Uses for specific types of blades.......?

2

2REDUCK

Joined
Feb 27, 2000
Messages
40
I am in the market for a traditional folding knife (stockman type) and was wondering what the specific uses were for the three or so different blades. Usually a small clip, large clip and sheeps foot. Any reason to use one over the others?

Excuse any obvious ignorance in the above question....

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Don't sweat the details....
 
Most of the stockmans I've seen have a clip blade, sheepsfoot blade, and a spey blade.
The clip blade is for general utiltiy. The fine point is good for puncturing things and it has a decent amount of belly for other cutting. The sheepsfoot blade is good for scoring things and cutting tough stuff. It has a strong point that you can use in the same manner as the point on a utility knife(boxcutter, razor knife,whatever you want to call it)The spey blade was origanlly used for the annual job of castrating whatever needed it on the farm. Its also good for whittling, making detailed cuts, or cuts in areas to tight for the clip blade. It also is useful as a skinning blade because it has a good amount of belly on it and the point doesnt' really get in your way or damage the hide.

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Fix it right the first time, use Baling Wire !
 
In my experience with tratitional 3-blade stockman folders, I found the large clip blade and the sheepfoot blade to be the most useful. I hardly ever used the spey blade. Sheepfoot blades are great for the following reasons:

1. The edge is straight and therefore relatively easy to sharpen.
2. The point is low (in line with the edge), which means you can make scoring cuts (as when you cut an article from a newspaper) or slitting cuts (as when opening a bag of M&M's) without elevating your elbow or cocking your wrist unnaturally.
3. Because the tip is in line with the edge, the blade ends up being relatively thin at the tip (the edge is the thinnest part of the blade, right?), which allows excellent penetration for the types of cutting mentioned in #2.

David Rock

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AKTI Member # A000846
Stop when you get to bone.
 
The previous explainations are good, except the clip blade is used for ear marking and castrating. The sheepsfoot is a super utility blade! The spey is the least used of the three. It's great to have as a reserve blade that you can keep really sharp.
The stockman is a great pocket knife that is much more useful for everyday tasks than any locking folder! I prefer 3 1/2"- 3 7/8" models that are slim. Some have a sheepsfoot that protrudes quite a bit, I like the type with a lower sheepsfoot. I find most 4" or larger knives too large to comfortably carry in a pants pocket.
 
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