Bone saw advice

Freightdog

Well-Known Member
I'm just starting out stalking and getting some kit together and saw this Mora rescue knife. I wondered whether anyone had one and if it would work as a bone saw? I've seen the usual 'T' style ones but would prefer a standard type knife/handle.
 
My advice would be to stick to a basic wood working saw, a few quid from B&Q. In practice you'll only need a knife in the field and a saw stays in the larder, so the small size is of no benefit. In my experience it is quite hard to cut bone with a small saw, it keeps sticking and jumping around. A wood saw is cheaper and much easier to clean. Just dry it afterwards and don't let it get rusty.

Don't get me wrong, every stalker should have at least one Mora and take it everywhere. Excellent knives, sharp but tough enough for cutting near bone, cutting feet and neck. I've posted before about an excellent way to sharpen then. PM me if you need it again.
 
Thanks for the advice. Having looked through the post you linked, maybe the one from Axminster would be a good option as interchangeable blades could be useful elswhere.
 
If you are after a sternum saw then the David Stretton one is fab


I have been using one of these in the larder for a few years and it works well

 
Thanks for the advice. Having looked through the post you linked, maybe the one from Axminster would be a good option as interchangeable blades could be useful elswhere.
I don’t have any experience of the Axminster saw, but I do have the Dave Stretton purpose-built bone saw that @srvet mentions. You certainly won’t go wrong with it.

These days, however, I use the Camillus Cloak and find it ideal for everything from muntjac to fallow.

 
I have a folding job off eBay for about £6 and it actually works really well when I bother taking it out the truck.
Mostly I can open mine up with a good stuff bladed mora.
For larder work I have the 17.5 inch bone saw mentioned above, but also a fine tooth wood saw which I tend to use more often than not.
 
In my experience it is quite hard to cut bone with a small saw, it keeps sticking and jumping around.
The stuff marketed as field bone saws are pure scrap and absolutely not fit for purpose. Their toothing is much too coarse. No wonder you have made this experience.
A 20 TPI woodworking saw will cut any bone like a hot knife through butter.

This Silky Pocket Boy 130-20 is the best I have ever seen for this purpose. Wood Saw Pocketboy 130-20

My Silky is about 6 years old, has seen countless pelvic bones and garden work and is still as going strong.
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Not all breast bones are created equal! I’ve broken 2 saws this year on old red stags, I’m probably a rough bas***d on them though! A mora like that might be ok for a roe or munty but won’t do for a bigger beast. I usually have a collapsible mossy oak type saw in the vorn and a clean wood saw in the truck, depending of how I can extract said beasts-long drag field gralloch and remove red pluck in larder/at the truck, short drag I might do it in the field.
 
Buy the castrom. Have small one in roe sack for muntys and roe and large one lives in car for fallow or red, which are normally chest spilt at the larder
 
Not sure what was wrong with the post, apart from cutting a deer in half you don,t need a saw, unless there big stags and then a wood saw is perfect back at the larder or truck.
Really? Knives are not for cutting bone. Try cutting through multiple breast bones with a knife and you will very quickly have a very dangerous implement in your hand and probably literally cutting IN your hand. You might get away with a knife up to roe size animals if you're only doing one beast but after that you may as well P in the wind.
"In practice you'll only need a knife" I always way love the You'll comment. How does anyone know what someone else WILL need when they don't know them? If saws weren't needed by so many people there wouldn't be such a huge market and it wouldn't appear on so many posts. IF you do suspended grallochs on animals bigger than munties you would be foolish not to have a saw of some description with you!
 
Really? Knives are not for cutting bone. Try cutting through multiple breast bones with a knife and you will very quickly have a very dangerous implement in your hand and probably literally cutting IN your hand. You might get away with a knife up to roe size animals if you're only doing one beast but after that you may as well P in the wind.
"In practice you'll only need a knife" I always way love the You'll comment. How does anyone know what someone else WILL need when they don't know them? If saws weren't needed by so many people there wouldn't be such a huge market and it wouldn't appear on so many posts. IF you do suspended grallochs on animals bigger than munties you would be foolish not to have a saw of some description with you!

