- Joined
- Apr 15, 2002
- Messages
- 3,376
A fellow I know from around the wharves just got into the lobstering business and is having a rough start of it. His father is a fisherman, his brothers are fishermen, and he has been a fishermen, but they all groundfish with draggers. This is his first foray into the lobstering business. His traps and lines are junk, and that is being generous in the description, and he can't afford any better until he starts catching lobsters, but he cannot catch lobsters with gear like he is using. This is quite the quandary.
Beachcomber that I am, I managed to scavenge some rope he could use as buoy lines. Some was sinking rope (potwarp) and some was floating rope (Polypropyline and Poly-Steel). I told him I would make up some endlines for him in 10 fathom pieces.
Now, here is where the work came in. The rope I found was in a large, tangled clump. We found it floating while whale watching a few months ago and gaffed it up to keep it from entangling a whale or someone's propeller. It was about a 30 gallon trash can full of rope. It was twisted and tangled, and mixed in with worn pieces and unwound strands. (The rope is all three strand line, 3/8 diameter.)
It took almost four hours of untangling and splicing to get six ten fathom coils and ten one fathom gangion lines out of this mess. It also took lots of cutting. I had just sharpened my Old Timer Trapper 96OT last night. I took the secondary bevels on both blades down to approximately 20 degrees inclusive and put a 30 degree inclusive edge on both the clip and spey blades. I used a coarse flat Smith's diamond hone to rebevel the blades and the corners of the medium (grey) stones on the Spyderco Sharpmaker.
This is why I like the trapper. You get a robust handle with two different but functional blades. I like having a point, but also a straight edge. I have found that a straight cutting edge like on a sheepsfoot, wharncliffe or spey blade cuts rope like nobody's business. There aren't many knives with a long enough clip point blade that also incorporate a long sheepsfoot, wharncliffe, or spey blade.
Anyhow, I started untangling, cutting, and splicing away. I figured I'd need to touch up the edge from time to time. Potwarp, polypropyline and especially Poly-Steel brand rope is murder on a knife's edge. The carbon steel spey blade never needed to be sharpened. I stropped it on the leg of my jeans two, maybe three times, and back to work went the knife. It is still sharp, with a final stropping on my pant leg. It doesn't shave armhair, but still cuts like hell. I haven't been able to cut like this without resharpening a couple times on a Gerber diamond rod hone with my Spyderco Military in S30V, or my Spyderco Atlantic Salt in H-1.
I was quite impressed with the 96OT well before today. I carried it as a fisheries observer on a ten day trip to Georges Bank, 150 miles offshore this summer, and the only two knives I used was my Dexter Russel 1376 stiff boning knife (issued to all observers) and the 96OT. I used the Trapper for all of my cutting chores, including cutting rope and twine, sharpening my pencils, cutting my supper and cutting fruit for dessert. The Dexter was used to collect samples from cod and haddock.
The Old Timer never rusted in ten days at sea, and was not cleaned or maintained until I was back ashore. It has developed quite a nice patina since I have gotten it.
Pete
Beachcomber that I am, I managed to scavenge some rope he could use as buoy lines. Some was sinking rope (potwarp) and some was floating rope (Polypropyline and Poly-Steel). I told him I would make up some endlines for him in 10 fathom pieces.
Now, here is where the work came in. The rope I found was in a large, tangled clump. We found it floating while whale watching a few months ago and gaffed it up to keep it from entangling a whale or someone's propeller. It was about a 30 gallon trash can full of rope. It was twisted and tangled, and mixed in with worn pieces and unwound strands. (The rope is all three strand line, 3/8 diameter.)
It took almost four hours of untangling and splicing to get six ten fathom coils and ten one fathom gangion lines out of this mess. It also took lots of cutting. I had just sharpened my Old Timer Trapper 96OT last night. I took the secondary bevels on both blades down to approximately 20 degrees inclusive and put a 30 degree inclusive edge on both the clip and spey blades. I used a coarse flat Smith's diamond hone to rebevel the blades and the corners of the medium (grey) stones on the Spyderco Sharpmaker.
This is why I like the trapper. You get a robust handle with two different but functional blades. I like having a point, but also a straight edge. I have found that a straight cutting edge like on a sheepsfoot, wharncliffe or spey blade cuts rope like nobody's business. There aren't many knives with a long enough clip point blade that also incorporate a long sheepsfoot, wharncliffe, or spey blade.
Anyhow, I started untangling, cutting, and splicing away. I figured I'd need to touch up the edge from time to time. Potwarp, polypropyline and especially Poly-Steel brand rope is murder on a knife's edge. The carbon steel spey blade never needed to be sharpened. I stropped it on the leg of my jeans two, maybe three times, and back to work went the knife. It is still sharp, with a final stropping on my pant leg. It doesn't shave armhair, but still cuts like hell. I haven't been able to cut like this without resharpening a couple times on a Gerber diamond rod hone with my Spyderco Military in S30V, or my Spyderco Atlantic Salt in H-1.
I was quite impressed with the 96OT well before today. I carried it as a fisheries observer on a ten day trip to Georges Bank, 150 miles offshore this summer, and the only two knives I used was my Dexter Russel 1376 stiff boning knife (issued to all observers) and the 96OT. I used the Trapper for all of my cutting chores, including cutting rope and twine, sharpening my pencils, cutting my supper and cutting fruit for dessert. The Dexter was used to collect samples from cod and haddock.
The Old Timer never rusted in ten days at sea, and was not cleaned or maintained until I was back ashore. It has developed quite a nice patina since I have gotten it.
Pete
