Guardians of The Lambsfoot!

[JITDC]

Oh I see, thank you for pointing that out. Slightly embarrassing on my part!


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[Jack Black]

Oh I see, thank you for pointing that out. Slightly embarrassing on my part!

Certainly no need to be embarrassed, both vendors and cutlery manufacturers have got it wrong in the past

 

[WhittlinAway]

Here is a classic Lambsfoot blade, notice the thinner profile and tapering back (relative to the edge) :thumbup:

Are Lambsfoot blades ever used as secondaries? The only ones I recall seeing serve as the main—and usually sole—blade of the knife.

Hopefully it's not lunacy to dream of a whittler with a small Lambsfoot paired up with a small clip as secondaries. I think that could be a winning combination.

 

[Jack Black]

Are Lambsfoot blades ever used as secondaries? The only ones I recall seeing serve as the main—and usually sole—blade of the knife.

Hopefully it's not lunacy to dream of a whittler with a small Lambsfoot paired up with a small clip as secondaries. I think that could be a winning combination.

The last time I visited Stan Shaw, he was making a few knives with a large Sheepsfoot blade and a Lambsfoot secondary. I didn't really care for the pattern, it didn't look right to me

 

[Jack Black]

Had my Arthur Wright in buffalo out in the woods today

 

[BenHarris]

You gents are tempting me far too much! These lambsfoot knives look like quite the balance between utility and an elegant pocket carry. If you keep this up, I might have to start looking for an ebony and carbon lambsfoot in the future.

 

[choombak]

You gents are tempting me far too much! These lambsfoot knives look like quite the balance between utility and an elegant pocket carry. If you keep this up, I might have to start looking for an ebony and carbon lambsfoot in the future.

Haha... you should - the lambsfoot screams "utility", and is an absolute no-nonsense, always-ready styled knife. Gives the same joy while using, as Northfields while admiring!

 

[Jack Black]

Go for it Ben!

 

[Cambertree]

Are Lambsfoot blades ever used as secondaries? The only ones I recall seeing serve as the main —and usually sole— blade of the knife.

Hopefully it's not lunacy to dream of a whittler with a small Lambsfoot paired up with a small clip as secondaries. I think that could be a winning combination.

Greg, here's a lambsfoot secondary and castrator main on an Australian William Jno. Baker jackknife intended for sheepstation use.
(The genteel misnomer of calling a castrator blade a 'spey' had obviously not been adopted at that time in the antipodes).



The knife itself is probably of Joseph Rodgers or Taylors Eye Witness make, with Baker's tang stamp applied. The engraving is from his 1924 catalogue.

 

[Jack Black]

Great info there Cambertree :thumbup: They STILL refer to the Spey blade as a Castrator blade in Sheffield today!

 

[Cambertree]

The last time I visited Stan Shaw, he was making a few knives with a large Sheepsfoot blade and a Lambsfoot secondary. I didn't really care for the pattern, it didn't look right to me :thumbup:

I agree. It's a rather curious pairing of blade types, considering that with extended use and sharpening, all sheepsfoot blades will become lambsfoots of a kind anyway, just with a different blade/handle cant.

I'd be interested to know if there's any history to this pairing of blade types as a specialist farmers' or shepherds' tool, or if it's just a custom configuration of Stans.

 

[Cambertree]

Great info there Cambertree :thumbup: They STILL refer to the Spey blade as a Castrator blade in Sheffield today! :thumbup:

Cheers, it's that famous Yorkshire tact, mate. Nothing wrong with that!

 

[Jack Black]

Here's a similar knife for the Australian market.



I have seen contemporary A.Wright knives with a Lambsfoot and Spear, and Trevor Ablett produced a lot of patterns with 2 full-size blades (mainly because he bought his blades from Wright's). I'll have to ask around about a Lambsfoot and Spey. Speys are certainly the least popular blade shape sold on the domestic market here, in fact they're rarely seen.

I find the little I know about the historic marketing of Sheffield knives in Australia fascinating.



I thought this description, (from the same catalogue as the one with the Castrator and Lambsfoot), was very interesting. I guess it's always possible that the quintissentially English Lambsfoot could even have been designed for the Australian market!

 

[Jack Black]

I'm very sorry, I missed these two posts until now

I agree. It's a rather curious pairing of blade types, considering that with extended use and sharpening, all sheepsfoot blades will become lambsfoots of a kind anyway, just with a different blade/handle cant.

