As an old man of 71 and worked Construction , underground mining I hauled men in body bags from job site accidents. With that said, I’m impressed with your good sense, being objective on your reviews and when using protective gloves. While in the mining job I almost lost my arm training young man who lacked mechanical skills in how to operate hydraulics on a Longwall shielding system. You can never be to careful even with these scalpel’s. Great job on your review!
I just got an Outdoor Edge Razor Lite EDC as a gift Today and it is SUPER SHARP.I don’t know how long the blades will stay sharp but I will resharpen each blade and reuse them before I throw them away.
Lost a blade in a carcass for the first time yesterday with my Tyto. I was reaching out to cut the esophagus to pull the gut pile out, and somehow it popped off. I never could find it after 20 minutes of searching. I finally just took the chance and pulled the guts out. I’ve used the Tyto in Alaska for years. I use the tip of an antler to remove the blades. It really helps pop them off without getting your hands too close.
I have used outdoor edge and the problem I run into is fat and meat get caught up in where you replace the blade making it a pain in the butt to exchange the blade. I have all the gerber vitals and the randy newberg knives, they scored lowest on your test but work really good for me. I don't ever get my blade caught in a vise or something similar to that test, so not real work in my opinion. I have always wanted a havalon but hate how they package blades. Ther gerber vital, has an accessory where you carry blades in a plastic case, like this the best. Thanks for you review. This is just my opinion on the ones that I have. I carry to many knives in my pack. LOL.
Great info, that is for sharing. Indeed I've never had my knife stuck in a vice either 😂. I can see how that would be an issue with the outdoor edge, although I didn't run into that when I used the RazorBone to butcher my deer last year. The Gerber is still a very good knife, I think, it just has a couple vulnerabilities in my opinion.
Not gonna lie, I see a good bit of utility with the interchangeable knives. One for processing game, one for cutting up roughage and one for dinner time at base camp :).
I have the Outdoor Edge (OE), the Havalon and the Gerber. Out of the three, the Havalon seems the most practical. The OE is a pain to clean up after skinning because of the blade holder. I don't like how loose the Gerber's lock is, as well as the fact that you can't use the full length of the blade. The Havalon holds the blade the best and is easy to clean up. So I let the OE and Gerber stay on my desk and open letters and packages with them and use the Havalon to process game, along with a good old fixed blade. I still like the OE and the Gerber but they're more like novelty than utility.
Do you think any of the blades are strong enough to cut up through the sternum of a Whitetail? I’ve done it multiple times with a Havalon, but you have to keep the blade perfectly straight or it will snap.
All those that use the scalpel blades won't really be any better than the Havalon. That Havalon Talon Hunt or Gerber Randy Newberg would certainly do it. But I bet the outdoor edge knives would do it too. Their blades are a bit stiffer and that blade support should keep it from bending or breaking.
So I’m confused. It looks like the Havalon Talon and the Newberg EBS tied for your highest score, but you didn’t mention either as your top pick. Seems like lowest price was really the deciding factor. Would you carry the EBS? I bought one recently but the locking mechanism concerns me.
Good observation. I did this intentionally because the EBS and the Talon are unlike the rest of the knives in this review. Their blades are interchangeable but they are more like typical knife blades as opposed to disposable ones like I think most people think of when we talk about replacement blade knives. The blades are stiffer and can be sharpened, the handles are definitely more comfortable, and they're pretty tough. But that comes at the expense of added cost, weight, and maintenance, which are three main things the scalpel blade knives help with. I did carry the EBS last year but I ended up not using it to field dress my deer. But I did use it to process my deer at home. I found the blade got dull relatively quickly, like it's a cheaper quality blade than my normal fixed blade hunting knife. And I didn't take full advantage of the swappable blades. So for me, it just doesn't make sense. I'd rather carry one sturdy hunting knife a Havalon Piranta. But others would probably disagree so it comes down to preference. I did expect the EBS blade to hold up better than it did though before needing sharpened.
@@theoutdoorempire I bought an EBS after having blades pop out of my Havalon while process a cow elk (gunk pushed the blade of the the locked position) but I wasn't impressed with blade quality and the release button seemed even more likely to get pushed while processing game animal. Guess it is going back and I'll start carrying a normal fixed blade with the Havalon with a back up. Now I'll need to get more comfortable touching up the edge of my fixed blade while I am skinning. What is your go-to field sharpening system/honing rod?
Blade maintenance isnt all that awesome when youre covered in blood and shmagma especially if its cold and youre packing out even a deer quartered is quite the task depending in the terrain its nice to just pop in a blade and keep going rather than taking more time to stop clean up and sharpen its difficult to clean up if youre supply of water is low unless youre packing nitrile gloves which are nice to have when its extremely cold ir you on an all night corpse removal project that weighs 1500 lbs in the dark coming from a seasoned archery elk hunter hunting elevation its hard on the body and lungs if youve moved up several thousands of feet without alot of prep or aclimatization battling all the elements to a successful hunt ive found that a bonesaw blade the outdoor edge and havalon is all you need weigs next to nothing between the two you have skinning big blade to small super sharp caping blades for big game you cannit beat the two with a traditional knife or field sharpening blade go dull real fast on a big animal like elk especially cutting through muddy matted hair with those two knives and the assortment of blades you can do anything surgically
