What is a "trapper knife"?

coffeecup said:
Having skinned a few animals, I'll take a shot at answering.

When it comes to making the initial cuts to open the pelt, the spey's lack of a tip is a handicap. You can do it, but it is slower than using a clip blade. From that point, a spey blade shines at skinning. The goal is to separate the pelt from the carcass without damaging the skin. Due to the shape of the tip, a spey blade can be used more aggressively for this than can a pointed blade. You work the hide loose, then use the knife to sever the connecting tissue. The rounded tip keeps you from poking holes in the hide.

Folks who engage in competitive skinning (of muskrats, for instance) tend to use a very sharp paring knife. In practice, this isn't much different from the old trappers' muskrat pattern, with a clip blade on each end.

When skinning larger game (deer for example), a spey blade works the same way. When using a trapper to dress and skin a deer, I usually just make an initial cut with the clip blade, then do the rest with the spey blade. It reduces the chance of penetrating the stomach and intestines, and yields a clean hide and carcass, but mostly, it is what I'm used to.

I always liked the idea of wharncliffe trappers, but I'd prefer a wharncliffe/spey combination. To me, a clip/wharncliff combination doesn't seem to offer any usable advantages.
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Excellent post and I have to agree on the clip/wharncliff combo. I really don't see much use in the wharncliff when it comes to skinning.
 
coffeecup said:
That fine point is just ever-so-nice working around the face, ears, etc.
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The only field use I have for a trailing or up-swept blade is for caping out the head of an animal. Where I come from, a knife such as a Schrade Sharp Finger or one with a Turkish clip is a caping blade.
 
This is a great post, thanks.
I still have a bit of uncertainty in my mind though, what then defines a Trapper? Is it the handle shape, blade shape or a combination of them? There seems to be so many variations.
 
stefand said:
This is a great post, thanks.
I still have a bit of uncertainty in my mind though, what then defines a Trapper? Is it the handle shape, blade shape or a combination of them? There seems to be so many variations.
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This is the definition as provided from A.G. Russell's Knife Encyclopedia:

(quoted from site: https://agrussell.com/encyclopedia/t)
" Trapper
A two bladed knife, most commonly with both blades at the same end, the blades often a clip point and a long spey blade, sheepsfoot or wharncliffe. The exception to the blades being at the same end is the Muskrat Trapper which always has a blade at each end. "
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To me, the presence of the long spey is what tells me it's a trapper, or some derivation of a trapper. But overall, the classic 'trapper' pattern will usually be (1) of that particular handle shape with 2 blades and (2) one of them ALWAYS being the long spey, and (3) the other being (usually) a clip blade. That's generally what you'll find most often if you go searching the internet for any production folding knife called a 'trapper' pattern. Case's standard '54 pattern fits that description, and is likely the most commonly seen example, these days.
 
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I think A.G.'s definition of a trapper is correct. There have been a number of modifications to the trapper that should also be presented. You'll notice the four in my picture have one thing common to all of them. The shape of the handle.
Top to bottom;
1. Wharncliff Trapper, single blade (wharncliff), Hiroaki Ohta
2. Trapper, single blade (clip), John Lloyd
3. Wharncliff Trapper, two blade (clip and wharncliff), Joel Chamblin
4. Wharncliff Trapper, two blade (clip and wharncliff), Case-Bose Collaboration, Design by Tone Bose (I believe).

zeAMVJJ.jpg
 
Foilist said:
I asked the same quesion in this forum once long ago and learned that the blunt, or "spey" blade is for castrating livestock. I suppose it is useful for skinning too, or for any task where a pointed tip may cause unintended damage.
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I have only castrated calves...I've done .y share of those, tbough!!!

I've used Opinel, spey blades, spear points, warnclifs, drop points, clip points, and scalpels.

I've used customs, productions, etc...

The benefit of the spey blade is less stabby points!!!

The calves don't like to be branded, ear tagged, injected with antibiotics, and have their testicles removed.

I've been kicked, rolled, jostled, and generally moved while cutting.

Funny enough, I've been kicked in my own nuts while working on a particularly oversized bull calf. (Getting kicked by them is common..)

I've found the rounded tip on the spey blade is least likely to poke me.

I prefer a blade that is pinchable to open.

I have an AG Russell large sodbuster ( can't remember if they call it the cowboy or rancher).

Honestly a modified Opinel might be the ideal. They don't snap open or closed. They can lock, and my modified ones are punchable, but their also CHEAP, and super easy to sharpen to hair whittling.

I used a J. Oeser custom XL Gunstovk too, and the first time you drop it, and a cow steps on it, you get a bit worried about loss!!!!!

The rounded tip is less likely to poke holes in a hide while skinning, or gutting.

I've got a lot of knives, and have skinned and butchered deer, elk, a full cow, and even a turkey.

If I have access, I'm going to use fixed blades. If I've got to walk and find the deer or elk, I'm likely going to have a larger fixed blade, and at least one folder (might be a trapper, or a Whaler/swell center rope knife/sunfish etc).
 
[QUOTE="To me, the presence of the long spey is what tells me it's a trapper, or some derivation of a trapper. But overall, the classic 'trapper' pattern will usually be (1) of that particular handle shape with 2 blades and (2) one of them ALWAYS being the long spey, and (3) the other being (usually) a clip blade. That's generally what you'll find most often if you go searching the internet for any production folding knife called a 'trapper' pattern. Case's standard '54 pattern fits that description, and is likely the most commonly seen example, these days.[/QUOTE]

Thank you,
Since I posed the question yesterday, I managed to fiind some more info and it mostly agrees with your explanation.
 
Peregrin Peregrin

I'm pretty sure Tony was the pioneer in adding a wharncliffe to the trapper frame. The first one I saw in person was the first Case-Bose collaboration slimline trapper (I have the damascus version) in 1999. I don't recall seeing any production versions prior to that.
 
Great thread on trapper history. Now why does EnZo call their most popular fixed blade model the Trapper 95?

CdCOrup.jpg
 
marchone said:
Great thread on trapper history. Now why does EnZo call their most popular fixed blade model the Trapper 95?

CdCOrup.jpg
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That's why, earlier, I specifically mentioned if you go searching for a production folder called a 'trapper', you'd most often see what most exemplifies the definition. In writing that same post, I had to restrain myself in (not) pointing out that other makers, and especially custom makers, will often take liberties with certain pattern names, the finished result of which might not come anywhere close to what's recognized most often for a given pattern.

Bottom line, they call it what they want to; even if it bears no resemblance whatsoever to what us 'Traditionalists' recognize for the name. Nobody actually owns the exclusive rights to most long-historied Traditional pattern names anymore, so makers adopt and use the names as they will.
 
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