A skinning knife is a sharp knife designed for removing the skin from animal carcasses during slaughter and butchery. Its blade is typically short, curved, and extremely sharp, shaped to slide between skin and flesh, severing the connective tissue without scoring the meat beneath or puncturing the hide, which has value as leather. In abattoirs, skinning is a skilled, fast operation where a poor cut damages both meat and hide. Hunters carry smaller versions for field dressing game. The knife must be kept razor sharp: a dull skinning knife tears, bruises the meat, and endangers the operator. It is a specialist tool for the least glamorous but most economically important cut in butchery.