Skinning "Tripe" knife.

Monkey Spanker

Well-Known Member
One of the best tools I have (and there are many!) is known as a Tripe Knife. It looks like a boning knife with a blunt 'bullet' tip, and is sharp on the inside curve i.e the shortest side. The one I have is made by F.Dick of Germany, but this one is similar:
http://www.awsmith.co.uk/item.asp?id=51591
The bullet tip pushes with ease between the skin and flesh without damaging either, and the blade then slices open the skin effortlessly. It's a bit like a gut hook that actually works and never gets clogged with hair! It opens up leg skin so quickly it has to be seen to be believed!! ;)
 
Tripe knife

Hi

Thats a good idea - I can see that it would work well, just shows that butchers know their stuff!

Daemon

:D
 
Funny! I just received my tripe knife from AW Smith this morning and skinned and butchered a fallow doe this afternoon. I'm just a novice stalker but I've skinned a few deer in my time. I have to say using this knife does not half speed up the job. I'm planning to carry it in my stalking kit because I'm sure it will be the ideal tool for gralloching.
 
reynard

How are you going to get into the animal without a sharp tip to puncture the skin?

Once you are there fine, i can see this working, but cant see the benefit over a gut hook in the field.
 
Re: reynard

dieseldan said:
How are you going to get into the animal without a sharp tip to puncture the skin?

Once you are there fine, i can see this working, but cant see the benefit over a gut hook in the field.

The inside edge is sharpe, pinch the skin and slice it, job done!
 
Re: reynard

dieseldan said:
How are you going to get into the animal without a sharp tip to puncture the skin?

Once you are there fine, i can see this working, but cant see the benefit over a gut hook in the field.

I’ve tried various gut hooks and while most work to some degree, I’ve never been totally happy with them.

Many will work fine on Roe or small Fallow, but struggle to cope with the skin in necks of rutting Fallow bucks or Red stags where they seem to clog up so to speak.

Compared to a guthook, a tripe knife is also be easier to sharpen ect.

Finally, with hooks that are built into the back of the knife such as on my Buck Vanguard, I find it tends to “catch” when your cutting inside of the carcass or coring out the anus area, especially on Muntjac and Roe..

I don’t think a tripe knife replaces a normal knife, but rather compliments it, especially in the larder when slitting open the leg skins prior to skinning… But if you’ve found a gut hook design you like and that works for you, that’s great..Horses for courses and what ever works for the individual…

Regards,

Peter
 
Gut hook

All very true,

i carry 2 knives a buck ranger for the tricky bitz and a kershaw with gut hook for opening up.

I scrape the skin on the breast bone and run the gut hook blade from breast to anus. this is so easy and works a treat.
i do not open necks or anus in the field.

Rutting necks are knife killers and i cut now from inside out when i can.

Each to there own.
 
As with so much on the Stalking Directory, this is a fascinating thread.

When in the field I use one of the Frost's knives - in my case with a flourescent orange handle :oops: - but back in the larder I use a Buck Skinner:

http://www.tactical-ops.co.uk/Items... with Sheath&gclid=CJLg3K2VtJgCFRYiagod-3eDVg

It works a charm and, like all Buck knives, is built like the proverbial brick whatsit.

I've got a couple of knives with gut-hooks, but for the life of me I can't get on with them, very much for the reasons Pete E explains. I always laugh when I hear the adverts in the US saying that the gut hook "opens the deer like a zipper"!

I picked up a folding tripe knife off of eBay. It's a lovely piece of German kit, but because of the wooden handle it's been consigned to the 'spares' drawer.

willie_gunn
 
Anybody new to gralloching or experienced will not go wrong with one of these knives, once an opening to the stomach cavity has been made it would be nigh on impossible to burst the rumen or intestines as you are cutting from the inside out, commonly used in abbatiors,you will still need a pointed knife though
NELL
 
whats wrong with a Swiss army knife your only cutting skin .

When gralloching a deer in the field its as small a hole as possible ,your only removing the green gralloch you could do it with a bit of glass if you had nothing else .

When skinning a beast there are very few cuts, with a knife the legs the head and paunch the rest of with your hands .

A saw to cut the pelvis and the ribs saves ,recking the knife blade.

Butchering a boning knife
 
I've seen old antler handled gralloching knives with blades like this[my grandfathers]

I must admit these blades are all a bit gimmickiy, what's wrong with learning to use a normal blade properly.

I use an orange bushknife on the hill and victorinox knives in the larder.
As said before a swiss army is more than adequate for gralloching, I carry a small folding knife for emergencies[losing a knife!!]
 
Swiss Army Knives

If I assessed a DSC2 candidate who used a swiss Army knife I would not be too impressed to be honest. It may well be up to the job, but is not a good choice with regards to meat hygiene. Numerous blades, hinges and gadgets. Holes for tweazers and toothpicks :eek:
Nothing to stop your hand slipping forward and most of them don't lock open. How do you clean it thoroughly?? :confused:
Bad choice I think personally.
The tripe knife which has raised so much interest I do not take out into the field, it is purely for larder use.
For the field I use a locking Gerber with easily washed non slip plastic handle and serrated blade base. If doing more than one animal I clean it in between with Anti-bac hand wipes as required.
 
