Pocket Knife Patterns

[BradleySmall]

Okay, here is my latest stupid question of the day:

Since I hear pocket knife patterns described with a common vernacular, I assume that each one means something specific. If two companies make the same pattern in the same size they should pretty much match up?

So a canoe is a canoe, and a jack is a jack, and a serpentine is a serpentine and so on? I am assuming this is a "frame." When discussing a particular brand of knives perhaps they have a # or a cute name but ultimately until they go novel on something, a slimline or a equal end, or cigar or whatever they call it is the same as another?

At some point you put blades in it and then it becomes a "pattern"? So if you put 2 blades (spey and clip) into the same side of a jack it becomes a trapper, and if you add a sheep's foot and move them to two sides of a serpentine it becomes a "Stockman"?

I have to assume it is not all as straight forward as this, but short of studying company's catalogs like Queen, Case, Schrade, Sheffield, and so forth, is there anywhere where these are defined? I have seen a few places where there were either tracings or CAD drawing copies of one or the other. But I would expect there would be specific engineering drawings defining the degree of curve offset or such.

I know if I asked someone to draw a Barlow knife, or a Sodbuster most folks could easily enough draw something that looked like one of these, but are these just guesses and approximations or are there actual defined standards somewhere?

This is more curiosity than necessity. But up until a year ago, I didn't realize that every different company made a "stockman" or a "whittler" or a "trapper". Not to mention that if you placed them shield down, most people wouldn't notice that they were different companies.

 

[Drew Riley]

"Traditional patterns" are kind of a combination of a number of things, or features. A lot of times the pattern will be most recognized by a distinctive handle shape (and/or size), but it can also be the shape or configurations of the blade or blades. For instance, a trapper traditionally has a spey and clip, but you also have single blade trappers that only have a clip; Or you have a clip point barlow, but also a spearpoint barlow, etc... There are several different "jack" models (gunstock, dogleg, swell end, equal end, etc....)
The shapes MIGHT be nearly identical between two manufacturers or makers, or it could even be that they were made by one manufacturer, but sold under two (or more) different brands.
Some makers or brands might have made the first of a specific model or pattern, while others may have popularized a pattern.

The Lanny's Clip, for instance, was originally designed by Tony Bose (RIP), but has become more of a traditional pattern as more and more makers make their own versions of it.

As for a specific shape or dimension, even that can start to vary within the same manufacturer. That's not even talking about "features" such as fluted or pinched bolsters, squared vs rounded ends, long pulls, short nail nicks and/or matchstrike nail nicks, jigged vs sawcut handles, EZ open models, etc....

So long story short... it kind of depends. You can dive down some really deep rabbit holes when you start digging into slipjoint pocket knife history.

 

[BradleySmall]

"Traditional patterns" are kind of a combination of a number of things, or features. A lot of times the pattern will be most recognized by a distinctive handle shape (and/or size), but it can also be the shape or configurations of the blade or blades. For instance, a trapper traditionally has a spey and clip, but you also have single blade trappers that only have a clip; Or you have a clip point barlow, but also a spearpoint barlow, etc... There are several different "jack" models (gunstock, dogleg, swell end, equal end, etc....)
The shapes MIGHT be nearly identical between two manufacturers or makers, or it could even be that they were made by one manufacturer, but sold under two (or more) different brands.
Some makers or brands might have made the first of a specific model or pattern, while others may have popularized a pattern.

The Lanny's Clip, for instance, was originally designed by Tony Bose (RIP), but has become more of a traditional pattern as more and more makers make their own versions of it.

As for a specific shape or dimension, even that can start to vary within the same manufacturer. That's not even talking about "features" such as fluted or pinched bolsters, squared vs rounded ends, long pulls, short nail nicks and/or matchstrike nail nicks, jigged vs sawcut handles, EZ open models, etc....

So long story short... it kind of depends. You can dive down some really deep rabbit holes when you start digging into slipjoint pocket knife history.

Hey, I think I just watched you build a slip joint in a million easy steps! I think the 10th one had some sound issues near the end, but otherwise was a great watch. I had just watched another fellow do a similar one, only real difference was that he somehow put a big pin in the pivot position and drilled through it to put the real pin. Something about not having bolsters or liners. I watched a bunch of them yesterday. I want to just get some stuff and do some, but first, I have to figure out how to take these factory pieces which should supposedly fit together, and .... fit them together

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Best advice is to get a few cheap knives and take them apart. That will show you how they fit together and how the parts work. Then, using new rivet stock, put them back together. Don't expect any parts to fit a different knife than the one they came from. Next step is to take a knife apart that you like and make all new parts using the old ones as templates. Once that has been mastered, making your own from scratch is the final step.

On good way to get started is a kit from Knifekits.com. They have many kits in different degrees of difficulty. You can make your own handle scales for most and can modify the blade shape on some. I suggest a basic single blade lock-back Ppony Mid-lock), a two-blade folder (Lineman Trapper), and a liner-lock (GPC-1000)as starter projects.
The other knife suppliers have other folder kits.

 

[Tyson A Wright]

Even for most production slipjoint knives, I wouldn't expect to take two of the same model apart and be able to easily mix and match parts - there's a lot of hand-fitting to get these right, and if you mix and match, expect to do a bunch of hand fitting to make it all work.

Regarding slipjoint patterns, there's usually a combination of characteristics that define a particular pattern. A Barlow has a long bolster, usually only one or two blades, the blades are on the same end, it's bareheaded (no bolster on the other end), rarely has a shield. But every company that makes a particular pattern makes their own choices about all the exact details (and sometimes multiple times - there are at least five different frames than GEC makes as Barlows - same 'pattern' but very different knives). Check out the Traditionals Forum to see lots of pictures of slipjoints, antique to brand new, with a lot of threads there dedicated to specific patterns.