Spey blades!

Nal0n said:
Perform as advertised? You need to neuter livestock often? ;)
That is where this blade shape comes from after all...
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Really, I had no clue; all those summers spent on my grandfather's 700 acre, 400+ head of cattle dairy farm, and I missed it all...60+ years of collecting traditional knives, and I never heard of that. Dang, I missed the boat on that bit knowledge.:o Whoda" thunk it?
 
Alnamvet68 said:
Really, I had no clue; all those summers spent on my grandfather's 700 acre, 400+ head of cattle dairy farm, and I missed it all...60+ years of collecting traditional knives, and I never heard of that. Dang, I missed the boat on that bit knowledge.:o Whoda" thunk it?
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Wow ... I guess at least 70% of people do not know that little fact, and I reply to one who does *sigh*
Murphy really loves me this week it seems ;)
 
Nal0n said:
Wow ... I guess at least 70% of people do not know that little fact, and I reply to one who does *sigh*
Murphy really loves me this week it seems ;)
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Well, you know what they say, knowledgeable folks go home with the prom queen, all others are left with their strange looking Spey blades, and woe is me soup.:)
 
An old Robeson ivoroid Barlow with a spey master.

Quite a rare pattern, as Robesons go.

 
pmew said:
I must admit I rarely use them. The spey blades I have are on stockman patterns and they tend to get used for scraping, gouging and other non edge friendly chores.

I'm a sheepfoot man, I like the strength above the point and find they fit the bill with me.

Paul
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Paul, you speak my opinion perfectly, right down to how I use the spey on a stockman.

Scots married to Irish lasses. Naturally we think alike.
 
When I first ventured into multibladed traditionals, the spey blade looked really odd to me (I'm sure I opened a similar thread back in those days). Nowadays, I've come to think that it could work fine for food prep, paired with a secondary pointy blade.
As for spey blades sitting higher or lower (compared to other blade shapes), I think blade shape has nothing to do with it and it all depends on the design. I've seen all sort of blades sitting as low as possible :)

Fausto
:cool:
 
I confess to being a bit curious as to how the spey works in the case of its namesake. While I can see its utility as a small game skinning blade (dont want that point poking holes in anything, and the belly at the tip), but don't see how it would be particularly useful in "speying." I may not want to know and neither does anyone else, but I am reasonably sure someone can explain it delicately.

It would seem for the speying operation, one would want to create an aperture and then perform a severance (how's that?). A point would seem necessary for the aperture and just about anything could perform the severance.
 
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I don't much care for the spey blade by itself, but in a stockman pattern it comes in handy somtimes. As a side note, Case stockman patterns used to come with the spey marked "for flesh".
 
I don't think my father-in-law, who owned a farm in Hillside by Montrose, Scotland and raised pigs as a side business before he died ever saw a spey blade. He used a single edged razor blade to de-ball his pigs. He'd make his cuts and then put a bit of pitch over the wounds and send the pig on it's way. For a carry/working knife he carried a two bladed knife with a spear blade and pen blade. I have no idea of the make but it did have wood covers.
 
MarkPinTx said:
For flesh only actually.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/550849-Case-6347HP-critique

Some speculation that those speys were run harder than normal to be more scalpel/razor like.
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I now have 3 TC Barlows with spey blades (the African blackwood just arrived yesterday), and all three of them have the sharpest blades I've seen. I don't know if it's something about the steel, or the factory attention to sharpening, or the design of the blade, but DANG are they scary sharp!

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Modoc ED said:
I don't think my father-in-law, who owned a farm in Hillside by Montrose, Scotland and raised pigs as a side business before he died ever saw a spey blade. He used a single edged razor blade to de-ball his pigs. He'd make his cuts and then put a bit of pitch over the wounds and send the pig on it's way. For a carry/working knife he carried a two bladed knife with a spear blade and pen blade. I have no idea of the make but it did have wood covers.
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Yeah my Mother's father was a farmer between the wars and she said he used a razor to fix pigs. He was a knife guy, but not a single stockman in his collection. Nor a trapper. No speys of any kind.

Other side of the family did some cattle ranching in the 70s, rubber bands with a special stretcher were the order o the day.
 
I think it just comes down to what you saw growing up (if you grew on a farm or ranch, anyway). My father favored the spey blade of a full sized trapper, and that's generally what I use, although I have used other knives. Everyone I've asked around here uses some sort of larger slip joint, although I recently learned that at least a couple of outfits used a burdizzo back when the screwworms were bad. Incidentally, I suspect the preference for the spey blade has to do with the fact if the calf you're cutting starts kicking, you're at least slightly less likely to stab him or yourself with the blunt tip of the spey blade.

James
 
And I guess if Pappaw used a razor blade, that means a straight edge will do the job just fine. Good point about the hazardous conditions calling for a blunt tip.

I dont remember what they called the band stretcher. But that burdizzo. Geez Louise.
 
I like the spey blade so much I modded an Opinel into one.
It started as a My First Opinel with a butter knife type tip.(too bad I broke it on another mod):o

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Love the spey on this old Imperial.

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And the 80OT.

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perchjerk said:
It's actually burnt orange bone made in 2009. I just happened to run across it on a dealers site and had to have it. As far as the flat bolsters go, I actually like them more than I thought I would. The corners are alittle sharp but it's really a non issue.
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Yes, Sir - I have the same Burnt Orange #73 (also 2009, btw), and it has become my every day knife (EDK?). And the spey blade gets used mainly for kitchen/food tasks, while the standard blade gets used for the non-food-related tasks (the spey has developed a nice patina since this photo - I should get some current pics to share...):

 
The spey blade works very well when sharp for castrating calves. The sharp round point works well without having a pointed clip blade poking into deeper tissues.
 
Here's an odd duck by Rough Rider. A stockman (I guess), it has all the right blades, sheepsfoot, spey, and clip. The thing that makes it odd is the main blade is the spey.

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I bought it because it is unusual.

Ed J
 
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