In the not-too-distant past, a man felt undressed without a handy knife; it was something that saw use every day on a farm or ranch or around the house, and it might be in and out of a pocket or a belt sheath a dozen times a day.

Today, though, it's not nearly as common as it once was for a person to consider a knife part of his (or her) daily wardrobe, and the person that does carry one (or several) knives is likely to be regarded with curiosity or amusement (until someone needs to cut something, anyhow).

The irony is that today there are more options when it comes to cutting implements then ever before; commercial knife makers have been heavily influenced by custom makers and have broadened their lines and designs, Leatherman Tool Co. spawned a host of imitators with their Leatherman Tool, (as did Victorinox with their Swiss Army Knife) , Herter's Cutlery and other chains saw to it that there was a knife shop in every mall, and catalog sales firms like A.G. Russell made custom and semi-custom designs and patterns available to the everyday purchaser.

I like knives (and multi-tools) and I've got several dozen laying around, both fixed-blades and folders, but I commonly carry four of them (two skinners and two general-purpose knives). For social occasions I sometimes add a fifth, but normally the four get me through a day, no matter what my need happens to be.

I have some decided opinions concerning knives (imagine that) and that's what I want to discuss in this article.

First of all I don't care much for the "camp knife" concept. When I camp I normally have an axe and a bowsaw handy, in addition to digging implements, and if for some reason I want to cut some serious firewood my chainsaw does the job nicely. Here in the Southwest we seldom have occasion to chop our way through thickets or cut lianas, so I don't feel as though I need a knife that can take the place of a shovel, a machete, and an axe, in addition to serving as the business end of a spear in a pinch.

There ARE some things that a big knife will do that a small knife won't; it's just that I don't do any of those things, so I leave the pig-stickers and short swords to Stallone and content myself with something that doesn't strain my back to carry.

Secondly, the world is broadly divided into two parts when it comes to the knives that a predator caller or a general outdoorsman is likely to carry; skinning knives (which are for SKINNING) and some sort of a general-purpose knife or tool to cut and twist wire, open cans, sever string, pick out stubborn knots, remove splinters, turn chicken on the grill, fiddle with a carburetor, and a hundred other things that knives are handy for.

Let's talk about the general-purpose stuff first. Before the Leatherman concept roared onto the scene, there was the Swiss Army Knife. They made a slew of them, from little old penknives that had a pair of scissors and a toothpick in addition to a clip-point blade to outfits with spoons and forks and files and a crank to fit a Model A. I've owned several of them, and I still carry one of the mid-size models on my belt; I use the tweezers to pluck out cactus thorns and the screwble-drivers to screwble screws and the li'l bitty scissors to scissor little bitty stuff (including ragged edges before I stitch my dogs or myself from time to time).

Even though they call the thing a "knife" instead of a "pocket tool chest" or some such, and even though there is generally a knife blade in there somewhere, I seldom use the knife blade for anything; I have other blades that are made better (and out of better material) for full-bore cutting chores; the beauty of the Swiss Army Knife is all the OTHER stuff that folds into the handle.

Some fellas are never satisfied, though; I thought that I was pretty well-equipped with a Swiss Army Knife for many years, until one day I stumbled onto a Leatherman Tool, and realized how deprived I had been.

The Leatherman, as mentioned above, began the "multi-tool" craze, and before long we were all hip-deep in competing designs; Gerber and S.O.G. and Victorinox and Buck and a bunch of other people made or make multi-tools, and they all have a feature or two that is pretty nifty. Most (if not all) of them incorporate some sort of a plier arrangement, in addition to files and can-openers and scissors and wire-cutters and so on, and they will all make blood come out of YOU if you handle them injudiciously.

Because a fella would look funny carrying six of them, though, I carry one of Leatherman's newer designs called the "Wave." It's a bigger, beefier Leatherman Tool with an improved handle design so that you don't suffer serious neurological damage in your palm and fingers when you try to do something like cut barbed wire, and I'd be lost without it; seldom a day goes by when I don't have it out of the sheath at least once or twice.

They changed the blade access, too; now you can "one-hand" either the serrated blade or the slick blade from the body of the tool with the help of a "bird's-eye" type design, instead of having to unfold the whole thing to get something with an edge that would cut string.

I really like the design of the new tool; they changed the locking mechanism so that you can open and close a single implement without using one of the other implements to cam open the lock, they made the whole tool slightly larger and stronger, which is all to the good (my original Leatherman tool made a couple of trips back to the factory because I persisted in trying to cut double-stranded barbed wire and ended up snapping the pliers) and they retained the 25-year warranty, which is something that I think is highly desirable.

About the only thing that I really DON'T like are the flat-bladed screwdrivers; they are ground with a single bevel instead of a double bevel, and they slip and scar screw slots in a hot second if the size isn't pretty close.

The can opener isn't anything to write home about, either, but I don't care much; the one on the Swiss Army Knife is better then the one in my kitchen drawer.

