Schatt & Morgan Sowbelly Trapper, first impressions

sitflyer

sitflyer

Joined
Mar 10, 2011
Messages
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I've been wanting a Schatt & Morgan for quite some time and last night my wife handed me a little brown box! Very exitedly I examined it's content and initialy was quite pleased...I love the wormgrove bone and externally this one to me is quite pleasing to the eye. At 3-3/4" closed it's very pocketable and feels nice and solid in the hand. Fit and finish on the Scales, shield, pins, bolsters, and back springs are all excellent. Pulls are firm on both blades, but even after several flushings out, the main blade feels "gritty"...don't quite know what to make of that but it will probably work itself out with time. Good snap both directions, and now for the funny part...on closing the main blade the sound was a definate CLACK! Right away I knew the main blade was hitting the spring. Right at the tip no doubt...And the blades although well ground, had no cutting edge to speak of...I actually prefer to put my own edges on so for me that's actually a plus...this ATS34 really took a nice edge :)


first things first... I did a little relief grinding inside the well shown here (the rounded cutout)...no more blade slap...


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And here are a couple shots of it...

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So...is this an oddity to have such issues with an S&M knife???
 
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Nice looking knife Good work on grinding the spring. I didn't even notice it the first time I scanned the picture. And to answer your question, no, it is not odd to have issues like that on S&M knives in my experience.
 
I have a Grandad Barlow from them. Soft spring, and very gappy liners and bolsters, and wiggle on the pen blade when new. I fixed the bolsters in a padded vice. Peened the pivot pin, no more wiggle, and have to tell you..........


I love it. There is just something about it. It is simply "right".

At first I was very disappointed, but it is one of the knives I will keep. (I started with GEC, so the fit and finish issues were a shock).

I almost bought another, with the same listed issues, just to fix, and keep for my son.

The steel is great too.

Mine gets used every day. Cutting fruit and snacks for the kids is a perfect job for it.

It gets lots of pocket time too!
 
Hey Big, I know what you mean, something about this particular knife caught my eye. And the second I put it in hand it just felt "right", sometimes I guess the ones that need a little tweeking are special to us ;)
Overall I am really impressed with this Sowbelly, and the real selling point to me was the ATS34 bladesteel !
I won't hesitate to get another S&M pattern in the future...
 
sitflyer said:
Hey Big, I know what you mean, something about this particular knife caught my eye. And the second I put it in hand it just felt "right", sometimes I guess the ones that need a little tweeking are special to us ;)
Overall I am really impressed with this Sowbelly, and the real selling point to me was the ATS34 bladesteel !
I won't hesitate to get another S&M pattern in the future...
Click to expand...

I heard about F&F issues long before I bought my first Queen/S&M. But, for a very reasonable price, you get D2 or ATS-34 steel and patterns not made by anyone else. I've had to do some minor tweaking on about half of the 15 Queen/S&Ms that I own - I don't mind. I like the designs and materials. Here's a pic I posted in another thread of a few of my F&Ws. The sowbelly is next on my list. :D
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Adam
 
Nice looking knife. I have several Queen made knives that use the same sowbelly handle but I don't have this particular knife. I want one though. None have blades that hit the springs on my 3- and 5-blade sowbellies (Winchester and Schatt & Morgan) or on my 2- blade Texas Jack (Primble).
 
Thanks for posting, I had not seen that knife before. It looks like it would be the perfect knife for me. I will definitely be on the lookout for one of those.
 
Nice looking knife

Glad to hear that Queen is more or less keeping up on the quality of their F&Ws
 
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