Dadley and more Dadley

Bob Loveless put jimping on his folding City Knife for Lone Wolf. It's on the bottom of the bolster. Per Bob it's to facilitate peeling fruit. Only the designer knows why a certain feature of knife design is chosen. All is speculation if the designer didn't document or tell someone who documented the reason.
 
The Russell Green River Dadley arrived today, the one I had originally intended to order. First a surprise: I thought I remembered that the Russell had a 6” blade. In fact the blade is 5”, almost identical in profile to the Sheffield blade.

The teeth on the back of the Russell blade are much fiercer than the relatively mild scallops on the Sheffield blsde. After seeing the first blade, I was prepared to accept the discussion suggesting that the scallops were merely decorative, but these look and feel intentional, too sharp for mere ornamentation.

The handle on the Russell knife has the typical Green River checkered finish, rough enough to want some sanding to be comfortable. The handle is too thick to fit smoothly into the other knife’s sheath, but the sanding may take care of that.

6EBE9120-8824-4027-AD63-AE509478F9F7.jpeg CCBC008E-423E-4E6A-A59D-4E674E1D00F8.jpeg 5F15B557-04E2-4676-9FD3-B599FCFC6501.jpeg
 
Nice swedge on the Sheffield.

Looks like the Sheffield is thicker?

I think you're right, the two spine treatments are two different animals.
I still like my deer-hair stripping theory for ascribing a purpose to the GR teeth.
 
Henry Beige said:
The Russell Green River Dadley arrived today, the one I had originally intended to order. First a surprise: I thought I remembered that the Russell had a 6” blade. In fact the blade is 5”, almost identical in profile to the Sheffield blade.

The teeth on the back of the Russell blade are much fiercer than the relatively mild scallops on the Sheffield blsde. After seeing the first blade, I was prepared to accept the discussion suggesting that the scallops were merely decorative, but these look and feel intentional, too sharp for mere ornamentation.

The handle on the Russell knife has the typical Green River checkered finish, rough enough to want some sanding to be comfortable. The handle is too thick to fit smoothly into the other knife’s sheath, but the sanding may take care of that.

View attachment 1254846 View attachment 1254847 View attachment 1254848
Click to expand...

I imagine that the jimping on the Green River knife is machine-made, on the Sheffield knife it's still largely done by hand on the edge of a wheel. I have seen Sheffield Dadley's with a longer row of jimping, and with more 'aggressive' jimping. They could be useful for various reasons, including to add purchase when the knife was batoned through rope, but their existence does not, in itself, mean that there is any specific purpose for them in my opinion. Maybe Green River copied Sheffield, maybe Sheffield copied Green River. Nor that they are a good design feature, look at the Victorinox Parcel-hook or the Buckmaster with its grappling hook/anchor additions. For the most part, I think it's using a knife that makes you think of improvements or changes to the design, and in my experience Sheffield cutlers are not knife users (one of the reasons they lack innovation). That's not to say that some factor (wholesaler), or even an end-user, didn't ask for the jimping (whether the cutler got it right or not). It might be worth asking Russell why they add the jimping, but if they said, "It's to add grip while wearing gloves", for example, that still doesn't mean a lot in my opinion, or give it any sense of historical importance. The world is full of bad design, accidental design features, marketing men, and marks (suckers). In Sheffield, an unpolished blade is still regarded as inferior, but many manufacturers will tell you they're more 'tactical', not reflecting the light like a polished blade does, and many folks will tell you they prefer them. Even more will tell you that a slipjoint is inherently dangerous because the blade doesn't lock :thumbsup:
 
scrteened porch said:
Nice swedge on the Sheffield.

Looks like the Sheffield is thicker?

I think you're right, the two spine treatments are two different animals.
I still like my deer-hair stripping theory for ascribing a purpose to the GR teeth.
Click to expand...

The swedge is quite nice, even if it is only on one side.
The Sheffield might be an RCH thicker; it’s hard to tell without putting a vernier on it. What you are seeing is a trick of the lighting that almost makes it look convex.*
The teeth ought to give a heck of a Dutch rub, much better than I could do with bare knuckles. That would probably strip some hair off.

* The Sheffield is a wee bit thicker. An adjustable wrench set for a snug fit on the Russell was a no-go on the Sheffield. Conversely, a snug fit on the Sheffield gave maybe a couple of thousandths of slop on the Russell.
 
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By chance, I came across this video - completely different knife, but early on, it shows jimping being put on with a file.

 
According to mr mike Stewart the jimping on the back of a dadley knife is for scraping fish scales . I have a Sheffield version on the way to me because im in Ireland and it's more economic for me. I'd rather have the more aggressive teeth like on the american version but cant justify the postage. I also have the Sheffield 19th century butcher knife with 6 inch blade on the way I plan to have them both rehandled in green jigged bone
 
screened porch said:
Nice swedge on the Sheffield.

Looks like the Sheffield is thicker?

I think you're right, the two spine treatments are two different animals.
I still like my deer-hair stripping theory for ascribing a purpose to the GR teeth.
Click to expand...
Old post I know.
I can definitively state I wouldn’t want to grain a hide with those teeth. It would actually increase the work and risk damage to the hide.
https://imgur.com/a/CjM9jyi
 
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