Browning Kodiak Knife Review

Tom reviews the popular Browning Kodiak Knife.

Browning Kodiak Knife
If you like a compact hunting knife with multiple blades then you’ll want to check out the new Browning Kodiak Knife
Tom Claycomb
Tom Claycomb

USA -(Ammoland.com)- The Browning Kodiak Knife is a unique blade that I can only imagine is going to be a popular knife with a lot of big game hunters.

It has three locking blades. Let’s start off with the main blade. It is a drop point 3 ¼-inch main blade that has a sharp enough point so that you can mark the pattern with it when you first begin skinning your animal.

Browning Kodiak came from the factory with a good edge on it and easily sliced through paper. It has a thumbnail groove so it is easily opened, which is needed on foldup knives, much less one with three blades.

The second blade (middle one) is a bone saw blade with aggressive teeth. The teeth are a hair over 1/8-inches long and unique in that it has a double row set of teeth. It has a nearly 3 ¼-inch cutting surface and I can only assume that it would also easily handle small limbs if you needed to clear them out from around a deer blind.

Browning Kodiak Knife

The third blade is a rather deep gut hook and looks like that it should work fine. Instead of trying to double duty the gut hook on top of the main knife blade (which to me is a mistake that a lot of companies do, they made it a separate blade).

So as not to waste the off side of the gut hook blade they made it a flat cutting surface. Just as with the main cutting blade it also came from the factory impressively sharp.

I’m not sure in the hunting world what you would do with this cutting edge but I imagine that it’d be good to cut rope etc, with so as not to dull your main cutting blade.

The lock on all three blades seems to firmly hold the blades safely locked. To unlock the blades, you push down the spine near the back of the handle.

The knife comes with a seemingly stout, black canvas sheath. The Browning Kodiak Knife sets down deep in the sheath and a top flap Velcro’s over the top to further hold it in place. A big part of the acceptability of a knife to me is what kind of a sheath that it comes with. If the sheath doesn’t firmly hold the knife it will soon be lost.

The only downside that I see is that due to the nature of the product (three bladed knife) the handle is large, so someone with a small hand would have a hard time comfortably using it. And even for me, while working with the drop point blade, the saw blade protrudes ½-inch above the bottom of the handle which makes use a little awkward to deftly use.

But, to try to cram three blades into one knife, that is one of the consequences so you have to compromise somewhere.

SUMMARY: For mountain hunting the Browning Kodiak Knife would be a little heavy to lug around all day but for all that it has to offer, I believe they’ve done a good job keeping it compact. So, if you’re a guy that likes more than one blade in your knife, I think you’ll want to check out the Browning Kodiak Hunting Knife.

 

Browning Kodiak Knife SPECIFICATIONS:

  • Cutting blade length 3 ¼-inch
  • Overall length 8 ¼-inches
  • Closed length 4 7/8-inches
  • Rockwell steel hardness 56-58
  • Handle is injected molding with a finger groove but the protruding blades prevent you from really being able to use the finger grooves.
  • MSRP $39 ( less $ online )
Browning Kodiak Knife
Browning Kodiak Knife

About Tom Claycomb

Tom Claycomb has been an avid hunter/fisherman throughout his life as well as an outdoors writer with outdoor columns in the magazine Hunt Alaska, Bass Pro Shops, Bowhunter.net and freelances for numerous magazines and newspapers. “To properly skin your animal you will need a sharp knife. I have an e-article on Amazon Kindle titled Knife Sharpening for $.99 if you’re having trouble”