I've always been a little ashamed about my opinion of the trapper
, which I'd heard was perhaps the most popular pattern for a folding pocket knife. But I feel better after seeing so many folks expressing opinions much like mine
, as detailed below.
While the trapper is not an ideal carry for me I love the looks of them. ...
Totally agree with solphilos!
I like to look at trappers (my own, or maybe preferably, others' trappers
), but I rarely carry them. Why not? What makes trappers a less than ideal carry?
...Looks wise, the trapper remains my favourite pattern. There is just something very beautiful the way the handle swoops and rounds over at the end. But I never carry mine. The two blades of similar profIle and length I find redundant. ...
I like the trapper pattern. But to me the biggest downfall, at least in my use, is the two blades with bellies. ... When you modify it and toss a wharncliff in, then it’s about spot on perfect pattern for me. Granted, I still stick to my stockman patterns cause of what I grew up with, but I have to admit that if I needed to choose a single knife to go with me forever (please no!) then a modified (or improved) trapper would be right at the top of that list.
+5K on what jmarston and SVTFreak write!
Two full size blades is less than desirable to me; I'd much prefer a larger blade and a smaller blade. And I also like the idea of more variety in the shape of the blades; one with belly and one straight certainly seems a better choice. (But this is coming from a guy who has more canoes than any other pattern, canoes which almost invariably have a spear/pen combo.
) Thus the modified trapper with a Wharncliffe instead of a spey does seem to be an improvement. More on this in a minute.
There's another obstacle to trappers being an ideal carry, namely their size:
... I really like the idea of a trapper on paper, I like multiblade knives where I have one general use blade and one that I keep fresh for select use. But the standard trapper IMO is too big. ...
... What's not to like? Too large? That's where the mini comes in.
-- Mark
...
I won a chestnut brown mini in a GAW from Barrett (@btb01) and this is to me the perfect sized Trapper. ...
Finally Will sent me a
wharncliff mini - different again - an excellent slicer.
...
... The trouble is,
I find the trapper just a bit too big and heavy for my tastes. ...
The mini trapper is a more convenient size, I think, and swapping out the spey for a Wharncliffe makes it even more appealing to me. I found one at a big Case dealer near Fort Wayne while traveling this summer and it is one of my favorites. I bought it more for the Wharncliffe blade than for the trapper pattern. (I do realize that once you shrink the trapper and replace the spey blade you've moved pretty far from the original concept, though.
)
I concur with these opinions that the standard trapper just seems too big for comfortable pocket carry. A few months ago I purchased a Case CV chestnut jigged bone mini trapper, and find it to be so much more enjoyable to use than a full size trapper, even though the mini trapper has the equal-sized clip/spey combination criticized above. Maybe it's like the story of Goldilocks: 2 "main" blades are too big, and 2 "secondary" blades are too small (as in some old pen knives), but 2 medium sized blades are
just right! The medium blades are big enough for hard use, but small enough for detail work. As Jolipapa and Ace point out, having a mini trapper with a straight/belly blade combo is even better than just right!
I have to admit that I favor the spey blade over the clip on my mini trapper (and on a full size trapper, for that matter), and I'd like to find an example of a mini trapper with spey/Wharncliffe combination; to me, that would be an improvement over the improved mini trapper!! As Ace notes, however, how many "improvements" can we make and still call the result a trapper?
Speaking of Goldilocks, Jeff plays the part with respect to size, claiming with so many others that the 4.25" trapper is too big, but expressing the position that the 3.5" mini trapper is too small, so he's found a "happy medium"!
I do like trappers, too, but not so much the current standard 4¼" or the 3½" mini-trapper. The one that works for me is the 3⅞" size that GEC and Bulldog have made. Here's one of each. I do agree that they are improved with a straight-edged secondary instead of the spey.
Nice knives
, but I think Jeff's favorites would still be too big for my tastes.
Yep, this thread has convinced me that MY ideal trapper is a 3.5" Wharncliffe/spey version! A unicorn???
- GT