Blade Use

W

will62

Joined
Oct 18, 2002
Messages
372
Got one for the old timers out there:

My Dad used to carry a large stockman usually a Case or Old Timer, each blade was sharpened for a specific purpose. The clip blade was sharpened for general cutting purposes.

For field surgery on livestock the spey blade was sharpened like a scalpel, extremely sharp and not normally used.

The sheepsfoot blade was sharpened for rough cutting and maybe not quite as sharp as the other two.

Just wondering if anyone else ever heard of this?
 
I still do my stockman that way. I don't castrate anything, but the spey is extremely sharp, and I only use it for skinning or fleshing which means it is rarely used.
 
For most of my 50 something years I've carried stockmen or toothpicks with
muskrats running a close 3rd. When it was stockmen the blades were always
in a different degree of sharp for different uses. The muskrat I carried for 11 years had one blade that was always scary and honed from zero edge to the spine.
Ken.
 
will62 said:
Got one for the old timers out there:

My Dad used to carry a large stockman usually a Case or Old Timer, each blade was sharpened for a specific purpose. The clip blade was sharpened for general cutting purposes.

For field surgery on livestock the spey blade was sharpened like a scalpel, extremely sharp and not normally used.

The sheepsfoot blade was sharpened for rough cutting and maybe not quite as sharp as the other two.

Just wondering if anyone else ever heard of this?
Click to expand...

Yes Will,

You got it right!. I work part time on a decent size cattle ranch-farm in Okeechobee, Florida which also entails a small(35-40) Hog pen-pasture and a little known fact is the old timers still use they're pocket knives in the field more often than any other sharp tools for all mater of chores associated with this occupation.. Like an old friend of mine there is famous around the ranch for saying, "Hombre, if it ain't broke, por-favor, don't fix it, mi-amigo OK!?"

.. And, I say he is right pretty much all of the time. :)


Anthony
 
My wife's family runs a big cattle ranch here in tornado alley. Her father carries a Case Stockman sharpened that way. Her younger twin brothers who are the main operators now, carry cheap single blade folders with pocket clips. I won't gift them with a decent knife ever. They use them as pry bars and screwdrivers. I still sharpen my Buck Stockmen that way and the only connection I have to the ranch is to visit once in a great while and eat the end product as someone's hamburger. My Texas grandfather and my uncles sharpened that way but they were mainy oil field workers so go figure.
300Bucks
 
Although I've gotten a bit more "relaxed" about the angles I put on each blade of my stockmans, I scratched the angles into the tangs of each blade for my first stockman (vintage large Buck). Regardless, I still use each blade for a different purpose, so the angle is important.
 
most ranchers & many farmers practised this type of different edges for different blades.in fact many case & other stock patterns had the spey blade etched "for flesh only".the stout wharne clip was usually used to pick rocks from the horses hooves & do scraping chores. the big clip cut plug tobacco, sliced fruit,cut rope & cleaned an ocassional jack rabbit.
 
sunnyd said:
I work part time on a decent size cattle ranch-farm in Okeechobee, Florida ...
Click to expand...

O.T., I admit, guys ..... but you must know Eli's Western Wear, eh? I still wear a pair of elk skin Dan Post s**t kickers that were bought there almost 20 years ago (they've been re-soled of course). As a kid, my grandparents had a place in Okeechobee. We pulled approximately 9 million specks out of the lake. Sorry we didn't leave y'all any. :p ..... okay, back on topic now.
 
mnblade said:
. . . guys ... but you must know Eli's Western Wear, eh? I still wear a pair of elk skin Dan Post s**t kickers that were bought there almost 20 years ago (they've been re-soled of course). As a kid, my grandparents had a place in Okeechobee. We pulled approximately 9 million specks out of the lake. Sorry we didn't leave y'all any. :p ..... okay, back on topic now.
Click to expand...

If'n you're into Ranching and Farming you gotta know Eli's on old Park Street in Okeechobee and thats just a cold hard fact.. I never knew the original Eli Rodriguez but I've been going there since the middle 1980's after the Durrance's and the Lewis' took it over.. All very nice folks..

So you're the fellows that fished out all the specs on the Big O, eh? :eek: ;) :D


Best,
Anthony
 
I've heard of it. I personally like all my blades the same but I'm not going to be cutting on any live stock either.
 
sunnyd said:
If'n you're into Ranching and Farming you gotta know Eli's on old Park Street in Okeechobee and thats just a cold hard fact.. I never knew the original Eli Rodriguez but I've been going there since the middle 1980's after the Durrance's and the Lewis' took it over.. All very nice folks..

So you're the fellows that fished out all the specs on the Big O, eh? :eek: ;) :D


Best,
Anthony
Click to expand...

I've been to Eli's and competed in many rodeos in Okeechobee at the sand filled arena, and down the road in Brighton on the Indian rez in my younger days.
 
I am in no way an old timer (I'll be 29 in several months), but this is how I typically sharpen my stockmen. Sometimes I'll put the thicker edge on the spey and a very thin edge on the sheepsfoot just to make things interesting.
 
I'm just a city boy, but I also sharpen the different blades of a stockman differently.
Main blade - general cutting. Sharp, but I stop at the medium grit stone.
Spey - very sharp - as close to a polished edge as I get
sheepsfoot - pretty polished, but not as sharp as the spey.
 
I use my stockmans differently and so change the sharpening
Main blade - food, and general cutting. Sharp to fine
Sheepsfoot - my go to blade for all precise cutting. Belt stropped after E Fine diamond. Acute ground that I often scratch the blade sharpening!
Spey - my general scraping and dirty work blade. Sharp till it gets dull. with a more obtuse angle grind
 
I sharpen all three blades on my stockman to the same convex, polished edge. The spey tends to be the sharpest though for the simple fact that I don't use it very frequently and it is the least likely to have been degraded through work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top