Description
Seven inches of blade and fourteen ounces of knife. The Hognose is built around mass. It is what you pick up when the job means getting through something rather than around it, and it makes no apology for weighing more than a modern hunter strictly needs to.
| Overall length | 12 inches |
| Blade length | 7 inches |
| Steel | High carbon steel, black coated |
| Handle | Black scales on a black coated full tang with a finger ring |
| Hardness | 58–60 HRC, oil tempered |
| Weight | 14 oz |
| Included | Hand-stitched leather sheath |
Built for: heavy field work. Quartering, splitting a pelvis, working through joints, and the camp tasks that involve a baton and a length of seasoned wood. On a large animal, the extra weight supplies force you would otherwise have to provide with your arm.
The trade-off you are making
Fourteen ounces is a lot to wear all day. Over ten miles on a belt you will know it is riding there, and the sheath will pull. In the hand, seven inches puts the tip far enough from your fingers that fine work such as caping, or opening a hide around the legs, is noticeably worse than with a short knife. Most people who own one of these also own something small. For the reasoning behind matching a knife to the animal, our piece on the best hunting knife ever made is less romantic than its title suggests.
Edge behavior and what to expect
A heavy blade at this hardness carries an edge through a long day, and it will roll rather than shatter if you meet bone at an angle. Rolls come back easily with a steel or a strop. What to avoid is prying. Mass tempts people into using a knife as a lever, and lateral load is the single thing this geometry does not forgive.
Care
Nothing on this knife is stainless. After a wet day the blade needs drying and so does the inside of the sheath, which will otherwise hold damp against steel for a week. Push a dry rag through the sheath and stand it open overnight. Oil the blade before it goes back in. For the edge, a coarse stone once a season and a fine one after each use is a sensible rhythm, since heavy knives dull slowly and then all at once.
FAQs
Do I need a gut hook as well? Not necessarily, though they make one job much faster. A dedicated tool such as the Fernline gut hook hunter uses D2 and micarta, which shrug off wet weather better than carbon steel manages.
How do I know if this profile suits me? Compare it against the alternatives before you commit. Knife blade shapes explained sets out what each one is good at.
Can it be batoned? Through seasoned wood at this size, yes. Through knots and frozen rounds, no, and that is what an axe exists for.
Model: BMK-158
Gary Phillip Williams (store manager) –
I received my knife.
It looks awesome!
Thanks,