Purpose of a Muskrat?

Old coon hunters love this pattern. My dad simply refers to them as a skinning knife. Very logical pattern if you're going to do a lot of cutting, and dulling.
 
Slightly off topic, but there's also the "improved muskrat" or "hawbaker muskrat," which has a wharncliffe instead of a second turkish/california clip. Kind of a cool knife, but seems to defeat the purpose of the original muskrat as the wharncliffe would seem to be particularly useless for skinning small animals.
 
Like whetrock said its mostly the older hunters you see with these. I have an older case from 1977 I believe but I never take it with me. For me its usually a workman series slimline with the jigged brown delrin or a 3318 or 3254
 
In part, you can blame Johnny Muskrat for their popularity. That was Sears furbuyer program.

In the early 1920s, many of Sears Roebuck's rural mail-order customers wrote to the company asking them to set up a way for trappers to sell their furs. Beginning in late 1925, Sears Roebuck & Company, through the Sears Raw Fur Marketing Services, began buying furs from independent, rural trappers. Trappers would mail packages of their prepared muskrat, mink, otter, raccoon, fox, badger, beaver, weasel, skunk, and opossum pelts to a Sears depot. At first there was only one in Chicago, but the company soon increased the number of depots around the country, including ones in Philadelphia, Dallas, Seattle, Memphis, Kansas City, Des Moines, Denver, and Minneapolis.

Sears would grade the pelts and either promptly send the trappers a check or give them credit toward purchases from its general merchandise catalog. If the trapper was unsatisfied with the value Sears gave him, he could return the check and the company would return the furs. The vast Sears catalog carried a line of Victor, Oneida, and Gibbs traps, scents, and pelt stretchers, as well as firearms, ammunition, decoys, and a wide selection of farm equipment and supplies.

In this way, Sears Roebuck became one of the largest fur buying companies in the country. The trappers generally found the company's fur grading to be accurate and the prices paid to be fair, especially for good, large skins. The company had found a way to help their rural customers by giving them a market for their furs that was as close as their mailboxes. Farmers trapped for sport and recreation, but also to control the wildlife population that threatened their crops.

Johnny Muskrat also had a regular radio show during the 1920s and 1930s on Sears' own Chicago-based radio station WLS ("World's Largest Store"), and then elsewhere in the country through station affiliates. He and his occasional trapper guest would talk about how to set traps, dry pelts, and other techniques. Muskrat also discussed fur market conditions, tips on camping and hunting, and pioneer life in general, as well as reading letters from his listeners.
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I remember selling most of my furs to Marvin Mallow in Ohio. That was a while ago. Price of furs has really gone up compared to when I was a kid. But then, what hasn't.

Johnny Muskrat. That is good stuff!
 
Yeah, that's great stuff Codger, thanks. Sears was such a fascinating and innovative company. The fur thing kind of reminds me of the kit houses they sold, mostly Mission/Craftsman style bungalows. They would literally ship just about everything you needed to build a house out to you. A lot of bungalows in the midwest are Sears kit houses.
 
My grandmother lived in one of those houses. Funny, that you mentioned it. Totally forgot the origin.
 
MarkPinTx said:
Slightly off topic, but there's also the "improved muskrat" or "hawbaker muskrat," which has a wharncliffe instead of a second turkish/california clip. Kind of a cool knife, but seems to defeat the purpose of the original muskrat as the wharncliffe would seem to be particularly useless for skinning small animals.
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Regarding "improved", it's not entirely certain what that means exactly.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...hat-Constitutes-An-quot-Improved-quot-Muskrat

It appears, at least in my research, which should by no means be taken as cannon, that the original muskrat had 2 clip blades riding on a single spring. I have found "improved" muskrats having 2 clip blades on 2 individual springs, and "Hawbaker" variants on both single and 2 individual springs. Sometimes "improved" is on the box or catalog nomenclature, sometimes it's etched on the blade. Thus, I have taken the description of "improved" to mean anything other than 2 clip blades with a single backspring. But this is merely an assumption I've arrived at. I doubt we'll really know a definitive answer, since it seems that "improved" was as much a marketing term as it was a technical term, and that any specifics, if they existed, have been lost to the ages.
 
The 787 I posted has the nomenclature stamped into the shield, just for your muskrat files.
 
Case Muskrat - blue bone, pocket worn style. Interesting that the ad Codger posted calls this pattern a Trappers Knife instead of a Muskrat. OH

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Here is a 1926 ad from a trapper magazine for the Remington R4593. Notice the nomenclature and the association with muskrats.

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Here's a "In My Experience".

It has seemed to me lots of the older Buck Muskrats are found with considerable sharpening having taken place. I was assuming, even more likely now after reading this thread, that they had been in the hands of fur trappers. Folks running trap lines can still be found but the aspect of it being a schoolboy experience has fallen way off. This model Buck folder also seems to be one you most often find with a broken blade because of design. I would imagine the same can be said of the other companies and the true double bladed design.

300Bucks
 
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