Recommendation? Stainless keyring miniature sheep/lambsfoot garden knife?

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frank303

Joined
Sep 22, 2019
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TL;DR: Please recommend a miniature stainless steel, straight edge, sheep/lambfoot (non-pointy), EDC, light gardening knife with secure keychain/lanyard attachment point / hole.

Hello. This is my first post on this forum and I hope I've posted on the right sub-forum.

I'm looking for a miniature keychain knife. It's mainly for garden use: nipping out small diameter soft tissue, harvesting veg, scraping bark on small diameter stems for layering, sharpening (2B) pencils for labelling, cutting open seed packets, preparing tissue cultures, cutting fruit, cutting twine.

Cutting edge straight along the whole length, parallel spine. I don't need to puncture anything - for example my pocket if I don't fold it up, or myself if I'm trying to close it with my leg when I'm in a tree with only one hand free - so a woolly ruminant's foot of some description (lambsfoot sheepfoot) like The Case 11031SH mentioned in another thread is an ideal shape butthat's too big and no keychain hole.

Stainless to avoid contamination of cuttings. Carbon steel bladed knives I have don't stay clean or corrosion-free long, even when treated with Camellia oil.
A good sturdy attachment hole, as I'll switch it about from keyring to lanyard etc and those little flimsy split rings often get ripped out.


It's going on a keychain so has to be small as I don't want too much bulk in my pocket - certainly shorter than UK EDC.
Folding, non-locking.
Stainless steel (preferred) or wood handle that'll take a drying oil and won;t rot quick or bright coloured so I can find it in the undergrowth, whatever as long as it's not rubbishy plastic like those Swiss army things that fall of or get scratched to hell.
I have a bigger Arthur Wright, Taylors or somesuch lambsfoot knife but it doesn't have a keyring attachment (so consequently gets mislaid often) and if it did it's still too bulky for a keychain.
The shops only had Victorinox and multitools.
I'd a look on some UK knife vendor sites but there's not a lot meeting those parameters
This is to replace a miniature all-stainless-steel ?5cm blade penknife that fell out of a hole in the bottom of my backpack. Police lost property office said they couldn't return it as it's classified as a 'weapon'. SMH

Many thanks
 
frank303 said:
This is to replace a miniature all-stainless-steel ?5cm blade penknife that fell out of a hole in the bottom of my backpack. Police lost property office said they couldn't return it as it's classified as a 'weapon'. SMH
Click to expand...
That's terrible. Where are you?
Utica/Kutmaster might still be making a single blade sheepsfoot with a stirrup-type bail, smaller than the Victorinox florist.
 
Why not a SAK? They have a florist's knife, a pruning knife, a budding knife, a pruner that has a pruning blade and a main spear blade, and a grafter with a sheepsfoot and a grafting blade. Not a stainless handle, but red shows up well when you drop it, and SAKs seldom get classified as weapons. They're cheap, too.
 
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I'm pretty sure the new one is stainless. Both handles are plastic. The grubby one says "Klein Tools", so if Utica/Kutmaster are still making these, they're probably in the "promotional items" section of their downloadable catalogue.
gQtjG6v.jpg

5.5 inches overall, excluding bail, and 2.5 inch blade.
 
scrteened porch said:
That's terrible. Where are you?
Click to expand...

Must be the UK. I feel sorry for them. Once the epitome of civilized behavior, where bobbies could go unarmed and civilians could pack iron at will, let alone a pocket knife, they've become a paranoid unarmed country with the manners of a drunken soccer mob and the streets aren't safe. Evidence that outlawing guns and knives makes things worse, not better.
 
scrteened porch said:
That's terrible. Where are you?
Utica/Kutmaster might still be making a single blade sheepsfoot with a stirrup-type bail, smaller than the Victorinox florist.
Click to expand...
I'm in the UK.

I'm working through these threads but it looks like most are too big or without stirrup, shackle / hole for lanyard or keyring.

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads...ot-sheepsfoot-and-wharncliffe-blades.1614419/

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/guardians-of-the-lambsfoot.1406735/
 
gaj999 said:
Must be the UK. I feel sorry for them. Once the epitome of civilized behavior, where bobbies could go unarmed and civilians could pack iron at will, let alone a pocket knife, they've become a paranoid unarmed country with the manners of a drunken soccer mob and the streets aren't safe. Evidence that outlawing guns and knives makes things worse, not better.
Click to expand...

