Can we talk about the skinner blade for a second?

Thanks for all the replies guys...I think I have my answers, despite any confusion. According to Wikipedia, the spey blade, which I have also seen referred to as a skinner blade is defined as follows:

"A spey point blade (once used for neutering livestock) has a single, sharp, straight edge that curves strongly upwards at the end to meet a short, dull, straight point from the dull back. With the curved end of the blade being closer to perpendicular to the blade's axis than other knives and lacking a point, making penetration unlikely, spey blades are common on Trapper style pocketknives for skinning fur-bearing animals".

I appreciate the feedback and I can see now how this type of blade could be useful for other things. I especially like Grateful's comment about how the blade can be employed while at work without raising many alarms. I work in an office full of nervous people (haha!), so I can certainly relate to that!
 
Exeter354 said:
I appreciate the feedback and I can see now how this type of blade could be useful for other things. I especially like Grateful's comment about how the blade can be employed while at work without raising many alarms. I work in an office full of nervous people (haha!), so I can certainly relate to that!
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I would have thought that whipping out a castrating blade in the office would make a few people even more nervous! :eek: ;) :D :thumbup:
 
I have a #23 in rams horn with long spey blade. I bought it mainly because I liked how it looked. I was a little put of by the shear size of the knife for a while, then I thought it vaguely resembled a leuku I have and decided that it was now a folding Leuku. Yea,that's it a folding Leuku. :D I find the spey to do about anything I need it to. Main thing is, as with any blade, to keep it sharp.
 
22-rimfire said:
The classic skinner blades are slender pointy blades such as on a muskrat pattern. The trapper is sort of an in between skinner and everyday use design. The blades on the larger trapper are big enough for most any normal task from edc to hunting chores. The Trappers are very useful knives.

To me, the spey blade is a secondary small blade, not something like the folder in your post #14. If the point sticks out above the handle closed, the knife is dangerous and not carried in the pocket. This happens mostly when blades are grown down after years of repeated sharpening and use.
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The portion of the spey blade that sticks above the liner is not sharpened, its just the spine curving down. It is not due to wear that the spey tip is above the liners, both my brand new Buck stockman's have the upper half of the spey tip above the liners. I don't think I've ever seen a spay completely below, anymore than a spearpoint tip.
 
Here's part of a post I made in May in which I refer to a post that I made in October about this very issue. (It's been discussed before ;) ). The spey is a wonderful blade as soon as you get over the idea that you need a sharp point on every blade you carry.

Cory Hess said:
Cory Hess said:
The spey has a long, flat portion for times when you need a flat blade, a curved belly for when you require that, and it's full width for most of it's length which makes it a very strong blade for hard use. I'm in the small minority in that I find the spey to be the most versatile blade I own. The only thing it doesn't work for is any job that requires a pointy tip. When it's paired with a clip, like on a trapper or stockman, I find that I've got all of my bases covered.
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That's part of a post I made back in October in a thread asking the same questions. For any cut that starts at the edge of a material, the spey works wonderfully. I think the spey's best feature is that dramatic belly right at the end of the blade. It allows for the blade to be full width all the way to just before the very end, which I like a lot. My spey gets used for everything from scraping to food prep to cutting wrapping and packaging to whittling to ???. It's kind of hard to answer what I use it for because I use it for just about everything. Maybe this stems from the fact that I use my knives more for outdoor activities than work related activities? I don't know.
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Cory Hess said:
Here's part of a post I made in May in which I refer to a post that I made in October about this very issue. (It's been discussed before ;) ). The spey is a wonderful blade as soon as you get over the idea that you need a sharp point on every blade you carry.
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Thanks, great info!
 
afishhunter said:
The portion of the spey blade that sticks above the liner is not sharpened, its just the spine curving down. It is not due to wear that the spey tip is above the liners, both my brand new Buck stockman's have the upper half of the spey tip above the liners. I don't think I've ever seen a spay completely below, anymore than a spearpoint tip.
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You have never seen my Dad's pocket knives. Believe me, use a grinding wheel for years and eventually the blade is worn down and sometimes the point may stick up above liner. My original Case Barlow became unsafe and had to be retired. The clip blade was no more than a third of the original height. Eventually the point or tip moves back on the blade and eventually sticks out to catch on things. But, yeah, I know in the example given, you don't sharpen that portion. That is sort of a given as far as I'm concerned. As mentioned by Exeter, it could be a bit sharp as in non-rounded edges typical of many GEC's.
 
