skinning knives

[Chettaman]

I can use just about any knife to skin. Even axes. But I think the knives that are slashing weapons should be skinning items as well. as long as they have sharp points.

[Marshmellow]

Slashing weapons have sharp edges, not sharp points.

[Qzzrbl]

Slashing weapons have sharp edges, not sharp points.

Anyone who's ever skinned a critter can tell you that you don't -stab- the carcass when you skin it.

....Besides, same story with axes.

[Thunkkin]

I still fondly remember an experience with my first char who was in the Nak militia. At some point or other, a few of us rode out with a Scorpion or two and Mallor Tor to take care of a Mek that was hanging around near the eastern gate. Mek is dispatched easily. My noob self is the only ranger in the group, but since I'm in the militia, I have zero IC experience in the wilds and had never really used "skin" more than a few times on scrab patrol.

"Jigs, skin the Mek," comes the command.

I pull out my wee tiny skinning knife. I look between the knife and the Mek.

Mallor says something along the lines of, "We haven't got all day, son" and hands me his ginormous axe. I do a big emote about setting to the task with gusto and I skin the mek with Mallor's battle axe.

Result? One piece of meat.

Greaaaaaaaaaat. Luckily, I was such a noob that I didn't even realize how ashamed I should have felt.

[Marshmellow]

Slashing weapons have sharp edges, not sharp points.

Anyone who's ever skinned a critter can tell you that you don't -stab- the carcass when you skin it.

....Besides, same story with axes.

I wasn't arguing any of the points besides the very simple fact that slashing weapons rely on their sharp edges and not any points.

Still, slashing weapons rely on kinetic energy to chop into something, not to cut something with it's sharp edge as you slide the edge along that which is being cut.  It's the difference between hacking at a steak sawing at the steak when you're at the dinner table.  Skinning something is more of the slicing/sawing motion, not a hacking motion, and thus a slashing weapon is not an appropriate tool for this task.

[jhunter]

I agree that realistically it should be that way but there are so many items you can skin with it isn't a big deal.

[Ocotillo]

Slashing weapons have sharp edges, not sharp points.

Anyone who's ever skinned a critter can tell you that you don't -stab- the carcass when you skin it.

....Besides, same story with axes.

I wasn't arguing any of the points besides the very simple fact that slashing weapons rely on their sharp edges and not any points.

Still, slashing weapons rely on kinetic energy to chop into something, not to cut something with it's sharp edge as you slide the edge along that which is being cut.  It's the difference between hacking at a steak sawing at the steak when you're at the dinner table.  Skinning something is more of the slicing/sawing motion, not a hacking motion, and thus a slashing weapon is not an appropriate tool for this task.

It gets irritating, though, when a northern ranger who uses axes all the time can just skin things with their super-duper skins-and-chops-and-fights hand axe, and a southern type who happens to fight with a jambiya in their off-hand has to put all their shit away and get out something else so they skin.

[SMuz]

I'd think that most of the slashing weapons (longswords, shortswords, axes, etc) really do have a sharp edge, capable of skinning. The difference is that they're intended to be heavy and unwieldy because you need momentum, not finesse to hack into someone. Skinning would require a lot more fine motor movement.

You could probably chop up and butcher a body for meat and bones with an axe, but actually skinning it would be a lot more difficult.

[Chettaman]

Slashing weapons have sharp edges, not sharp points.

Well, sir. Some slashing weapons. Some slashing knives will have "sharp point" or something along that in their description. They too have sharp stabby points good for stabbing. they codedly are not stabbing weapons, though and obviously not good for skinning.

I did good at not being snarky, I think.

[Synthesis]

Everyone knows that the skinning option for piercing weapons was just the way to check whether you could backstab with it or not, SHEEEESH.

[Barzalene]

I was starting to disagree with someone, and in forming my argument I was visualizing a filet knife, and I realized I was wrong. Now I lost track of my original point, and I'm summing up with tldr.

That said, while I have never skinned any mammal, I have broken down a skinless side of beef, and countless items of poultry and I have filleted fish.

The knifes I used for all of these were very similar, and probably fairly interchangeable. All the blades were probably about 4-6 inches and the entire knife seven - nine inches. (I'm guessing. I'm too lazy to go downstairs to measure a boning knife. Let's rely on my memory) Both the filet and boning knifes have a sharp edge and a narrowed point. The handle was broader than the blade, and the blade curved up to a point. The fillet knife had some additional flexibility.

If I were starving and I killed a bird, beast or fish and all I had to skin with was a sword or axe I imagine I'd manage to eat. If I were making a living or routinely hunting for my food, I would make a point of buying an appropriate tool so that I did not have to rely on either an ax or sword.

