Developing an interest in purchasing a nice slipjoint. I'm almost sorry I did. I'm really confused by all the variety out there.
If you have a 2.5" blade what's the point of also having a blade that's .5 inch shorter?
All the oddball blade shapes throw me off too. But then part of me thinks the shapes must be pretty useful if they're still making them after all these years.
Take this whittler from canal st. cutlery
What could I do with the other two blades that I couldn't with the long blade? How am I supposed to sort out this mess and pick my first slipjoint? Tried a search but my search foo was very weak on this one. Thanks for the help.
To tell you the truth, most cutting jobs these days can be handled by a single blade slippy like a sodbuster, or small lockblade. But in answear to yur question of why the shorter blades;
For most of mankinds history, the folding knife was just a simple single blade that folded into a handle of horn or bone. From the Roman empire to the 1700 to 1800's that was it. But with the industrial revelution came a change in the civilization, a specializing of jobs. Alot of the pocket knives that we call traditional have their roots in a job. For instance the harness jack was a best friend to anyone dealing with horse and wagon technology. With a general use spear blade, it was nice to have a punch blade for emergency mending of a harness or other gear. Anyone from a driver of a Connostoga freight wagon to a London Hanscomb cab driver could use one.
In America the stockman was created in the 1880's from the cattle knife. This was a tool of working cowboys, and was used for everything from slicing bacon to castrating bulls into steers. This was a need for the spey blade, a short very sharp blade to do the dirty deed. The main clip blade was an eating tool as well as dressing out the occasional jackrabbit for the stew pot, cutting a length of piggin string, rope, and other general cutting jobs. The sheepsfoot was the rough job blade that you used to avoid damaging the edge of your clip blade. A real dirty work blade.
The barlow was a single blade knife in alot of its production. The second small pen blade was added for just that, the use of trimming the old pens that had a real quill for a nib. With the advent of steel nibs, the pen blade stayed on as many folks had found having a second blade a handy option. Doing fine work like digging out a splinter, small cutting jobs that don't reguire a large blade. Sometimes the pen blade was roughly sharpened, again to give the owner an option for saving the main edge from a rough or dirty job that may damage the main blade. Some years back I recall reading an incident involving Captain Jack Hayes of the Texas Ranges using a pen blade on his barlow to save his bacon. They were in a very heated dispute with some hostiles and his lever action Winchester jamed up on him. He used the pen blade of his Russells barlow to take out the screw on the reciever sideplate, pried out the jammed shell, and put his rifle back together. To his good luck he had a couple of other rangers with him, and they gave him some covering fire while he un-jammed his rifle.
Its the past history that does it for some of us, collecting the old models. Having a knife in our pocket thats just like the one some cowpoke out in the middle of nowplace with a herd of steers would have had, or one that Captain Jack Hayes would recognize. But also having that 2d or even 3d blade gives you an extra option of how to handle a cutting job. Got to break down some boxes for the trash? Use the sheepsfoot blade and save the main blade from that edge wrecking cardboard. Got to open one of those cursed plastic blister packs and theres alot of sheeple around? Use the small pen blade of that teardrop jack and be a bit discrete.
And some of the oddball shapes are what draws us to them. These days I can't tell a Sig from a H-K, or a Emerson tactical from a ninjakiller2000. But a peanut, or a dogleg jack, or a canoe has its distict style. Some people don't mind a cookie cutter world where all the cars look like jelly beans and all the SUV's look like big boxes on wheels. But some will go to great lengh to restore a '57 Chevy, or a '62 Ford T-bird. Now theres no question a 2007 Toyota Camray is a heck of alot more effciant vehicle than the '62 T-bird. But its all a matter of taste, and the desire of style. Or what some would call charater.
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