Tom reviews the new Puma SGB Blacktail Knife Knife.
USA -(Ammoland.com)- This week we want to take a look at the Puma SGB Blacktail knife. As with all Puma SGB knives it uses German steel but is assembled in China. At first glance it is a flashy knife.
The blade is constructed out of shiny German Cutlery Steel. It has a polished brass bolster that adds an elegant flavor to the knife and the imitation stag handle further compliments the overall taste of the knife so it has a lot of eye appeal.
It has a thick spine which extends the full length of the handle so it should stand up to some tough usage. It appears to be stoutly made. It has a finger groove which aids in stabilization while skinning an animal and allows you to choke down on the knife.
It also has a brass lined hole in the back of the handle so you can attach a piece of leather either for eye appeal or if you like one in general on your knives.
Puma SGB Blacktail Knife
It does have a drop point blade so it should be a capable skinning knife. It is advertised as having a 3.2-inch blade but it only has 3-inches of cutting surface on the blade which is fine with me. I favor a 3 ½-inch blade for skinning but 3-inces is more than adequate.
It doesn’t have much of a point on it so you will need a clip point knife to mark the pattern on your big game animals. The spine is just slightly ground down but not enough to cut the pattern.
Again, I must point out that it is an attractive knife. The stag imitation handle, the brass bolster and the silver blade all nicely off set each other. But if you are on a tight budget and need to pinch your pennies they also offer a Blacktail with a Micarta handle and instead of a leather sheath it comes with a Ballistic nylon sheath.
This option cuts the cost almost in half. Comparing the specs, they are identical other than that the stag option is .1 ounces heavier.
The only downside of the knife that I see is that in an effort to make it a smaller compact hunting knife they cut the handle too short for me. To further complicate matters, the back of the handle slopes forward on the bottom side which takes another 5/8-inches off of the holding surface. That means that my little finger is incapable of aiding in holding the knife steady.
But even with the short handle I should be able to adequately skin an animal, it just won’t be as stable. For people with small hands or young hunters with smaller hands it would probably fit their hands fine but people with big beefy hands might better pass on this one.
SPECS: (Taken from the Puma SGB website)
- Knife Type – Fixed Blade
- Blade Length in / mm – 3.2 / 82
- Blade Thickness in / mm – 0.12/3
- Total Length in / mm – 7 / 178
- Weight oz / gr – 3 / 87
- Blade Steel – 1.4116 German Cutlery Steel
- Rockwell Hardness – 55-57
- Full Tang – Yes
- Sheath – Leather
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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”