I really hope this post is relevant, and I fear it isn't.

[Xeran Van Houten]

If one looks, Skinning knives are typically a very small knife or handaxe/hatchet, with very little (but hopefully very sharp) sharpened blade (except maybe the axe ones since those are likely to be more of a multi-use survival tool thing).

When you skin something, you're not trying to quarter the animal, you're separating the skin from where it meets the tissues beneath.

This site has a decent pdf of instruction for skinning a deer.  There's even a few things it says right on that page:

One area that provides a significant contribution (or loss) of meat is the skinning process. While there are several opinions on skinning, including the high speed "rock in the neck pouch method" that uses your lawn tractor, 4 wheeler, or SUV to yank off the hide we still stick with the old fashioned do it by hand method. While this takes us 20 - 30 minutes we know that we are going to leave the meat on the carcass resulting in a higher yield and also get a higher price for our hides as a result.

and

The #1 thing to keep in mind when skinning your deer is to use your hands 75% of the time and your knife only 25%.

Note: The pdf does show the skinning of an actual deer, so there's pictures of the hide being peeled off and the also one of the head being removed, so if you don't want to see that, don't download it. It is, however, tasteful (as much as it can be) and not particularly bloody or gory as the the deer is being processed for meat in what looks like a suitable work area for butchery.  They also use a fairly big knife, but they're most likely practiced at it, and the deer has already been dressed from the looks of it.

This site gives the text directions to field dressing and then later skinning a deer with no pictures. Field dressing is just skinning enough of the animal to remove the guts and organs (generally speaking).

Mostly while playing arm, we're doing the full skinning process out in the field, which is realistically a bad idea, but Zalantheans probably don't care much if there's sand in their food (since it's everywhere).  I'm pretty sure most of my skinning emotes are the basic, general field dressing process - though changed up for what type of thing it is that I'm skinning, since turtles and bugs are obviously not an animal with a hide.

[Synthesis]

Skinning in the field isn't such a bad idea if all you're interested in is the hide.

Suck it, hippies.

[Xeran Van Houten]

Skinning in the field isn't such a bad idea if all you're interested in is the hide.

Suck it, hippies.

Well, yes, that's true, but I would think that to the average Zalanthean the meat is at least equally valuable.

And yes, hippies can indeed suck it.

[X-D]

The best skinning knives IRL actually look alot like a good hatchet, at least edge wise, or, more closely an ulu.

I've taken apart game with hatchets and knives. I can say that taking on small game with a hatchet...well, not a great idea, An Ulu works great. But for large game, if you are not truly interested in the hide then the hatchet is the way to go.

Makes quick work of the joints...you basically just pretend it is a cleaver.

Generally though, you do not want a blade more then around 6 inches, rounded and if possible a gut hook, also useful for tendons and other things. Trying to skin with a sword, even a shortsword would be...messy...at best.

If All I had is a sword, or even bowie, I'd have to use it to fashion a handle for a rock that I split to use as a blade to skin and butcher with.

BTW, a filet knife is for fish, for filets actually...trying to use one for say a rabbit would not be fun.

[bcw81]

As a note, I skin fowl with a rather sharp, small knife that you can find in any sporting goods shop. I would imagine a larger knife would be equally as useful on larger game.

[Lizzie]

I use my filet knife at home, to peel vegetables. I buy my fish already fileted. In real life, animals are skinned by someone else. My meat comes in slabs, boneless, or in clumps, ground up. My chicken has no head, no feathers, no feet, tail, and its innards are neatly packed in a little paper wrapping.

In game, when I actually emote skinning, I usually just shove a blade under the nearest wound-hole, and pry the hide off. If I'm extracting a gland, I'm doing that with my hand. If I'm getting a bone, I'm cracking it over a rock. I only use the skinning knife or a "assess -v you think you can skin with this knife", in other words, because the code requires me to.

[X-D]

Real men skin their own meat Lizzie...oh, never mind.

[Yam]

Cut the skin off and fry it to make chicharrones.

[Synthesis]

I skinned a human, once.  True story.

[Whiran Luck]

It depends on how tightly the hide is adhered to the meat but...

in actuality, with patience, the only thing you actually need anything with a sharp cutting surface for is for the preliminary cuts. Once the preliminary cuts are done, you don't need anything sharp, just your hand or the blunt edge of a blade or even a pencil, since the underlying tissue that helps the skin adhere to the muscle is a bit like sticky foam.

I also once skinned a human. Or part of one. True story!

[Yam]

I skinned a human, once.  True story.

[BleakOne]

I know absolutely nothing about skinning.

[roughneck]

My DNA has code to eat corpses.  I don't need to skin nuthin.