When it comes to field dressing you are going to want a really sharp knife, and one that is reliable and is going to be able to maintain an edge, season after season. Enter the Spyderco Moran. This trailing point blade, in my opinion, is perfect for field dressing and definitely one of the better ones out there for the price. This blade is made in the Bill Moran tradition who is considered to be one of the founders of American custom knifemaking. If you do find a handmade moran out there, you will expect to pay in excess of five figures for it – they are not cheap and for good reason. With his dedication and quality in mind, Spyderco set out to make one hell of a field dressing knife with the Moran and they achieved just that.

Blade

The Spyderco Moran features a 3.875″ length blade which puts it at the perfect length for skinning in my opinion. The blade is made out of high-quality VG-10 steel which is able to keep a really nice and sharp edge. Furthermore, the blade is tapered, starting out thick near the handle and thinning down to a fine point on the pointy end. This blade is razor sharp right out of the box and I only needed to spend a few minutes sharpening it to get it to my ideal shaving-sharp level, but most others it will be perfect for field dressing straight out of the box.

The blade comes in two styles, an up sweeping bowie style knife and a drop point style blade. In my opinion, I prefer the drop point just because I find them easier to sharpen but then again, that is just my opinion.

Handle

I was actually really surprised with the handle on the Moran, as it is a really nice and sturdy grip. The handle is an injection-molded fiberglass-reinforced nylon handle with rubber inserts which really does allow you to get a tight grip on the blade and maintain it, even when wearing gloves or in the rain. The handle and the blade, are both similarly weighed which allows for a perfect balanced knife and really does feel great. The sheath that it comes in is also pretty high quality and is not going to be affected by weather which is a problem that you may find you get with some other types of skinning knives.

Verdict

Overall, the Spyderco Moran is one of the best field dressing knives out there at the moment. The team at Spyderco have really outdone themselves with this knife and its quality is far superior to many others in the field. As always, though, I recommend you go down to your local knife specialist and try out this knife for yourself before you buy it to make sure that it is perfect for you.

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