Eh? What's up Doc?? Bumpin' this thread up is What!!
The Bunny knife saga is an interesting one, partly stimulated by humans messing with nature (again) and looseing those "wascally wabbits" onto the Australian landscape!!!
Is this handy knife relevant to todays knifery?? I don't know, but this accumulation is due to the kindness of others, and has been sitting on my desk waiting to be shown to my knife friends!!
A couple of German makes, and a couple from Sheffield, please enjoy the pics and the erudite scribblings that came before!! Great Writings and opinions!!!^^^
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Wonderful to see those, Charlie! I’ve been waiting with bated breath, since you mentioned you had a few Bunny Knives waiting by your scanner to share with us!
So I have a question,
Cambertree
said in earlier post that a certain knife would be referred to as a bunny knife regardless of the bolster length. So could this Parker Cut Co. Be described as a bunny knife? It's 3-1/2 (9 cm)inches closed.
David, that knife certainly has all the elements of a Bunny Knife. A knife knut could quibble at that definition, since I doubt it was made to sell to the Australian market as one, but if you were to show it to any old timer in Australia, they would certainly identify it as such.
A lot of the old rabbit hunters actually used the pen blade to make an incision along the legs, and just peeled the hide off by hand - easy to do when the carcass is still warm.
Jack, Christian, Meako - nice examples, thanks for showing them.
Christian - although that knife is not technically a Bunny Knife, as mentioned above, if you were to show it to an old time Aussie hunter, they would very likely identify it as such. Most of them would probably smile at the strict definitions we have for certain models and patterns. In those days a knife was just a necessary tool and the only difference between some, was they were a bit more useful for some jobs than others.
So the knife
meako
showed could also have been sold as a ‘two bladed stock knife’ on account of the long castrator blade. And a stockman knife would also have been a ‘stock knife’ even though today we would regard the two knives as different patterns.
Actually, the term ‘Bunny Knife’ seems to have been used by hunters rather loosely in the same way ‘pen knife’ is used in some other countries, applying to all sorts of slipjoints with a bit of belly to the blades.
I recall showing my well used spearpoint GEC Huckleberry crownlifter to an old rabbit hunter - he examined it closely, before handing it back, saying approvingly ‘That would make a great bunny knife’!
This is a well worn Southern and Richardson which I found in the heart of the Western District of Victoria, where the Australian rabbit plague actually started.
I daresay it skinned a lot of rabbits in its day, before it was ignominiously attacked with a Dremel!
cudgee
Great to read your reminiscences and thoughts, mate. No one thought twice about seeing a young lad on the train carrying an uncased .22 rifle over their shoulder, in fact they would have been regarded with approval for ‘doing their bit’.
A couple of other points I thought I’d add.
By 1929 the rabbit industry was the largest employer of labour in Australia.
From 1950, when the Myxomatosis virus was released, that whole industry was turned upside down.
It’s estimated that a freelance rabbit trapper/hunter could earn up to 12 times what a waged worker could.
Here’s a fascinating
paper on the subject, for those who would like to know more.