I'd be interested to know if there's any history to this pairing of blade types as a specialist farmers' or shepherds' tool, or if it's just a custom configuration of Stans.

Yes indeed I can't find any other examples of it in any of the old adverts and catalogue scans I have (though I have a LOT less than some other folk here). I'll have to ask Stan the next time I see him, and will also ask if I call in at Arthur Wright's. Stan was making a few of them, and I think they'd all been pre-ordered.

Cheers, it's that famous Yorkshire tact, mate.

LOL! Spot on!

 

[Jack Black]

This catalogue scan, which I think belongs to Smiling-Knife, appears to show a Serpentine Jack with a Lambsfoot and Clip (far right of bottom row)

 

[WhittlinAway]

That's great stuff Cambertree and Jack! Thank you for researching and posting.

I find it interesting that all of those secondary use cases have the lambsfoot blade still at essentially full size. I think, shrunk down, it could be a superior alternative to a coping blade for a small straight-edged blade.

 

[Cambertree]

Greg, if you're thinking of a whittler with a wharncliffe main, like the 57 Geppetto, with a small lambsfoot, I agree, that would be an excellent variant.

Add the 'swoopy' little secondary clip shape from the early 25 watch pocket Barlows and that would be a pattern I could really get behind!

As a talented whittler who obviously spends a bit of time using different blade shapes, and modifying existing ones to your liking, I'm interested in what you find most useful about about the lambsfoot over a coping or sheepsfoot blade?

I'm guessing that tapered profile towards the tip might allow you to turn the blade more nimbly in tight cuts?

Jack, I'm really looking forward to hearing what your enquiries will turn up. It would be fascinating to hear their thoughts on the purpose and origins of the lambsfoot as distinct from the sheepfoot, too. I have a theory, but I'll hang onto it for the moment...

Here's another jack with lambsfoot secondary for you Guardians to consider.



This one is especially interesting to me as, although it's doubtless Sheffield made, it could make a claim to be an Australian traditional pattern.

It is a specialist veterinary knife, which also features a main blade shape which has fallen out of use: the "Baker's Sweep."

As Jack has noted, Australia was a big market for Sheffield bladeware, even more so after the US started to protect its local cutlery industry with trade tariffs, and this is an example of a pattern which was specifically designed for the needs of that market.

It's a pretty nice design, I must say. You all know how useful the lambsfoot is, and that needle-like point and eponymous sweeping belly of the main blade offer a very versatile blade combination. I daresay those tweezers and that pick would have been very well made, too.

Sadly, I've never seen one either in a museum or a private knife collection...

 

[Jack Black]

Another fascinating post my friend, what an incredibly interesting knife

Jack, I'm really looking forward to hearing what your enquiries will turn up. It would be fascinating to hear their thoughts on the purpose and origins of the lambsfoot as distinct from the sheepfoot, too. I have a theory, but I'll hang onto it for the moment...

My previous enquiries, about the origin of the Lambsfoot, in Sheffield have pretty much hit a dead-end I'm afraid, but I'll keep persevering. It's a mid nineteenth century pattern, and even Stan Shaw, the oldest cutler I know, doesn't go back that far. Others, are actually surprisingly clueless about knife patterns. There are a few other people I can speak to, but I suspect they'd only be speculating, and there seems to be very little written down about the pattern. There are no Lambsfoot knives in Smith's Key of 1816, but there are several blades like Charlie C's Ancient Barlow blade. It's possible that the Lambsfoot evolved from that, but nowhere have I seen that blade shape referred to as a Lambsfoot, and I personally think it is a separate blade shape, though clearly in the same family, as well as that of the much older Sheepsfoot. Like the 'Ettrick' and 'Wharncliffe', 'Lambsfoot' may have been more of a marketing term. Just speculating of course, we need to track down the first Lambsfoot! :thumbup: I also think it's very interesting that the pattern does not seem to have passed across the Atlantic to the USA, and that may be because it was not aimed at that market.

Edit - Thought I'd add a couple of pics from the 1897 Taylor's Eye Witness catalogue

 

[Jack Black]

From the 1902 Thomas Turner catalogue.

 

[Will Power]

Very worthwhile catalogue pix Jack, thanks for showing them.:thumbup:

Plenty to start slobbering over That TEW on the extreme right with the pistol grip handle looks like a Corsican type of pattern, incredible. Nice blade shapes too.

Regards, Will