So you're outfitting the hands on a ranch ...

Although not a Stockman, this GEC Northfield Whittler would serve a ranch hand or farm hand nicely.
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Itch Blade said:
While I think it's cool to stick with all these traditional Stockmans and such, the fact of the matter is newer designs are just inherently more robust, and better for the purposes of ranch work.
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Well, now. That's certainly a perspective. It really all depends what you're using the knife for, though. F'r instance, I've only ever used slip joints when I was castrating and earmarking calves, as well as any other surgical operation (abscesses, etc.). When I'm cutting baler twine off of round bales I prefer using a fixed blade with a rough working edge, because the grime in baler twine will wreck a really fine edge PDQ. As far as multi-tools go, no thanks, at least not for ranch work. I use high-tensile barbed wire, and the pliers on multi-tools won't touch it, plus the jaws on the multi-tool pliers aren't big enough to get a good grip on the wire.

If I were gonna start handing out knives to anyone who came to work for me, it would be a full size Case trapper with CV blades. I am a traditionalist, after all.

James
 
I would go online and find me some nice 8OT's on ebay, or I'd get everyone a trapper. Trapper is good because it is very stout and the blades will be able to handle almost all the chores you throw at it. Or Maybe even a 4 inch Queen stockman.
 
jackknife said:
I'd go wth the soddie jr. Carried in a belt pouch, it can be opened with gloves on.
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That's a good point, something that can be opened with gloves on. A small fixed blade would also fit the bill. Horsebound ranch hands might be better off with an equestrian's trapper with a hoofpick, in a belt pouch.
 
Victorinox Farmer here as well. Can't beat the utility verses the price. Plus, what can a higher priced knife, like a Sebenza, or a single purpose knife like a stockman do that the Vic can't?
Same can't be said the other way around.
The farm hands would be getting a Farmer.
 
Only problem with sheath knives on a horse, is the horse.

When I lived in Trinidad Colorado, the ranch hands off the real working ranches outside of town wouldn't wear a fixed blade because of the risk of injury to themselves if they came off the horse the wrong way. The leather sheath is very little protection if you get thrown or fall from a horse. Even in the old days, this was a recognized problem, that's why certain pocket knives became identified with cowboys. Exept for Hollyweird of course. Stockman and cattle patterns for couple. If there was a sheath knife around, it was stuck down in a saddle bag.

For fence work, there's a special tool for just that job thats part hammer, part pliers, part wirecutter, part horseshoe nail puller. Also stuck in saddle bag.

In 1977, a friend who was a member of the Trinidad riders club was having a campout/fishing trip ride up in the hills west of Trinidad near Stonewall Colorado. I showed up wearing a Buck 102 woodsman and my friend John seeing it, siddled up to to me and whisperd to me "You don't plan on wearing that while riding do you?"

I looked around and I was the only one with a fixed blade. Every other person had a Buck 110 in the familiar black leather belt pouch. There were a few Old Timer 125OT's scattered around.

I took it off till we got to the trout stream. Kept my 301 stockman in my pocket though.

Horses are weird unpredictable creatures. Very spooky. They think that stick in the trail is a snake, or that leaf blowing across the trail is a danger to them, or they'll think of some other reason to get spooky on you. Not near as trust worthy as a good Honda or Polaris ATV. And the huricane deck of a spooky horse is not a place for a sheath knife on your hip if you have a choice. There's a reason that paratroops packed the sheath knives and bayonets in the drop bag and had a Shrade auto on them. Falling on a knife in a leather sheath is not good. Or they had a hard plastic or metal sheath on thier knives.

If I ever, absolutly last resort, have to transport myself by horse again in this life, I'm having a folded up knife in my pocket.
 
I live in a large farming community. My father in law and myself both have farms. Most of the guys around here carry a sheath knife and a slipjoint of some sort. Usually a trapper or a stockman. But just like JAlexander said, for castration and ear marking, slipjoint all the way!!! For the machinery we use some type of fixed blade.
 
As much as I love traditional folders, I would equip my ranch-hands each with a Leatherman Wave.

I haven't seen anything that a Buck 110 or a stockman slip-joint can do that a Leatherman Wave can't do.
But I've seen plenty that a Leatherman Wave can do that a Buck 110 or a stockman slip-joint can't do.
 
Well I don't know how they do her down in Texas to much.
But I've never been on a ranch where they supplied a knife, except in the kitchen. Been on 2 of Turner's ranches, the Flyin D & the Snowcrest and I can tell ya he damn sure don't supply the hands cutlery! :D
But IF I had to it would probably be a small fixed blade like a Mora, cost effient. But as jacknife said it belongs in the saddle bag along with the fence'n pliers, hand gun & the vet wrap. For the most part if your a horse back you have chaps or chinks on and unless you have a pocket added to the chaps a pocket knife is a real pain to get at. Impossible while your in the saddle. :eek:
If your branding/castrating then a sharp folding knife is prefable.
 
