Humpback spey blades, why ?

Hickory n steel

Hickory n steel

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The most common pattern to feature the spey blade is by far the venerable trapper, and I've never seen one with a humpback spey blade.
So why is it that Schrade, Camillus, Western , Utica, Buck, and even a number of foreign manufacturers made / make their stockman with humpback spey blades ? They don't do it on Trappers, so why Stockman ?
Case doesn't do it, neither did Queen, and I don't think GEC does.
They've got some that look like it at the right angle, but are more like a broken clip point and not actually humpbacked.
If GEC does make one I've never seen it .


So why the ugly humpback spey blade , is it just so you can get at the nail nick or something ?
If you can't get at the nail nick it's either on the wrong side or the blades in the wrong place.

Btw, am I the only one who finds them a very ugly deal breaker ?
If I really liked everything else and thought I could easily modify it to look better maybe, but generally it's just a deal breaker.
 
Just because you haven't seen them does not mean they weren't made. There were trappers in the old days that had humpback speys. I've seen them on some old camillus trappers. GEC made 48 pattern trappers with it. As to a specific purpose for the humpback, I don't know, but they do usually have a finer tip than a regular spey.

I think they look very good. Here's a humpback spey on a stockman which looks rather nice in my opinion.

IMG_6565_Original.JPG

It has a nice contour when closed and makes for a slim knife.

IMG_7145.jpg
 
I guess it just goes to show how aesthetics are subjective. I really like that look. (of course, I'd gladly trade a spey for an awl) ;)
 
Fightn' Rooster and Bulldog made some stockman with severe humps in the spey.--KV
 
I don't have a pic handy to post but the GEC 66 in my pocket has a humpback spey. As does the GEC 82 Dixie stockman although it is a smaller hump than the 66.

Paul, that is one elegant knife.
 
Tx308 said:
I don't have a pic handy to post but the GEC 66 in my pocket has a humpback spey. As does the GEC 82 Dixie stockman although it is a smaller hump than the 66.

Paul, that is one elegant knife.
Click to expand...

Thank you.

The gec 66 stockman spey is a regular one, not a humpback. The 82 is a drop point. A humpback spey will have the hump around the middle of the spine, then sweep down to the tip, then right at the tip it has a fairly abrupt downward angle.

There have been modern folders with a humpback spey that were called a ''reverse tanto'', lol. There's nothing new under the sun.
 
were i to take a guess on functionality reasons: the portion of the spey blade forward of the hump is removed to allow for nail nick access of the blade behind it.
 
Maybe I'm just weird, but this broad straight spey blade is one of the reasons I like this knife.




And I guess I was wrong about trappers, but while I figured it might have been done before I spent a good while searching and found no pictures of a trapper with a humpback spey blade.
 
r8shell said:
I guess it just goes to show how aesthetics are subjective. I really like that look. (of course, I'd gladly trade a spey for an awl) ;)
Click to expand...

The knife I posted has both! :D


Hickory n steel said:
Maybe I'm just weird, but this broad straight spey blade is one of the reasons I like this knife.




And I guess I was wrong about trappers, but while I figured it might have been done before I spent a good while searching and found no pictures of a trapper with a humpback spey blade.
Click to expand...

I like the broad blades of the ranger 4'' stockman and the broadness of the frame. It's just a great working knife. I wish cheap knives were still like those, and imperials.

Humpback speys are uncommon. They also don't really turn up if you search them by name. So it goes.
 
I've gone out of my way to avoid spey blades when possible. Case 6332, 6318HE, wharncliffe trappers, Camillus 72 "carpenter's whittler", etc. Granted, I trim the tips of quill pens as often as I cut the testicles off of livestock, but I still find a pen blade far more useful than a spey.
 
GEC's #66 Calf Roper has a slightly humped spey blade . . . looks OK to me.

TojonmU.jpg

VKi6NsZ.jpg
 
TheChunk91 said:
I like the broad blades of the ranger 4'' stockman and the broadness of the frame. It's just a great working knife. I wish cheap knives were still like those, and imperials.
Click to expand...
Me too, and I've got another ranger on the way.
The colonial ranger line and the imperial frontier line make excellent working knives.

Looking into it more I suppose you're right and Humpback spey blades aren't that common, at least not outside of Schrade.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Looking into it more I suppose you're right and Humpback spey blades aren't that common, at least not outside of Schrade.
Click to expand...

There were a few schrade cut three bladers with the humpback. I think I've seen one schrade trapper that way. The 899 pattern (what I posted above) had a humpback spey until 1973 and in 1974 it changed to a sheepsfoot as per catalogs. In the catalog images the humpback spey on the 899/8993 looks like a regular spey even going back to the 1928 catalog but I have not seen the actual knives with anything other than the humpback spey.
 
TheChunk91 said:
Thank you.

The gec 66 stockman spey is a regular one, not a humpback. The 82 is a drop point. A humpback spey will have the hump around the middle of the spine, then sweep down to the tip, then right at the tip it has a fairly abrupt downward angle.

There have been modern folders with a humpback spey that were called a ''reverse tanto'', lol. There's nothing new under the sun.
Click to expand...

Agreed on the 82, it was early, forgot it is a drop point not spey.
 
TheChunk91 said:
There were a few schrade cut three bladers with the humpback. I think I've seen one schrade trapper that way. The 899 pattern (what I posted above) had a humpback spey until 1973 and in 1974 it changed to a sheepsfoot as per catalogs. In the catalog images the humpback spey on the 899/8993 looks like a regular spey even going back to the 1928 catalog but I have not seen the actual knives with anything other than the humpback spey.
Click to expand...
Humpback spey blades are all I ever seem to see on OT's and UH's.
 
TheChunk91 said:
Which patterns are you talking about?
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Oh, on the stockman.
The 34OT , 8OT , 858OT, 89OT, MM89, 897UH, 885UH, 834UH, 881y, SC505, 861.
there are a number with the long muskrat clip main that don't have a Humpback spey and a few small models I know if with a pen instead of spey, but usually when I see a Schrade spey blade on a stockman it's a Humpback.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Oh, on the stockman.
The 34OT , 8OT , 858OT, 89OT, MM89, 897UH, 885UH, 834UH, 881y, SC505, 861.
there are a number with the long muskrat clip main that don't have a Humpback spey and a few small models I know if with a pen instead of spey, but usually when I see a Schrade spey blade on a stockman it's a Humpback.
Click to expand...

I can see where you are coming from but none of those are what I'd consider a true humpback. The 34ot usually has a slight spey bump and sometimes the larger stockmans do too (one of those things that varied on the grinding wheels).

On a knife like the 899 the hump is more pronounced. It begins sloping up at the tang, hits the peak, then slopes down more drastically to the tip. This is more like the other brands of humpback speys I've seen.
 
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