Wow, I thought, as I enjoyed slicing through the vegetables with one of the sharpest knives I own. I needed to make some fine cuts to a tomato for a salad and remembered it was in the drawer. I stumbled upon this use after leaving the knife in the kitchen after cleaning some pheasants from a South Dakota hunting trip. But for smaller, more detailed work, the Benchmade Flyway is a go-to. I don’t use it nearly as often as my Shun 8-inch Chef’s Knife. So, what exactly is a paring knife? For most folks, it’s one of the smaller knives in the cutting block. It’s perfect for this job, which led me to the realization that it’s a really sweet kitchen knife. I usually use it at home, after taking field-dressed birds out of the freezer and preparing them for the skillet or oven. I’ve used it to process a dozen or so meals of pheasant and grouse so far this year. It built it to be an upland and waterfowl hunter’s dream, and there, it excels. But frankly, that isn’t why Benchmade made this knife. And with just a 2.7-inch blade, it’s too short for much survival-style use like batoning firewood. Its only downside is that the small size may make it undergunned for big game. The Flyway blends all these attributes seamlessly into a great hunting knife. I love bright-color knives outdoors, which helps them stand out from the rest of my kit. I like a drop point with a modest belly, which allows for precise, clean cutting and trimming.Īnd a blaze orange handle and sheath certainly don’t hurt. Critters like grouse are small, and you want to get every bit of that valuable meat harvested from the carcass.Ī razor-sharp blade is also a requirement. That’s because I make very careful cuts to clean the delicate meat found on birds and smaller mammals. What makes a great small-game hunting knife? To me, it needs a very solid and ergonomic handle first.

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