Thoughts on the muskrat pattern

I received a Case jigged chestnut bone muskrat not so long ago and I must say it is a very nice pattern. I really like its size and the bone it features, the blades are useful as well. The knife is firm overall. As a university student I don't use it as intedned, not even when I am at my propper home, since I don't hunt or skin animals much (mind you, pig slaughter is traditional around here once a year during winter!). Your story is a nice read about the muskrat being used as it originally more or less was intended to. Here's some pics of mine.

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deltaboy said:
The only people I knew you this pattern was some commercial fishermen or Trappers.
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Here is what I was wondering about----in a western wear catalog, I saw a muskrat knife advertised as a "cow cutter."

And there is a magazine called "Western Horseman" put out for those who ride western style with a lot of articles about ranches, etc. And they sell some Moore Maker knives that are imprinted with the name of their magazine. They have selected a horseman's knife, (with a hoof pick) a trapper, and a muskrat knife to sell to their readers. No stockman knife, but a muskrat knife. Could it that the muskrat pattern besides having a connection with trappers and fishermen has a connection with cowboys?
 
Man that's a nice Case! Great patina on the cv blade!

Henry- You'd think the trapper and stockman patterns would be the cowboy favorites.

Joe
 
Žan,

I am proud of you. You were the right man to hand off that knife to. I can literally see the pleasure it is experiencing from being used and carried regularly. It was just going to languish in my desk drawer, crying silently to itself, until my estate sale some day (hopefully 30 years from now). Seeing that patina on that knife makes my soul happy.

There is a craftsman at Case who, perhaps without knowing, is a bit more pleased with himself for no particular reason.

Bravo, my friend.

John
 
Thank you John,
know that it is among my very favourites and I love carrying and using it. :)
 
As I am on a bit of a muskrat kick these days I thought I'd try to revive this thread from about this time last year. I recently picked up a Rough Rider muskrat in strawberry bone and am really liking it. The fit and finish are quite good although the covers were not particularly well dyed, so I put it in a red dye hot bath for 15 minutes, which greatly improved the appearance (IMHO).

Today I was at a hardware store about 20 miles from home shopping for a new lock set for the back door of the house. They had a small Case display that badly needed restocking, although there were several nice looking trappers and a swayback jack. There was also an absolutely gorgeous muskrat that I would love to have, but couldn't justify buying. I'm not sure of which covers -- they might have been pocket worn harvest orange bone, although they looked lighter than what I see on the W. R. Case website. I didn't ask to take it out of the display case, but I could see that it was marked "MUSKRAT" on the tang of one of the blades.

Anyway, here's the RR1506...

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Check out the thread about trappers.
A lot of replies in that thread talk about having no use for two long blades as well as no use for the long spey.

I have a different view on that blade. If you look at fixed blades which are called “skinners”, they always have a pronounced belly. If they have a sharp point, it points up. This allows you to skin the animal using the sweep of the belly, and keeps the point from snagging and poking holes in the hide. I never ran a trapline, but have skinned animals from rabbits to deer and found the rounded tip to work best for me. I am likely to poke the sharp tip of a clip blade through the skin.

That said, I certainly wouldn’t turn up my nose at a muskrat pattern knife- very cool looking. And like the OP said, it’s a perfect blade for trimming meat.
 
Yeah Muskrats look cool and for those of us that favour a turkish clip blade due to its elegance and utility (qualities which most people don’t appreciate) having two of them in one knife makes sense.
 
Amir Fleschwund said:
Check out the thread about trappers.
A lot of replies in that thread talk about having no use for two long blades as well as no use for the long spey.

I have a different view on that blade. If you look at fixed blades which are called “skinners”, they always have a pronounced belly. If they have a sharp point, it points up. This allows you to skin the animal using the sweep of the belly, and keeps the point from snagging and poking holes in the hide. I never ran a trapline, but have skinned animals from rabbits to deer and found the rounded tip to work best for me. I am likely to poke the sharp tip of a clip blade through the skin.

That said, I certainly wouldn’t turn up my nose at a muskrat pattern knife- very cool looking. And like the OP said, it’s a perfect blade for trimming meat.
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I have actually found that the thin long clip point is far better for game that has thick, bristly fur. Using the upswept skinner pattern usually gives me problems because it seems to "slip" across the hair while the clip point allows me to make that initial pierce in the skin!
 
I think I would enjoy a muskrat pattern around 3 1/2 inches and with a single spring; is there such a thing?
 
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AdamFuzzyballs said:
I have actually found that the thin long clip point is far better for game that has thick, bristly fur. Using the upswept skinner pattern usually gives me problems because it seems to "slip" across the hair while the clip point allows me to make that initial pierce in the skin!
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I can see that about the starting cuts.
 
I thought Frisky got banned...

Anyway, most of you that know me know I hate redundant blades. I've got a few Hawbakers, including the Case/Bose 2004 collab. Like a wharncliffe or "improved" trapper, it has fantastic utility in daily urban life.
 
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