Suggestions Sought: Clip or Spear Main/Sheepie Secondary---and in Stainless!

AFAustin

AFAustin

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Evening, gents.

For my tastes and purposes, one of the most useful blade combinations is a clip or spear main with a small sheepie or wharnie secondary. Yep, the Churchill comes to mind, but I've been tending to stainless recently so would prefer to go that route.

Not a lot of these floating around, so I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks,

Andrew
 
Queen Dan Burke Barlow has that combo (spear & warncliffe). It had D2 steel, which is close enough to stainless imo.
 
Case makes an improved trapper pattern that would fill your desires.

I agree that that particular combination of blades is wonderful pairing.
 
Case Tru-Sharp Mini-Trapper

jx2U6e6.jpg
 
There's a whole bunch of knives made that are unfortunately hard to acquire these days. Queen made a bunch of Hawbaker muskrats, also under the Schatt and Morgan, and Robeson names. Hawbakers are muskrats that instead of 2 long clip blades trades one for a long wharncliffe. Canal Street made them as well. But they've been out of product and aren't easy to find or cheap when you do.

"Improved" or wharncliffe trappers are essentially the same blades but in a trapper pattern. A Case medium wharncliffe trapper is immensely useful. Both the inexpensive version in Tru-sharp, and the very expensive Tony Bose model.

Also by Case and Tony Bose is the Eureka jack. Long main spear, small coping/wharncliffe blade. Very expensive.

There was a Schatt and Morgan straight jack with a small sheepsfoot and deep red bone handles. I always wished I bought one. Also a serpentine "moose" (an error in printing) with a long turkish clip and short coping blade. Extremely thin blades. Queen Dan Burke small barlow. All will be hard to track down.

Schrade Old Timer 93OT has a clip with sheepfsoot with a serpentine pattern. Essentially a pen-less trapper. Old ones are rare and expensive. If it's labeled "Schrade+", it's stainless. New ones (not USA made, and a different company) are stainless, but very cheap.

The newer Case 62032 Texas Jack doesn't have a sheepsfoot/wharncliffe, but the second blade, which is advertised as a pen, has a tip that's dropped way down. Some call it a mini tribal/Zulu spear blade. Slight curve, but still very useful for precision and draw cuts like a sheepsfoot/wharncliffe/coping blade. Vintage 6232s have a proper pen blade.
 
Thanks, guys---some very interesting suggestions there. I'm being picky, though....the sheepie/wharnie needs to be a small blade, so that counts out the improved trapper and moose/muskrat (I do have a Case Mini Trapper with the clip/wharnie combination, and it's a very nice knife). And stainless. Yes, D2 is close but not my favorite for sharpening so I'm trying to stick to traditional stainless.

Thanks for the posts.

Andrew
 
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I was going to mention the improved trapper and improved muskrat or moose also. AG russell had a really nice one, I still have the blades for it but after breaking the scales and not being able to get pins to stay tight I pulled the blades out because I liked the combo so much.

If you want a really one, I know the AG Russell sowbelly trapper is in the combo. I have one and it's bigger than I was expecting. Too big for me for EDC but will make a nice hunting blade.

A blade with a straight edge and a blade with belly are my preferred blade combo in traditionals. I do prefer the longer straight edge though and even prefer the main, if not 2-mains like the trapper and muskrat patter, then the sheep be the longer. There are a few whittlers like that and the half whittlers in particular are now if interest now that I've lost interest in anything with more that 2 blades in the frame unless it's a SAK.

Here's an S&M from collector knives in 420HC
https://www.collectorknives.net/sho...t-morgan-2014-keystone-wood-improved-muskrat/

More of my preference of the bigger straight edge and pen knife secondary from case
https://www.collectorknives.net/sho...nives-mini-copperhead-watermelon-bone-ca9777/
https://www.collectorknives.net/sho...urnt-indigo-corncob-bone-trusharp-49226-copy/
https://www.collectorknives.net/sho...perhead-sawcut-crimson-bone-trusharp-ca29144/

mini improved trapper by case
https://www.collectorknives.net/sho...i-trapper-bone-stag-trusharp-6-5207w-ca65305/

The only thing I see that fits your desires exactly is the pinched peanut from AG Russell, it's over-priced, IMO, but it looks be a really nice knife. I guess I don't know the build quality to justify such a knife. VG-10 steel with a 2 1/8" clip main and 1 5/8 wharn secondary. I know I've asked if they could think about deigning that into a larger size but it could be a good option if you can find one. I see they're sold out on their website now (not sure if AG is a website link I can share here).
 
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Boker "two-blade stockman" is secretly a serpentine jack with clip and sheepfoot side by side. I don't know how available they are.
TzLURQR.jpg

Mine was a limited edition, but I don't know if it was the blade selection or the olive wood that was limited.
 
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I also like that combination of blades. I think the Boker Evergreen Series and the Forum Knives are good suggestions. You might also consider a mini trapper since the full length Wharncliffe is much smaller on a mini compared to a full size trapper. The pinched peanut from AG Russell is another small knife with two full length blades. If you are open to switching things up, the Case Bose Norfolk has the blades reversed with the larger main blade being the Wharncliffe and the smaller blade being the clip blade. The Wharncliffe on the Norfolk is still small enough for the same control as the sheepfoot on a stock knife.
 
Gentlemen, thanks for the great input and suggestions. Many good ideas to mull over.

I do wonder why this blade combination is not more generally popular. As a jack, as suggested above, it's really just a stockman without the spey, which a lot of folks have little use for. Or an opposing blade pen type pattern would also be just fine. Either way, with two springs, crinking could be avoided and you'd have nice straight blades.

Andrew
 
supratentorial said:
I also like that combination of blades. I think the Boker Evergreen Series and the Forum Knives are good suggestions. You might also consider a mini trapper since the full length Wharncliffe is much smaller on a mini compared to a full size trapper. The pinched peanut from AG Russell is another small knife with two full length blades. If you are open to switching things up, the Case Bose Norfolk has the blades reversed with the larger main blade being the Wharncliffe and the smaller blade being the clip blade. The Wharncliffe on the Norfolk is still small enough for the same control as the sheepfoot on a stock knife.
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AFAustin said:
Gentlemen, thanks for the great input and suggestions. Many good ideas to mull over.

I do wonder why this blade combination is not more generally popular. As a jack, as suggested above, it's really just a stockman without the spey, which a lot of folks have little use for. Or an opposing blade pen type pattern would also be just fine. Either way, with two springs, crinking could be avoided and you'd have nice straight blades.

Andrew
Click to expand...

Here's a top pick of the offset blades (an alternate to crinking) in the Norfolk mentioned. The craftsmanship on this particular pattern is just amazing.
KJO9qa0.jpg
 
Gary, thanks for the pic. I'm a big fan of offset blades, although the beautiful Case/Bose knives are a little rich for my blood.

Andrew
 
Andrew, I'd suggest this Schatt & Morgan Horticulturalist's knife from 2007. XVII Series. It says on the blade 1 of 600 so it should be possible to locate one. 3.5" with long pull and a nice smaller Sheepfoot in a Jack lay-out. Redbone.

My picture is very shoddy but it's 23.15 here and no light, but I hope you glean an idea.

Thanks, Will

65PJxon.jpg
 
NJBillK said:
What about the CSC forum knife?
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I'll have to second the 2015 forum knife. The clip/sheepsfoot combo is my favorite as well, and I also prefer stainless. I spent a while searching for these two blades in stainless on a single spring frame. I thought the 4" closed length of the 2015 forum knife would be too big for my tastes, but the package is slim enough that it's highly pocketable.
 
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