The "trapper" pattern has been floating around for a long time. In it's purest sense, it's a jack knife (meaning a knife with the blade(s) at one end of the handle) with 2 blades that are equal in length. Those 2 blades are typically a clip and a spey blade.
Here is a Remington Trapper
Nowadays, there are multiple variations of the trapper. However, I think of the Remington 1173 Bullet as the classic.
The Backpocket knife...well people can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd say that's a Tony Bose original...maybe not the pattern, but the name. Think of it as a single blade large trapper with only the clip and not the spey...a/k/a a single blade swell center regular jack a/k/a a hunter pattern (which would mean it is not a trapper because a trapper has 2 blades...unless it's one of those silly named patterns that is called a trapper but is not really a trapper...like the single blade slimline trapper)
Here are 2 examples of Bose Backpockets. A backpocket will typically be 4" or larger and hence the reason you put it on your backpocket...because it's too big to fit comfortably in your front pocket.
And a Frontpocket...well I don't have one of those and I think that they are the newest iteration of knives...I know Rick Menefee has used that name for some of his knives (hell...he may have come up with the name). But my guess...it's a knife that's patterned like a Backpocket...but small enough to fit in your frontpocket
Ok guys...have at all this. I know, there are many types of trappers, and there are 2 and 1 blade trappers, and there are trappers that aren't really trappers but are trappers, etc. etc. Just trying to help the newbie out
My recommendation to you if you want to learn about traditionals...buy the book "Blade's Guide to Knives and Their Values". It's really the 5th edition (the 4th being the best). But the 4th edition is now very pricy and you should do just fine with the 5th edition. You can find it all over the Internet.
