The Spey blade.

FarmKid said:
I'll use bands on new born calves but always cut larger bulls bc a lot can go wrong with a band; it ain't pretty when they swell. I love using the Spey for splitting hoses or scoring drywall stuff like that. I also like stockmen with pen blades too.
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Yeah, I never had to do the cutting or banding but seen plenty with a band on. Makes a guy walk funny for rest of the day just seeing it....lol.
 
FarmKid said:
It might be a regional thing but using a pocket knife for castration is a thing of the past here. Everybody is either banding or using them scalpel things. I use a knife bc it's much safer than a scalpel. I've seen a lot of guys use whatever blade that is the sharpest. Some guys modifying sodbusters just for castrating. I know when I was out in herford, tx a lot of guys had trappers and used the Spey for their sharp edge and the clip for everything else. I just like using the Sheeps foot bc of the blade geometry and personal comfort.
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I don't know anyone around here who uses bands or scalpels. Mostly it's full-sized Case trappers, but there are a few of us who favor single blades. I've used trappers, my Hampton back pocket, a sodbuster, and once a hunter that Erik Fritz made me. I have a friend who only uses a GEC single blade that I gave him. For the most part, though, it's Case trappers.
 
I'm a fan of the spey! I use the little one on my stockman all the time! I find it more useful than a pen blade, currently, since my stockman has a couple of clip blades, too. It's a real slicer.

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+1 for the spey blade! :)

useful, diverse and asthetically inoffensive! great in a knife cautios society.
 
I agree with the earlier comment about putting an acute, slicing edge on the spey. It's my favorite blade for 'surgical' scalpel-like tasks (hangnails, and those pesky little bits of dried, peeling skin at the periphery of my fingernails). The severe 'belly' of the blade, near the tip makes a great scalpel, when more acutely bevelled. Always comes out wickedly-sharp.

And the 'dropped' portion of the tip, just above the cutting edge at the tip, is perfect for wedging open pistachios (the ones that are just barely cracked, and too hard to pry open with the fingernails). :D

Also recently figured out, the spey on my Schrade 8OT was a perfect solution for cutting a synthetic chamois-type towel that, for some reason, my scissors didn't want to cut. With the towel folded in half over the blade, cutting along the crease, the rounded end of the spey blade was ideal for not getting snagged in the material.


David
 
The spey is my first go to blade, be it a trapper, stockman, etc. I have yet to break a point off of a spey blade. :D
 
Don't get me started on Melon Testers! :D Seriously, I find the Spey on larger folders (large trappers) to be very useful ... it just seems like I never find a reason to use the shorter Spey on my GEC Calf Roper. The Spear on my #66 BJM has a belly that is very similar to the belly of a Spey - and I use it all the time. That extra length of blade seems to facilitate better cutting motions for me with both the larger Speys and Spears. IMHO the Spear is an excellent shape that has some definite utilitarian advantages over a Spey or a Clip. My "ideal" two blade folder would be a Spey & Wharncliffe or Spear & Sheepsfoot in 4" pattern. :thumbup:
 
JAlexander said:
I think there's a certain number of people who don't care for any given knife blade, although it may be a bit heightened with spey blades because their traditional purpose is so outside the experience of most modern people and may make people uncomfortable. My brother-in-law, for instance, is one of those people. On the other hand, spey blades are my favorite full-sized secondary blade, bar none.



Now that's interesting. I wonder if it's a regional thing, because around here the spey is almost invariably the blade used to cut calves.
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Then again, it may not.

I was in my local hardware store. This was back when such stores sold decent knives. A clerk, in her early twenties, was at the Case display box. She was talking to an old couple about pocket knives. He asked her, “What is this blade for?”

She said, “I don’t know.” I happened to be walking by so she asked me, “Raymond, what is that blade for?”

I said, “It’s called a spey blade. It’s for castrating animals. It turns stallions into geldings, and bulls into bullocks.”

She said, “Neat. I want one.”
 
I've never found a purpose where a spey blade excelled.

I'll take a warncliffe over a spey any day for usefulness.

Strangely I find a pen pattern more useful than the spey. It has enough belly for scouping cuts and enough point to make stop cuts or V grooves.
 
Stray Round said:
I've never found a purpose where a spey blade excelled.

I'll take a warncliffe over a spey any day for usefulness.

Strangely I find a pen pattern more useful than the spey. It has enough belly for scouping cuts and enough point to make stop cuts or V grooves.
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This is funny because I feel exactly the opposite! I find spey blades to be great thin slicers, and when it comes to straight-edged blades I prefer the sheepfoot.
 
Gevonovich said:
I love the curves on a spey blade, its distinctive shape, its gentle curving belly, perfectly formed for push cutting, carving and all manner of ectomy.

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I love this knife I think it's fantastic. I keep coming back to this thread just to look at it more and more
Mike
 
I really have come to like the Spey blade.

I have it in the full length version only. On both my #23 and #73 I use the spey blade at least as much as the clip.

Anytime I am cutting food, I use the spey blade. Especially when slicing fruit and veggies. The clip points on all mine are murder! I have pocked my hands quite a few times. With the spey, no poking when holding the food, and slicing stacks of onions, veggies, etc.
 
Well, I have been critical of the spey blade taking up space in my Buck stockmen. Taking up space and seldom used. When used it is as others have said used as a craver or maybe in some odd slicing situation. I have spoken friendly on Buck developing a new blade shape, lets see what is it called oh yes...a Warcliff.
Lately the 301 stockman maintains quite a rounded spey shape but the smaller 303 stockman is slipping into the pen blade world. I give a yes to this transition.
300Bucks

301, 2010
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303, brand new model.
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Wish I had the where with all to get one of these when the gettin' was good. Those are beautiful knives, Steve!
 
I am reminded of what Mark Twain had to say when someone was critical of his spelling, something about the limited mental ability of anyone who could only think of one way to spell a word. Lotta of folks here who can not think of more ways to use a blade. I have not carried a stockman or trapper as an edc for many years, but when I did I found the spey a very useful blade when ground thin and really sharp. never used it to clean my nails, however.
 
A. G. Russell said:
I am reminded of what Mark Twain had to say when someone was critical of his spelling, something about the limited mental ability of anyone who could only think of one way to spell a word. Lotta of folks here who can not think of more ways to use a blade. I have not carried a stockman or trapper as an edc for many years, but when I did I found the spey a very useful blade when ground thin and really sharp. never used it to clean my nails, however.
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Nobody's mentioned it, but scribes used to use the spey blade as an eraser.
 
Okay, okay, I've gone long enough without knowing how to respond to individual posts with the photos and text intact. My last post was supposed to include the above picture and doesn't make a lot of sense without it. Sorry to ask this here, but It's my most recent fail. A p.m. or a quick rundown would be greatly appreciated. Oh, and just to stay on topic, Do you guy's think that a traditional sod buster blade falls within the realm of spey? This has confused me for a while. Thanks.
 
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