Need help deciding on GEC Electricians knife Spear or Sheepsfoot main?

Aeromat209

Aeromat209

Joined
Jun 26, 2008
Messages
223
Are their advantages to one or the other ! I know on the Warncliffe people say that blade is easy to break off the tip . The knife will be used as box opener boot scraper on leather more of a tool knife than my nicer fruit cutting stags!
 
Either would serve you well. But in my opinion there is no better box opener than a sheepfoot.
 
The spear is the more traditionally seen regardless of feelings otherwise. The earliest pictures I've found from 1904 show spear blades on all I've found. Typically these are very useful offering probably more versatility than the other choices sometimes offererd, hawkbil, wharncliffe, or sheepsfoot. Sheepsfoot is a very good blade. The one from GEC has a nice point, can pick splinters out easy, pokes and penetrates well, and most importantly is a 'pinch worthy' blade which is not the case with the spear. You need a thumb nail or index finger nail at the least to get the spear out on the GEC Electricians. The pull is great though so it doesn't require much.
STR
 
I went with the sheepsfoot blade because I too like the straight blade and expect to be doing mostly draw cuts with this knife. Also, the sheepsfoot is pinchable if that matters. If you do manage to break a bit of tip off, you'll still have a straight blade with just a slightly rounded tip, a few mm at most. Just look at a Lambsfoot thread and you'll see some old knives like that. I wouldn't worry about it.
 
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I think typically it is believed that the sheepsfoot is less likely to be stabbed into things. More specifically, due to the shape it is less likely to be used that way which means it is safer since it is less likely to be forced the wrong way long enough to snap the blade shut accidentally on fingers. Its a lot easier to start poking and probing putting pressure on the spine with the spear over the sheepsfoot. Not that it can't happen with a sheepsfoot where the blade snaps shut on you of course but its just not the kind of blade used that way to begin with.
 
good luck picking one - I haven't been able to decide yet myself, and refuse to settle it with a coin toss.
 
1066vik said:
good luck picking one - I haven't been able to decide yet myself, and refuse to settle it with a coin toss.
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I really like Wharncliffe blades, seeing as they're very easy to sharpen freehand, and very good at genuinely cutting things.
 
For a general use knife that I figured on using for all the normal tasks of an edc I would go with the spear, prefer it esthetically as well. I do do electrical and technical work though, and I find the sheepsfoot a better fit for the jobs involved in that work.

Jon
 
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