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Buck 110...I have worked ranches and farms before and the 110 is stout and more then capable for anything you'll need to do.
 
Gotta say I've been enjoying reading the practical ideas from those who actually have some real life ranch knowledge. Lots to consider if I ever want to combine my knife hobby with my cowboy career fantasy. :D
 
knifeknife has a viable point as to the straight knife . if one really wants to know how cowboy life was i advise reading Lost Pony Tracks by ross santee. he mentions a good point when ross comments that no matter how long you've ridden a certain pony & how gentle the horse is : one day he is going to pitch with you aboard. he had ridden a favorite along with the rest of his working string for 4 yrs. before the horse threw him.i should have clarified a sheath as fowler makes will keep one from being injured.
 
Y'all will have to bear with me, and I apologize if there are too many citations, but I got curious about the kinds of knives used in cattle ranching.

Don Rickey, Jr., interviewed several cowboys from the northern Great Plains for '$10 Horse, $40 Saddle', and most of them favored "a large, rugged clasp knife; very often a 'Barlow.'" He went on to write that very few cowboys in the 1880s wore a belt or hunting knife, but some carried skinning knives in their kits.
Fay Ward wrote 'The Cowboy at Work' in the 1950s, and I can't recommend it highly enough to anyone who's curious about how cowboying was done up to that time. He doesn't mention knives much, except very briefly in the section on castrating and earmarking. In fact, he advocates the use of the Burdizzo for castration, because it doesn't leave an open wound that screwworms could infest. Since screwworms have mostly been eradicated in the US, and because it's difficult to be sure that you've used the Burdizzo properly, most people either castrate with a knife or using rubber bands.
John Erickson (of Hank the Cowdog fame) in 'The Modern Cowboy' brags on the Leatherman tool for anyone working a-horseback. On the other hand, there's also a photograph of the tools used for cow work, among which is what looks like an Old Timer stockman with the spey blade open.

I know that my father and grandfather both favored the trapper pattern almost exclusively, as do all the cowmen I know locally. So here's a question: For those of us who've worked on ranches or known folks who have, what patterns are in use? I'm curious about regional variations.

James
 
My grandfather spent his entire life as a cowboy here in Colorado and was still breaking horses in his 60s, although he kept getting shorter as the years went on. I don't recall him carrying anything other than a folder. He was carrying this Boker stockman, bottom in the picture, when he passed. (The local hardware store carried Boker.) My first knife was a Boker trapper he gave me.

The summers I spent up on the cow camps, I don't remember any of them carrying fixed blades. (Lots of out of town hunters did.) I do remember a wicked looking pocket knife, maybe a muskrat, that was used for castrating on one occasion.

I agree about the fence pliers. They were essential for building or mending fences and I'm not sure a Leatherman could handle that type of work. Plus fence pliers had long enough handles that you could tighten the strands up or pull the staples out with the other end, in addition to being able to cut the wire.

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mnblade said:
True ..... But then again, you're on a budget, pardner. GEC knives don't come cheap.
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Well, if a rancher/farmer couldn't afford a less than $100.00 knife for their hands such as this one, they're not going to be in the business long.
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But then again as "knowtracks" said; I don't know of any local ranchers/farmers that buy knives for their hands.

Around here, most cowboys carry their knives in Buckaroo Sheats that hang on a string/leather thong so they can pull their knives from their pockets while wearing chaps, etc.. Usually once they pull em from their pockets, they let em dangle while working.

In case you're wondering, we've got many cowboys here in Northern CA as well as some pretty good sized ranches along with a lot of cows. CA isn't all sun and beaches.
 
Mike Robuck said:
My grandfather spent his entire life as a cowboy here in Colorado and was still breaking horses in his 60s, although he kept getting shorter as the years went on. I don't recall him carrying anything other than a folder. He was carrying this Boker stockman, bottom in the picture, when he passed. (The local hardware store carried Boker.) My first knife was a Boker trapper he gave me.
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That's a real treasure, Mike. It looks like he must have been a frugal man. I have several of my dad's old knives, but he traded them out often enough that they never got to that point. My grandfather, on the other hand, would sharpen his knife blades down to toothpicks.

Modoc ED said:
Around here, most cowboys carry their knives in Buckaroo Sheaths that hang on a string/leather thong so they can pull their knives from their pockets while wearing chaps, etc.. Usually once they pull em from their pockets, they let em dangle while working.
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I've made a couple of those for my own use, and they really are handy. I have never seen anyone else around here using them, but I suspect that if I started handing them out to my friends, they'd get popular PDQ.

James
 
I grew up cowboying in Oklahoma, and still dabble a little.

Me and most of the hands I knew carried either a Trapper or a stockman.

That is still what I usually pack when I am a-horseback.

In that country I don't recall ever seeing a cowboy with a fixed blade in the saddle.
 
MooreMaker Fencing pliers
(from their site)

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How do you use these for fencing?
En Guard!!

Seriously....
 
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