I stick by my post. I have never felt the need to use a saw in the field only in the larder. I have not seen others use a saw either. Gralloching, opening up the back end, bleeding, removing feet and head - all can be done with a knife. I sometimes open up the breast bone on smaller deer in the field, if extraction will be easy, but its not essential for any size of deer. A tough scandi grind is particularly well suited to this kind of general work and easily re-sharpened. I am not precious about knives and like to stalk with minimal kit and clutter.
 
I stick by my post. I have never felt the need to use a saw in the field only in the larder. I have not seen others use a saw either. Gralloching, opening up the back end, bleeding, removing feet and head - all can be done with a knife. I sometimes open up the breast bone on smaller deer in the field, if extraction will be easy, but its not essential for any size of deer. A tough scandi grind is particularly well suited to this kind of general work and easily re-sharpened. I am not precious about knives and like to stalk with minimal kit and clutter.
No idea where a saw would come in for "opening up the back end, bleeding, removing feet and head" Of course you use a knife for all of those jobs. However try opening up the chest on a red without a saw and you'll soon find yourself in A&E. Likewise do more than one or two fallow or sika and your knife will be blunt, dangerous and take a lot of sharpening. Why wouldn't you just use a saw which is made for the job? As for saying "You'll not need a saw" Do you know the OP? Do you know if he does suspended in the field, field dresses, ground grallochs or even takes the carcass back to the larder intact or indeed what species he shoots? Don't tell me, he'll only need a 6x42 scope too? The mind boggles.
 
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Steady on. I think we are agreeing here. I use my knife for "opening up the back end, bleeding, removing feet and head".

I don’t believe in opening up the chest in the field, so I find carrying a saw unnecessary. I gralloch, bleed and suspend the carcass if there is a tree near. Furthermore I find any short bladed or folding saw pretty useless for cutting the ribs anyway. It catches and jumps around in the fur, blood and muck. A long fixed blade is much better, but I wouldn't want to carry that around.

But I'm really not trying to force anyone to do anything they don't want to do. By all means let the OP buy a small saw, carry it around and see for themselves!
 
No idea where a saw would come in for "opening up the back end, bleeding, removing feet and head" Of course you use a knife for all of those jobs. However try opening up the chest on a red without a saw and you'll soon find yourself in A&E. Likewise do more than one or two fallow or sika and your knife will be blunt, dangerous and take a lot of sharpening. Why wouldn't you just use a saw which is made for the job? As for saying "You'll not need a saw" Do you know the OP? Do you know if he does suspended in the field, field dresses, ground grallochs or even takes the carcass back to the larder intact or indeed what species he shoots? Don't tell me, he'll only need a 6x42 scope too? The mind boggles.
Alas we are all not as experienced as you by the sound of it, as for a 6x42 scope have to agree a 4x40 was the go to for many stalkers before all the hype, god knows how people managed with open sights and killed more deer than most of us will ever see.
 
Steady on. I think we are agreeing here. I use my knife for "opening up the back end, bleeding, removing feet and head".

I don’t believe in opening up the chest in the field, so I find carrying a saw unnecessary. I gralloch, bleed and suspend the carcass if there is a tree near. Furthermore I find any short bladed or folding saw pretty useless for cutting the ribs anyway. It catches and jumps around in the fur, blood and muck. A long fixed blade is much better, but I wouldn't want to carry that around.

But I'm really not trying to force anyone to do anything they don't want to do. By all means let the OP buy a small saw, carry it around and see for themselves!
Sounds like you need to be taught how to gralloch my friend. The saw shouldn't come anywhere near fur or muck. It's for cutting bone! That should have already been cut through with a knife!
 
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