I use the knife to split the pelvis and it makes gutting the deer alot faster, say...less than 5 minutes. What I do is with the deer's belly facing me, the head up, is just kinda tap the knife with a log or rock into the top of the pelvis. It generally splits the majority of the way down and with your feet on the legs you lift up on the tail and it spits the rest of the way. Then the all the guts, lungs, heart etc come out in one glob when unzipped and I use the windpipe as a handle to drag the whole mess out. It makes for a quick clean with very little blood and mess. You know the drill. It has never damaged an edge of with any of the knives I've used. The little knife I was referering too is my only custom and I just don't want to baton with it.