A little double standards there monkey your Gerber what stops your hand slipping forward ? and oh yes the hinge on the Gerber , a serrated blade only good under water or cutting up bread if i remember right .

To bring a point up to you a surgeon uses a blade of approx 20 ,25 mm ,there is nothing to stop his hand slipping forward,he only uses that to get in through the skin, once he's inside he uses an aray of instruments to carry out a procedure .

Anti-bacterial wipes ,great stuff ,I certainly wouldn't use them on anything I was going to eat soap and water yes ,chemical NO one of the reasons the butchers I know use soap and water to wipe anything down .

So you also assess people, and wouldn't be impressed if they used a Swiss army knife ,One point, about being an Accredited witness is to watch observe, question and answer , not to give any opinions, on what you or I like or dislike , that decision is made by the assessing verifyer when he reads and phone the candidate .

I completed a level two recently for a stalker that shoot in excess of 300 + deer per year he uses a opinel wooden handled folding knife and has done for years ,it has a blade length of approx 3" he completed the gralloch faster than ive ever seen anyone do it, with next to no blood any where .

I asked this stalker all sorts of questions and to be honest he knew the book as well I did, his knowledge surpassed 90% Of the level two candidates ive done .

Back in the larder the use of a knife was limited to the head legs, a saw was used to split the pelvis and ribs .

As for myself i use two puma knifes, ive had for years one with a wooden handle the other a stag handle, I always carry two knifes for the reason when Ive worked with FC ,they have a habit of saying, Ive no knife with me and standing watching, you doing all the work, sorted that out the first time, i worked with them its became habit now.

http://www.opinels.co.uk/
 
Folding knives

You are right mate and I am happy to take a hit for using a folding knife.
The reason I do so is that I carry this knife at all times so that I can also deal with most RTA's/RTC's if I don't happen to have a gun with me. It is small enough to fit in my pocket but big enough to deal with large deer. With the law as it is today it is about all I could justify to be carrying if stopped and questioned by the police. As you said, it could be done with a scalpel if necessary. It is a lock knife with a polycarbonate non slip handle that is shaped and has special grips to prevent slipping even when wet. I personally like the serrated bit as it still seems to cut well even after the tip has become a bit 'Dull'. I sharpen it too with a small round diamond steel. I have even opened up the sternum of a red stag with it when I was without my saw. (The trick there is to ensure it goes very central through the cartilage). When I get home it goes in the dishwasher when the missus isn't looking and comes out like new again!
The wipes I use are 'food grade' and therefore not a problem.

I also agree with your point about not offering opinions during assessment. However, I would not let someone to continue with what I considered 'bad practise' over 3 stalks, for the assessor to then make him have to do it all again. I believe it is acceptable to advise or give training whilst not being assessed as long as the practise is then witnessed again under assessment conditions.

There is always more than one way to skin a cat (or deer), and everyone will have their own little ways of doing it. Although a swiss army will do the job, it probably isn't the best tool for the job IMHO. Mine probably isn't perfect either but it is all the law will allow me to carry. :cry:
I'm sure everones 'perfect knife' is another can of worms almost as large as the perfect calibre one :rolleyes: .
Regards, MS.
 
Monkey : Now I can agree with you on all these point hole heartily seems were on the same track with this .

Ive seen guys gralloch beasts with all sorts of knifes and gadgets some good some down right crap but because i buy a puma at £200.00 and some one buys a Mora at 4.00 they do the same job .

The AW work, after I give my briefing and get feed back to see what experience the client has ,I'll work with him carrying out a teaching session to save wasting there or my time ,if the target species appears and they get a result all well and done I'll give more questions and sign off on all the elements it brings both the client and me up to speed helping both of us develop our knowledge of the subject .
 
My knife of choice..

OK so I am african.. but I use a NZ knife .. they cant play rugby,, but they do make the best knife I recon for the Job!! of skining and buchering..

here is the run down.. it dose not have a stainles seal blade!! this is not a health ishu realy !! they are high carbon steal..

ok if you would endalg me I will tell a little story.. so there I was with a cuple of chaps out in the cape hunting Kudu.. as one dose.. we where some SA chaps and a Jank .. realy nice chap ... and man he had all the toys..

so any how he got a Kudu or some thing and was keen to try out his knife.. so after doing some of the work he left it with the boys doing the skining and buchering..

so any how after a few hours,, we whent back to see how things where going and they had discarded the knife .. and it was scrached to bits!! "what z up ?? whay you not using the fancey knife??" I asked.. "Na it s no good" "it was sharp for a long time but when it was blunt there was no sharpening it " they had used there sand stone,, no good ,, then they tried a file ,, no good so then they put it on the grinder that just compleatly mest it up so they left it!! one scraped knife .. hand made in the USA by some fancey knife chap.. stufed!! shaime realy..

any how things to consider in a knife .. can you drop it on its blaid in -5 degrees and it will not just snap in half?? (this I have seen)

can you drop it on its point fron head hight on cement and not snap of the point.. can you sharpen it just on a ston in the felt,, or do you have to have a fancey dimond thingy!!??

any how though t I would shear.. ps the knife I use..

http://www.svord.com/SvordMainFrameset.htm


ps the A. W Smith knives look realy good to !! will have to get one..
 
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