Pattern question

J

jec88

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Mar 6, 2012
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Been looking over a knife for awhile and really liked it and it was so odd that I finally gave in and ordered it. It is a rail splitter, but it only has 2 blades, a sheepsfoot main blade and a spey secondary on separate ends of the knife like on a canoe! So it is basically a rail splitter stockman, minus the clip blade blade. I've never seen this combo before and it seems like it would either be a handy combo, or a limiting combo, I haven't decided yet. So is it just a rail splitter or is it still considered a stockman without the clip blade. I've seen rail splitter whittlers with a different blade setup but I don't think this would be considered a whittler?
Just curious on this one, thanks.
 
I think it's a "double-end jack" or more specifically a "double-end jack using die/handle and other parts of a fancy cattle knife"... or maybe just "railsplitter jack".

Although some pattern names were terms of art with very specific meaning in the industry, some are collector terms or modern inventions. "Railsplitter" is a modern collector term. It seems to have replaced the term "Surveyor"-- that is also a modern collector term. It is also called a "swell center canoe". The three blade is usually a fancy cattle knife (in contrast a stockman is serpentine). Some of the old three blade knives have a construction like a "whittler"--that's another modern collector term.

Here's an example of a jack using the parts of the swell center canoe. It's in the column on the left. Second from the bottom. I've seen old double-end variations as well but I'd need to do some digging to find a catalog example.

1923-Shapleigh-1a_zpsuobtc03t.jpg
 
Is it a S&M by any chance? I think I've seen that one, and wondered about some of the same things.
 
That's the one! That thing really caught my eye and I've been looking it over forever and decided to just buy it. I really like a sheepsfoot blade for cutting things out of the garden and opening stuff and general use. I like a spey for skinning game. But just the two together seem kind of odd. I could have gotten one with a blade combo that seemed better suited to one another, but for some reason that knife really caught my eye, maybe because of the oddity. Then, it is supposed to be a factory 1 of 1 prototype so I'll again be on the fence as to use it or just collect it.



 
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Haven't seen that one before. I've never really been a fan of the canoe pattern. Or spey blades. Actually, I'm not sure that quite counts as a canoe. Usually the bolsters stick out a bit more, like a double ended copperhead. Nice bone and jigging though. Again, I don't remember seeing that from S&M before.
 
I think Canoes are Copperhead knives, so the tangs are concealed.

Queen /Schatt S&M have been issuing some oddball knives with interesting blade assortments as factory samples, very small runs. Looks like a double end Swell Centre.
 
Its listed as a rail splitter. Trying to find info on this, I came across an old thread where someone mentioned that people would sometimes remove the clip blade from a stockman to come up with this blade configuration and make the knife slimmer. Not really sure why though? I guess if I carry it, it'll just give me an extra excuse to carry a buck 102 fixed blade and I'l have all my bases covered.
 
Yeah, the only way it would be slimmer is if they also took out the clip blade's spring, leaving the sheepfoot and spey on a single spring.
 
jec88, years ago that combination of blades was used on budding/grafting equal end knives by Schrade and others. I haven't previously seen it on a "railsplitter" die/handle. It's a unique knife.
 
That's definitely a Railsplitter frame. I hadn't seen that one yet either. Nice to see Queen changing things up a bit.
 
You've got yourself a Swell Center 2/3 Stockman Cigar Whittler Pen Jack there. Nice find! Those are rarer than owl's earlobes. :D
 
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