Spey blade uses

F

FelineGirl

Joined
Jul 5, 2016
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Yesterday I decided to carry my yellow cv Case Mini Trapper out of the blue. I don't often carry it but was drawn to it yesterday morning. I think the reason why I don't carry it has to do with the spey blade. I'm a city girl and don't own farm animals, so I cannot use the spey for its intended purpose, thankfully. I think I've just been unsure of other suitable uses for the spey. Well, yesterday I used it to cut up an apple, and it performed well. Later in the day I used it to remove a completely unnecessary giant bandage from my arm where I had blood drawn at the doctor. And wow, the spey was the perfect blade for that job! It made quick work of slicing through all the layers of bandaging while never puncturing my skin. What other uses do y'all find for the spey blade?


Alex
 
I don't have any trappers with a spey blade, but stockman are a favorite of mine. I use the spey for cuts where I need to pierce, but not go too deep. For instance, cutting open a package when I want to be certain not to pierce or slice up what is inside. The stockman spey is stubby though, I never could warm up to the long spey on a trapper.
 
For me it's mostly an extra on a stockman or cattle knife. It sometimes gets relegated to tasks that might damage the edge like scraping. It's also the blade that I am most likely to reshape into something else... a pen blade, sheepfoot, etc.

Trying the "New Day" barlows with spey blades made me recognize that there's actually quite a bit of general utility. But the combination of a clip (or spear) and a sheepfoot is still my favorite.
 
I like to use a spey blade for whittling concave surfaces. The nice belly on the tip works really well for that. Since a spey blade is essentially a traditional "Opinel" or "Sodbuster" blade with the very tip blunted a little, it also works great for most of the same uses that those venerable knife designs perform so well.
 
I have on my rotation 2 knives single spey blade, they are great cutters .

New Days barlow
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CaseXX Tested, rather old one
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Mike
 
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A spey blade was originally made for castration of farm animals.. I've helped castrate many boars and bulls in my day with a spey blade on an old Stockman.
Which is what a Stockman design is, an old cattle knife design.. The blade is made for just cutting the flesh of the scrotum, you cut too deep and hit that vein and you'll kill an animal quick..
You do this when the male cow is still a calf long before sexual maturity is in play and turn the bull into a steer..
With pigs you do this for the quality of the meat, boars are really gamey tasting to me and because boars are evil mean and castration cuts down on the boar and it's temper, Boars scare me way worse than bulls do.. You really only want to deal with as little amount of boars as possible on a pig farm. Just enough to breed sows, same with bulls, only the best ones remain breeders for the strength of the herd..
This is what a spey blade is really for but it works well for other things as well.
 
I am not a fan of the Spey blade, but have a few and use them like a spear point. They are good at cutting up fruit as you mention:)
On a couple of my knives I have actually reshaped the Spey blade, I will see if I can find some pics.
 
I find then as useful as any other blade for slicing on a slipjoint as I tend never to directly pierce (stab) with non locking knives but instead cut with the tip to penetrate objects.

I find Speys perfect for any food use as they slice well and can even spred butter etc. The one thing I find speys limiting at is deburring plastic parts as I tend to twist the knife to follow fine details and the broad tip cannot twist accurately.

I have no problem carrying only a Spey blade, but will often throw in a cousin:

 
On my knives with long spey blades, I seem to use them for most of the cutting. Especially where I'm holding what I am cutting. Food, stuff that will dull it like a plate. I keep the clip or drop point blade sharp and pointy. The spey blades are more forgiving if you poke yourself lightly while cutting a sandwich, or holding an apple.

I have castrated calves, and the spey blade is good for this. Less tip to poke your self while cutting a struggling calf. I've been kicked in the groin while cutting the calf (insert ironic joke here).

Having less point to poke your self with is desirable. I've used spear point, clip point, spey, and Wharncliffe designs for the job. The spey blade felt the least risky. (With the exception of a sheep's foot with no real point).
 
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Different blade profiles get labeled as a spey blade.

My short answer - they are sharp blades without a point. They make good slicers for anything where you need edge but no tip. Packing tape on a box doesn't much care what shape of blade cuts it. So on a stockman pattern with a short spey, I just use it like any blade. If it'll do the job and it's the one facing me, then I'll use it.

A trapper pattern with a long spey makes a great food knife. A nice thin hollow ground spey like on a Case Trapper is an excellent food slicer. The rounded tip makes it double as a spreader if you are dealing with condiments or spreadable food. I like to carry one to use at restaurants if a sharp knife is needed. You'd be surprised how often that is the case these days.

So - I use them for cutting things. I don't need to work on live animals, but it does a pretty good job on those that have been prepared and cooked too.
 
I use a Spey for many tasks, one that excels for me is wire stripping when no wire stripper is handy, or can reach. In very tight spots/areas such as electrical boxes (two and four gang boxes) where stripping back a ways, have been very beneficial. A couple of year's back while wiring a garbage disposal in a tight area I did arc/burn the tip/hood of my Spey blade and it is now a Spear blade:o
 
I am not a fan of spey blades and avoid buying knives that have one. With that said, in this day and age I have a hard time believing that there are large numbers of people speying animals themselves and requiring this type of blade, and yet there seems to be (to me at least) a lot of knives that contain a spey blade. in other words, I can't believe that the demand for spey blades justifies their abundance (again, simply my opinion). I believe that the spey blade is an obsolete blade that knife manufactures simply continue to include in a knife for reasons known only to them.

Cleary some knives such as trappers and stockmen are known for their spey blades and that's fine. I'm not suggesting that they be eliminated. I am suggesting that perhaps knife manufacturers could perhaps consider offering variations to the spey blade such as a sheepsfoot or a wharncliffe blade every now and then...
 
I love spear points, so I like Ernie1980's suggestion of using a spey blade as I would a spear. I really like the look of those barlows with spey blades. I think I might be warming up to the idea of a spey blade. They are starting to seem quite useful to me. I'm realizing that I like my Case Mini Trapper. It's a useful size and feels good in the hand. Plus, it seems quite solid, like a great work knife. Jeff_R's suggestion of using them like I would my Opinel or Sodbuster is a good one. I'm starting to see that the spey has many modern uses, and that I'm only limited by my own imagination. [emoji4] Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions and pictures!


Alex
 
I use the spey blade as a mild prying tool. No, I don't wrench on it like a SAK flat head, but a thin spey is great for popping the backs off of cell phones. I also use it to liberate my daughter's barbie dolls of the plastic shipping fastener they shoot into the back of their heads. The spey allows me to get super close to the fastener and sort of snap it off with downward pressure without worrying about poking the doll or myself with a sharp tip.
 
These two are a regular part of my carry rotation and I just so happen to have the top one in my pocket today

IMG_6268_zps2il0octg.jpg


I like the spey blade. It's a good mix of a long straight edge and a little belly towards the front, with just enough point to be useful. It's good for pretty much any task.
 
After years of having no use for a spey, I finally learned to use the long one on my ugly red trapper as a sort of glorified butter knife. My favorite stockman, however, is the one with a punch in place of the spey.
 
For me, the small speys are generally a backup blade for when the main blade gets dull. I prefer a two bladed traditional to use.
 
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