On the flip side, the scissors on the Wave are a fairly serious unit, and they don't have a little screw holding the fixed and the movable jaw together that seems to be designed expressly to back itself out and make you swear (it's a little tiny screw, and in most cases I suspect that the only little tiny screwdriver that a fella might have is another part of the same knife, which is unhandy, to say the least).

Between the two of them, though, you can do all sorts of things, at least after a fashion, and if you carry them on your belt they're there when your toolbox and your shop are at the end of the trail, or across the state.

To read an extensive review of the Leatherman "Wave," plus see a bunch of pictures of the thing, click HERE.

The other two knives that I carry are for skinning, and that's what I use them for.

Period.

A good skinning knife has several features that place it in a class by itself, but it doesn't matter if you have the best design executed in the best steel with the best heat-treatment and temper; if you use it to cut wire or to whittle or to play mumbly-peg it ain't gonna be worth a lick when you touch it to hide.

Keep your skinning knives for skinning, and use another knife for everything else.

Once you figure that part out, you're left with a few things to consider. Blade shape is one, which includes length, profile, spine (or thickness) grind, and edge geometry. Blade material is another; the steels that most manufacturers tend to like people who are serious about using knives to skin and butcher animals tend to hate, and with good reason.

Astethics probably ought to be mentioned here too; some people prefer utilitarian handle materials like rubber, while others love the beauty of stag or bone or even semi-precious materials like turquoise or fossilized mammoth ivory or what have you.

I'm not going to discuss full-blown custom knives here, although there are many, many fine makers across the country who will produce just EXACTLY what you want (for a price). Custom knives are usually worth every penny that you pay for them, but if you're as inattentive as I am, the thought of an $800.00 knife may give you pause when you consider all the mis-chances that can befall a guy wandering through the mountains and across the desert; I've known guys that walked off and left their RIFLES, let alone a skinning knife.

My preferences can be summed up in a few sentences when it comes to skinning knives; I like a folding knife that follows a "muskrat" or "trapper" pattern, and I like a fixed-blade drop-point a few inches long. With those two knives I can skin, quarter, butcher if I have to, cape, skin the feet if I want them, and cut off my bunions if they should need it.

I want those knives to have carbon-steel blades that take and hold an edge, and I don't want to have anything so hard that I spend half of my life trying to remove steel from the edge of it, or so soft that I have to sharpen it every three minutes. Stainless steel is by and large worthless for a serious working knife when used conventionally (except for ATS-34; I've not used a knife made from it, but it is apparently one of the finest knife steels, bar none, on the planet). Most manufacturers use one of the 440's, and they don't take or hold an edge worth a lick, although they WILL stay nice and shiny under most circumstances, so you'll always have a pretty knife, even if it is a dull one.

Both of the skinning knives that I carry are carbon steel, neither of them cost me an arm and a leg, and I'm very satisfied with both of them.

My pocketknife is a three-bladed model with jigged-bone handles from Moore Maker, in Matador, TX. The blades are 101 carbon steel, and they'll take an edge that's scary-sharp; you want to make sure that edge stays on your victim instead of your knuckles. Mr. Moore sells that knife of about $70.00, and anyone who's ever taken the time to look at the springs and pins and bolsters and whatnot on a pocketknife should understand what a bargain that is. The knife has subtle features that make it easier to use, too; the "toe" on the spey blade is slightly longer than, say, a Shrade or Buck; the other two blades have slightly more belly to put more edge on the hide, and the two skinning blades lock at a decided angle to the body of the knife so that they sit right where they ought to be (an anatomically and ergonomically correct angle, for those of you who are hip to such things).

On top of everything else, it's a handsome knife; the yellow jigged bone and the nickel-silver bolsters and the maker's mark on the shield make it stand out from the mass-produced Japanese stuff.

Mr. Moore doesn't have a Website up yet, although they are working on one, so for now you'll have to write or call for a catalog. By the way, this is the second knife that I've owned that was made by Moore Maker; the first one somehow escaped my grasp and control, and I spent a whole calling season missing it, because I didn't for the life of me know how to find another one. The next summer I was cleaning out a drawer and stumbled across the box that it had come in, and I took the phone number off of the lid and called down to Matador.

Mr. Moore himself answered the phone (which isn't all that remarkable; the outfit is run by two brothers and two sons, so I suppose that I had to talk to one Mr. Moore or another) and after we had a nice little visit, I gave him a model # from the box (#5903; the Three Backspring Whittler) and told him that the knife that I came loose of had jigged bone handles, I asked him if he took credit cards.

"No, son, we don't," was the answer, which pleased me none at all; I wanted the knife NOW, and I didn't want to have to fool about with Postal Money Orders and whatnot, in addition to having to suffer through the turnaround time. "But," he continued, "I'll put that knife in the mail today, and I'll just put the bill in the box."

I greeted this with a rather intelligent "Huh?" and made the poor man repeat himself; I didn't think that anyone did business thataway anymore.

Two days later the knife came in the mail, and sure enough there was the invoice. I cut him a check and sent it on it's way, and I decided that Mr. Moore and his products were Aces High in my book. You ought to try one of his knives; I don't think that they'll disappoint anyone.

Moore Maker can be reached at: