The Outdoor Edge Game Processor Kit is an outstanding value. It blends several special-purpose knives with heavy-duty shears, a saw and a knife sharpener to create a kit that has all the tools you might need to process wild game at home.
The kit’s value, though, could start in the field or woods. The kit includes caping and skinning blades, which you can use to remove the hide of a deer or elk. It also includes a wood/bone saw, along with a handy rib spreader and even a small cutting board.
To give Man Makes Fire a closer look, Outdoor Edge sent us a review unit.
Here is what we learned.
Outdoor Edge Game Processor Kit Review
At first glance, there is so much packed into this 12-piece game processing kit that the price seems too good to be true. (But it is true, which is one of the reasons this kit is in our 45 Best Gifts for Hunters list.)
For most hunters, the price-to-value ratio of the Outdoor Edge Game Processor Kit is very impressive. Of course, you should know this is a kit for hunters — it’s not designed for everyday use for professionals and it’s not built to heirloom quality. But it’s all surprisingly great for the price.
The knives feature full-tang 420J2 stainless steel, which is durable with excellent corrosion resistance. As far as steel quality goes, some knife and blade aficionados might be downright upset, but many of those guys also spend more money on knives than many hunters spend on guns and bows. For the rest of us, the steel will take a decent edge. I had no trouble processing two elk with this kit. Each blade was certainly sharp enough for that task.
Of course, as you process an elk, your blades are going to dull. That’s where the included tungsten carbide knife sharpener comes in. The design is simple and easy to use. With several pulls against the sharpener, I’d get right back to trimming elk with a newly sharpened knife.
The best feature of these knives is the rubberized handles. The handles are big and easy to hold and help you maintain a good grip.
Just to be clear, here are the kit’s full contents: caping knife, gut-hook skinner, boning/fillet knife, butcher knife, wood/bone saw, carving fork, cutting board, ribcage spreader, game cleaning gloves, and a knife sharpener.
It all fits into the molded plastic case.
The only quibble I have is so minor I hesitate to even write it down — the included bone/wood saw seems to be much better suited to wood than bone. If you go through a lot of bone with your processing method, you’ll want a dedicated bone saw, which you probably already have anyway.
Oh, one last point: We’re also fans of the Outdoor Edge 8-Piece Butcher-Lite Kit, which is a handy smaller kit that you can take to hunting camp and take in your backpack for those times you’ll be boning an elk far off the beaten path. In addition, we first ran into Outdoor Edge through the company’s truly excellent Razor-Lite hunting knife system. Outdoor Edge has done a great job of creating quality-yet-affordable hunting knife systems.
Outdoor Edge Game Processor Kit: Great Kit, Great Buy
All-in-all, the Outdoor Edge Game Processor Kit has the core knives you need to process wild game at home. The grips and types of blades are easy to hold and are effective. The kit is particularly great because it makes it possible to start processing wild game in the field or at home . . . without necessarily needing to pay a butcher to do the work for you. This is cool because you also learn exactly where your meat is coming from all the way to your table. Highly recommended.
Get the Gear:
- Outdoor Edge Game Processor Kit
- Outdoor Edge 8-Piece Butcher-Lite Kit
- Outdoor Edge Razor-Lite Hunting Knife
