Muskrat Manor

comoha

comoha

Gold Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2006
Messages
6,184
The muskrat pattern is one that I have really taken a shine to in the last year or so. They are so functional, and those blades
are all about slicing. Please post your 'rats, new or vintage, production or custom!

Here is a Robeson (made by Queen for SMKW) in stag and D2.
Robeson_muskrat.jpg


Next is an ivory Muskrat by Northwoods. I no longer own this one.
NWM_6.jpg
 
Queen can come in for criticism for finish sometimes, but I can say that my Amber Bone Muskrat 66 from them is a really well-made knife. Can't find fault, it even came with sharp D2 gasp! What happened? :D:D Being single spring, it's very pocket easy too.
 
Next time I'm at my mom's I'll have to dig out the old muskrat my dad gave me. It was the only pocket knife I ever knew him to carry and it was primarily used as a gasket scraper at work on motorcycles.

The blade has seen better days and is missing plenty of steel from repeated sharpenings. He used a round stone and swirled the knife on it. It's from the days when old timers were the knife to have.
 
Hey there Corey, Nice Knives there Sir!
I havent warmed entirely to the pattern, only purely because I havent carried this knife as a edc, but I feel a lot for this knife,and think its one hell of an attractive knife!, and Im working my way through my safe queens, its turn will come soon....
myknives003.jpg

myknives005.jpg
 
Some Schrade USA rats

77UH-1.jpg

Uncle Henry

787_sp_f-2.jpg

Improved Muskrat single springers

ss_slim_rat.jpg

Round threaded bolsters
 
ImprovedMuskrat.jpg

A Mark Nagle photo... Schrade Walden calendar Hawbaker muskrat. Knife porn at its finest. Incredible peachseed jigging on the bone.
 
thawk said:
ImprovedMuskrat.jpg

A Mark Nagle photo... Schrade Walden calendar Hawbaker muskrat. Knife porn at its finest. Incredible peachseed jigging on the bone.
Click to expand...
Damn....Hal, knife porn is right! :eek: That is simply beautiful... if you were to choose just one knife to carry forever...that would have to be in the final bunch of picking - thats for sure!
 
Man, I gotta get out more often. I didn't even realize there were Muskrats with a sheepsfoot/wharncliffe as one of the blades! I always thought Muskrats were two clip blades, and kinda didn't see the point of the redundancy. So (falsely) believing this, I never really considered Muskrats. That's now changed. Thanks Corey & Hal for opening my eyes! ;)

Sidenote: I'm sure there is/was a usage & purpose for having two long, slim blades on the same knife (are they called california clips?). With the name Muskrat it makes me think it was for people running a trap line, and that the blade was perfectly suited for this task, so it would be handy to have a second blade to use when the first one got dull. Is that somewhat close or am I all wet?
 
coyote711 said:
Sidenote: I'm sure there is/was a usage & purpose for having two long, slim blades on the same knife (are they called california clips?). With the name Muskrat it makes me think it was for people running a trap line, and that the blade was perfectly suited for this task, so it would be handy to have a second blade to use when the first one got dull.
Click to expand...

I grew up on a lake on central Minnesota that was thick with real muskrats. The mean orangish-brown lil' devils with oversized choppers and bad eyesight. We would see them swimming across the lake all the time. Once, one fell into our basement window well and freaked my mom out when she was in the laundry. Anyway, one of our nieghbors would trap them and I very much remember watching him skin a dozen or so off the end of his pickup truck using...yes,a double bladed pocketknife I would only later learn in adulthood was called a muskrat. I tell you that guy would make fast work of those lake rats with them thin blades. Like there was a zipper on the front of those little hides.
 
Thanks for the link, Jim! It makes me appreciate the great knives shown in this thread even more!

Great story there, Corey! That would be so cool to see, or have seen that!

Form follows function they say, and I guess it's certainly true when it comes to knives. I've never ran a trap line in my life, and I s'pose at 62 I probably won't start now. I guess us "modern folk" adopt the old time blades/knives that suit our purposes. See below.

The toughest work I call upon a knife to do is open those stupid hard plastic bubble wrapped packages that everything seems to come in nowdays. Sheepsfoot/wharncliffe is the right form for that function. And a nice sharp pointed clip blade works well for opening letters or digging out a sliver. (A nice pointed wharnie works well for slivers, too). Sorry to ramble on ... this thread, and Jim's link, just got me to thinking about stuff. Always dangerous. ;)
 
That Calendar knife is the stuff dreams are made of, Hal!

Nice thread, for an often overlooked pattern. Here are a couple of Schrade Waldens with interesting blades;


SchradeMuskrats2b.jpgSchradeMuskrats2f.jpg
 
There was always an old Muskrat in my grandfathers old tacklebox - the tip was busted off on one of the blades and she was pretty dull but it was the knife I always reached for when it was time to cut the line.

For my grandfather the american traditionals (buck/case) were all workers - each had a specific purpose. His pocket was always home to a red SAK knife of some sort.
 
thawk said:
ImprovedMuskrat.jpg

A Mark Nagle photo... Schrade Walden calendar Hawbaker muskrat. Knife porn at its finest. Incredible peachseed jigging on the bone.
Click to expand...

WOW.. Thats a beauty Hal. The Muskrat never appealed to me. I guess it seemed sorta pointless to me to have two identical blades, but that one changes everything. Schrades Peachseed jigging, and the coloring of their bone during that period, is just incredible.

I do still have an old Schrade Walden Improved Muskrat in the drawer, but it rarely sees any pocket time.
 
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