Yep the UK.
Where knives and tools which are within the criteria for requiring no legal cause to be given to carry them are forfeited from tradespeople .
Where leaders express "there is no reason for anyone to carry a knife" in contradiction of the law which allows people to carry instruments required to go about their legal business effectively casting people doing their job or peaceful hobby as a criminal instead of saying "there is no reason for anyone to stab slash or cut anyone"

Where the Police advertise knife amnesty bins.
Where people repost those ads on social media and householders take their chipped, broken and worn kitchen and tool knifes to the amnesty in the belief they'll have their knives safely and responsibly recycled and made into something useful again and saved from landfill.
Where a matter of weeks later the Police are PRing photos of stacks of kitchen knives with the headline "look at all these thugs' knives we took off the streets" [give us more control].
Where those in the criminal element see those articles and photos of amnesty hauls and think "I'd better tool up".
Yep the UK.
 
frank303 said:
I'm in the UK.
Click to expand...
I thought the UK allowed a three inch cutting edge on a non-locking folder with no explanation necessary.
But, we mustn't get political.

[Sorry, I see you've addressed this above]

Maybe we'll have to learn to cut things psycho-kinetically.
 
F frank303 take a look at the Spyderco roadie, here's a pic I got from a Google search.
cZGF6IF.jpg

Slipjoint, 2-1/8(53.9mm) blade. Multiple colors including red and blue, should be highly visible if dropped. Only con I can see per your requirements is its not a 100% straight edge. It is also a tad expensive for its size imo,but that comes with the name I guess. But they are very well made, even if i do find Spyderco's exceptionally ugly knives lol. Dont hate me Spydie fans:p
Apologies to the mods for a mostly non traditional knife on the porch, just try'n to help a fella out:thumbsup:
 
screened porch screened porch I was looking at a Klein on Amazon a 155-11 earlier but it's carbon steel. I had a look at those catalogues and no S/S folding lambsfoot.
Should see the state of my carbon steel nest knife (Richardson, similar to TL-29) For all the cleaning, water-displacement-40ing and oiling it turns to rust if humidity as much as looks at it funny.

@ gaj999.
I was aware of the Felco,(Victorinox), alas, no attachment point and too big for my pocket all the time with all the other dreck I have to carry about in my autumn years hearing aids, specs, wallet, keys, vape, spares upon spare for vape
Sure, for my toolbelt but I don't don that every time I nip out to my garden (I've a bunch of other knives and tools for that situation where EDC is not an issue)
I'm looking for something I can keep on me most of the time and I have my keychain on me most of the time except if I go 'out out' (proper out) I wear a different key chain with just a key and small flashlight.
Since I lost my keyring penknife I've wasted many hours hunting about the house, greenhouse, sheds and garden for one of those bunch other knives.
The plastic handle ("scales"?) on the Victorinox / Wengers / Felco tend to get trashed then I've to fork out for replacements.

They are however perceived as more tooly hence being allowed on and sold on planes until Sep 11 2001. Maybe I'll end up just getting the Felco branded one and perhaps drill a lanyard hole.

After I find this one my next tool knife at least for gardening will be a not-necessarily-EDC one and holster for my tool belt. I still instinctively go for my keychain one even when I have a 'better'-suited one in my pocket. As they say (or do they?) the best knife is the one that is always at hand.
 
Welcome to The Porch Frank, and sorry to hear about the theft of your knife (which, since it was entirely legal to carry, is what it actually is - and ignorance of the law is no defence in the UK) :mad: You might want to complain to your local Chief Constable, as I doubt he'd be willing to tell you the same thing you were told previously in writing :thumbsup:

As per my brief post in the early hours of this morning, I think the Maserin Filiscjna ticks all your boxes. It is available in the UK, but not from a BF-supporting dealer (so I can't provide a link) :thumbsup:

GOs3poK.jpg
 
Thanks all for the recommendations
That Maserin Filiscjna is a lovely knife, perhaps too sharp a point for closing with my leg or hip but I could grind the tip off that so as not to cause myself injury or shred any more trousers trying to close it.
I like the roadie and I'm not a fan of most of the Spyderco blade shapes. Their blades are too high to be practical say to nip out side shoots in a tight space on my chilled and tomatoes (a job I only remember to do after I've cut my fingernails). Still, I'd get a lot of sharpens out of them

I'll probably go with both for my home keychain.

I had a look at Tina knives which are apparently considered among the best in horticulture. I can't understand why as the blades are listed on resellers' sites as "carbon steel" which is rather a vague descriptor and to me reads like risk of contamination and corrosion. Pricey too and no lanyard point. I couldn't find a manufacturer's website to ascertain the blade metallurgy and corrosion resistance.
 
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