With deer almost any blade except a Wharncliffe can be used to help skin. I say "help" because the hide is separated from the underlying tissue mostly by blunt dissection. Once you have used a knife blade to begin the skinning you then grab a handful of the loosened hide and pulling it away from body, use your other fist or elbow on the inside of it to separate hide from the body. In some spots there will be strands of tough tissue (fascia) that will not break down with the force of fist or elbow and these need to be cut with a knife.
At least 75% of the hide is removed by stripping it away in this manner. The areas that do need to be cut do not require a dedicated skinning blade.
This works with deer, elk, moose. I don't know about farm animals. For a person working in an abbatoir skinning animals all day, then i can see using the long curved skinning blade as shown on previous page.
kj
 
When Dad and I went hunting (along with my other brothers) I took a knife that looked similar to the picture provided by Jack Black. We referred to this as a "skinning" blade.
 
I guess there is some similarity between this type of skinning blade and a spey blade, but it's a skinner rather than a spey.



It's been a long time since I hunted, but I like to be able to choke up on the blade if necessary, and easily cover the point with a finger.

As Joe says above, most knives will do the job, but when you're doing this kind of job for a living or on a large scale, the style of blade becomes more important.

Out of interest, does anyone have a 'sheep skinner' blade to show?
 
To me, the belly is/was what "did the job". (Skinning, caping, etc.). The first wood handled knife from the top (in the foregoing picture) was what our family called a "skinning blade".

Just my $0.02 worth.
 
I love Stockman knives and keep the spey blade for skinning small animals. I use the Sheepsfot for the rough stuff and the main long blade for food tasks and tasks that require a long blade.

If you don't find the spey blade useful you can always make it more pointy by grinding down the top spine nearest the point. I did this with an Ontario machete, used a cutoff wheel to make it an inline point.

For skinning you want more belly than point.
 
Jack, can you show us what a "Sheep Skinner" blade looks like ?
Are sheep usually sheared before going to slaughter ? Whomever skinned them must have had nice smooth hands.
kj
 
kootenay joe said:
Jack, can you show us what a "Sheep Skinner" blade looks like ?
Are sheep usually sheared before going to slaughter ? Whomever skinned them must have had nice smooth hands.
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While many would call the first knife I posted a sheep skinner, I was wanting to reference a slightly different pattern with a sloping clip, which Chris Reeves among others used to make. It's not that dissimilar to a Nessmuk knife. My knife books are temporarily packed away at the moment, but if anyone has it, I think there's an interesting article about the pattern, and it's use, in the 1987 Blades annual [Edit - Sorry, it's Knives '87 rather than the Blades annual]

I believe that when sheep go to slaughter, the wool is trimmed, but the skin left so as to be used for rugs, etc.

Yes, plenty of lanolin! :D :thumbup:
 
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Exeter354 said:
Thanks guys. This is the blade I'm referring to in case anyone is unsure...it's S7:

Spey_zpsddznqsgi.png


I'm also wondering if the end of the spey blade is sharp enough to cause damage to fingers or the inside of a pocket when closed. For example, in the image below you can see how the point of the spey rises up when the blade is in the closed position. Is it sharp generally?

saddlehorn-spey_zpsmhvrz1fl.jpg
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Here's a designated spey blade. The handle, like yours, is obviously designed to cover the distinctive spey end of the blade but this one lacks the belly desired for skinning. Apart from that I would imagine the knife would be useful for many other cutting tasks so long as they don't specifically require a sharp point.

Untitled by Mark Saunders, on Flickr
 
^ Nice to see that old Wheatley Brothers knife :thumbup:
 
Jack Black said:
I would have thought that whipping out a castrating blade in the office would make a few people even more nervous! :eek: ;) :D :thumbup:
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It probably would if they new it's intended purpose. Sadly that kind of information is known only by us enlightened few as few people even carry a pocket knife anymore.
 
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