, I might course of my massive recreation with this equipment. And sure, the three knife designs that I’d suggest are included within the equipment however right here’s why I’d have to present it a C grade although.
It’s possible you’ll say that I’m anal on knife designs however why not perform a little analysis earlier than producing a knife so you have got probably the most practical design? It at all times puzzles me when knife firms don’t analysis what constitutes design and I’m speaking about 95% of the knives in the marketplace. Most knife firms soar within the knife world with out ever clearly speaking to anybody educated on knife designs. I might record out a web page stuffed with firms!
Right here’s why I say all the above. The bottom of the caping knife is 3/16-inch too broad. The Boning knife is a brilliant stiff blade. Sure, even amongst consultants’ preferences differ however for positive all the good boners use both a versatile or a semi-flex boning knife BUT by no means a stiff boning knife.
I nonetheless be taught new knife ideas on a regular basis, so I in no way know all of it however right here’s my background. I labored for 45 years in beef packing vegetation, three of the highest 4 firms plus quite a few smaller ones. At Con Agra we killed and processed 25,000 head of cattle per day. These guys perfected the boning knife. Why don’t knife firms simply mimic the professionals?
I might get a butter knife out of the kitchen and put an edge on it and bone out a moose. However that doesn’t imply that it’s the correct boning knife. Go forward and use no matter knife you need, simply don’t inform me that it’s the good design if it’s not. Get my drift? So sure, it is a practical equipment however with a number of minor tweaks it might be a very good equipment.
The MSRP on the Out of doors Edge Vantex 4-Piece Package is $89.99 and as is common, we’ll shut with the corporate specs off of their web site.
BLADE LENGTH
Drop-point: 3.5″
Caping: 3.0″
Boning: 5.0″
OVERALL LENGTH
Drop-point: 8.3″
Caping: 6.8″
Boning: 9.9″
Blade metal: 7Cr17MoV
Deal with: Glass-filled nylon core w/ mushy contact TPE
Sheath: ABS/TPE/polypropylene
About Tom Claycomb
Tom Claycomb has been an avid hunter/fisherman all through his life in addition to an outside author with outside columns within the journal Hunt Alaska, Bass Professional Outlets, Bowhunter.web and freelances for quite a few magazines and newspapers. “To correctly pores and skin your animal you have to a pointy knife. I’ve an e-article on Amazon Kindle titled Knife Sharpening for $.99 if you happen to’re having bother.”
