A hunting knife is a knife

Knife

A knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...

 used during hunting

Hunting

Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...

 for preparing the game to be used as food: skinning

Skinning

Skinning, a gerund from the verb to skin, commonly refers to the act of skin removal.The process is usually done with animals, mainly as preparation of the meat beneath and/or use for the fur...

 the animal and cutting up the meat

Meat

Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...

. It is different from the Hunting dagger

Hunting dagger

The hunting dagger is a long double-edged German stabbing hunting knife, used to kill deer and boar. It was a weapon mainly used in the fancy hunts of the German nobility. This dagger developed from Medieval hunting swords which were longer and mainly used by mounted hunters...

 which was traditionally used to kill wild game.

Some hunting knives are adapted for other uses in the wild

Wilderness

Wilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. It may also be defined as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet—those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with...

; such as a Camp knife, which hunters may use as machete

Machete

The machete is a large cleaver-like cutting tool. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet, though it is less commonly known...

s or hatchet

Hatchet

A hatchet is a single-handed striking tool with a sharp blade used to cut and split wood...

s when those specific tools are not available. In this case, their function is similar to a survival knife

Survival knife

Survival knives are knives intended for survival purposes in a wilderness environment, often in an emergency situation when the user has lost most of his/her main equipment. Military units issue some type of survival knife to pilots in the event their plane may be shot down. Survival knives can be...

.

Design

Hunting knives are traditionally designed for cutting rather than stabbing, and usually have a single sharpened edge. The blade is slightly curved on most models, and some hunting knives may have a blade that has both a curved portion for skinning

Skinning

Skinning, a gerund from the verb to skin, commonly refers to the act of skin removal.The process is usually done with animals, mainly as preparation of the meat beneath and/or use for the fur...

, and a straight portion for cutting slices of meat

Meat

Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...

. Some blades incorporate a guthook. Most hunting knives designed as "Skinners" have a rounded point as to not damage the skin as it is being removed.

Examples

Hunting knives include the puukko

Puukko

A puukko is a small traditional Finnish belt-knife with a single curving cutting edge and a flat back.- Design :The basic components of a puukko are a hilt and a blade along with a sheath, which can be attached to a belt. The blade is short, typically less than 100 mm.The flat back allows the...

 and the Sharpfinger

Sharpfinger

Sharpfinger is the name given to a certain style of skinning knife, modeled after the Schrade 152 OT . The "Sharpfinger" name is given to a variety of knives in this design by a number of makers.-History:...

. Most American designs are based on a smaller version of the Bowie knife

Bowie knife

A Bowie knife is a pattern of fixed-blade fighting knife first popularized by Colonel James "Jim" Bowie in the early 19th Century. Since the first incarnation was created by James Black, the Bowie knife has come to incorporate several recognizable and characteristic design features, although its...

. Knifemaker Bob Loveless

Bob Loveless

Robert Waldorf Loveless , aka Bob Loveless or RW Loveless, was an American knife maker who designed and popularized the hollowground drop point blade and the use of full tapered tangs and screw-type handle scale fasteners within the art of knifemaking...

 popularized the Drop point

Drop point

Drop point is a knife blade that slopes on the spine of the blade from the handle of the knife to the tip of the blade. This allows the spine of the blade to continue forward to the tip of the blade....

 hunting knife and William Scagel

William Scagel

William Wales Scagel or Bill Scagel was a knifemaker whose style had a profound impact on the cutlery trade, influencing it for over 100 years.-Early life:...

popularized the Camp knife.