What make a real TRAPPER knife?

M

martineden

Joined
Jun 26, 2007
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Hello all,
what make a real TRAPPER knife ? One or two blades? Clip and spey blade? Measures? Others?
Just tell me, please :-)
 
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If I remember my Levine (and I don't, but this should spark a correction), the slim trapper is older than the broad one, and it had a long clip and a long spay pivoting from the same end. (Clip was called California or Turkish, maybe?)
A couple of makers have replaced the spay with a wharncliffe and still called it a trapper. Some have one blade and are still called trappers. So the shape of the handle may be enough to make it a trapper.
Collectors, dealers, and users don't always agree among themselves or with each other on what a name means.
 
I think in the most common sense, the blade config (clip and full-length spey) are what define the trapper. There was a thread recently (linked below), featuring an older 6207 pattern from Case, which (in the case of the knife posted by the OP) was a 'serpentine jack' with clip and pen blade, in a trapper-like handle pattern that Case had later also made into a medium/small 'mini-trapper' config (same frame, but featuring the clip and long spey blade).

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1002529-Question-about-Case-6207

Case has also made a 'Moose' pattern (6275), which is usually a large-framed folder with clip and long spey, but each blade pivoting from opposite ends of the handle. I have seen it also referred to as a trapper pattern, no doubt based on the inclusion of the long spey.


David
 
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Obsessed with Edges said:
I think in the most common sense, the blade config (clip and full-length spey) are what define the trapper. There was a thread recently (linked below), featuring an older 6207 pattern from Case, which (in the case of the knife posted by the OP) was a 'serpentine jack' with clip and pen blade, in a trapper-like handle pattern that Case had later also made into a medium/small 'mini-trapper' config (same frame, but featuring the clip and long spey blade).

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1002529-Question-about-Case-6207

Case has also made a 'Moose' pattern (6275), which is usually a large-framed folder with clip and long spey, but each blade pivoting from opposite ends of the handle. I have seen it also referred to as a trapper pattern, no doubt based on the inclusion of the long spey.


David
Click to expand...

This mirrors my thoughts. Most manufacturers have made knives in this configuration and I have always immediately thought of any knife of this configuration being a trapper. There's no pictures yet, so I'll add one of a couple of trappers I own that fit this description:

BulldogTrappers.jpg


Ed J
 
I live in an area where there are still a lot of trappers and trapping. I do quite a few trappers shows and talk to a lot of trappers. Haven't met one yet who uses a trapper :D In fact, they use a very strange assortment of knives from butter knife shaped blades sharpened around the tip to skiny thin blades for skinning legs. The same thing with hunting knives which are anything from an old timer slippie to a skill knife.

Regards

Robin
 
Pipeman said:
I live in an area where there are still a lot of trappers and trapping. I do quite a few trappers shows and talk to a lot of trappers. Haven't met one yet who uses a trapper :D In fact, they use a very strange assortment of knives from butter knife shaped blades sharpened around the tip to skiny thin blades for skinning legs. The same thing with hunting knives which are anything from an old timer slippie to a skill knife.

Regards

Robin
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I'm kind of surprised by your comments. I believe it, but still surprised. Around here it is a popular pattern with folks around here.

Ed J
 
Is it still a trapper if it has a California clip and a skinner blade? I remember seeing a couple of trappers set up this way at a gun show. I have to agree with Pipeman about not seeing too many trappers being carried by people who trapped for a living. My dad used a stockman for skinning most of the stuff he trapped if he needed a bigger blade then he went to a fixed blade with a drop point.
 
Pipeman said:
I live in an area where there are still a lot of trappers and trapping. I do quite a few trappers shows and talk to a lot of trappers. Haven't met one yet who uses a trapper :D In fact, they use a very strange assortment of knives from butter knife shaped blades sharpened around the tip to skiny thin blades for skinning legs. The same thing with hunting knives which are anything from an old timer slippie to a skill knife.

Regards

Robin
Click to expand...

Hi,

Yep. A lot of trappers around me too. And I can't recall any of them carrying a Trapper. A lot of "Gas Station" mystery metal cheapies with either clip or drop points. But most guys are just carrying and using what they personally like. It's more about the skill in the hands and less about the tools.

As far as the Trapper pattern goes, It's got to have the clip and long spey to be called a Trapper in my opinion.

Dale
 
The full length spey blade seems to be the distictive feature (in my mind anyway) along with the shape of the handle and the blade pivot from one end. There was an informative thread a while back about trappers being very popular with the Amish folk ... for general outdoor use. Might have been a thread related to "sodbuster" type knives - just can't recall the details.
 
TLARbb said:
I'm kind of surprised by your comments. I believe it, but still surprised. Around here it is a popular pattern with folks around here.

Ed J
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Hi Ed
The area I live in is (how to say it)" a Make do kinda place". Most hunters and trappers couldn't tell a trapper pattern from a peanut and they don't care ;-)) A knife that works for them is all they care about, size or pattern doesn't matter. I loaned a chap who hunts my land a rough rider fixed blade hunter to try out, his words were, "well ain't that a fancy looking knife" ;-))
It's a tough way to try to make money nowadays with all the PETA folks going wild on fur but a tradition that endures.

Best regards

Robin
 
will62 said:
Is it still a trapper if it has a California clip and a skinner blade? I remember seeing a couple of trappers set up this way at a gun show. I have to agree with Pipeman about not seeing too many trappers being carried by people who trapped for a living. My dad used a stockman for skinning most of the stuff he trapped if he needed a bigger blade then he went to a fixed blade with a drop point.
Click to expand...

As I see it, that's one of those 'maybes' that might occupy a niche at the fringe of the 'trapper' definition. Like a lot of patterns, there's usually a 'classic' style that everybody seems to recognize, and then individual makers & designers might push the limits a little bit beyond that (with custom knives, all bets are off). A larger version of the same config (clip & skinner blade) might also fall under a 'Folding Hunter' definition. There's another pattern, the 'Muskrat', with 2 identical slender clip blades (often California clip), at opposing ends of the handle, that might also fall into a 'trapper' category as well. Maybe any other folding knife that has a designed end-use involving skinning of small game, for that matter.


David
 
To me a trapper is a two bladed knife...Both blades swing open on the same side..They are roughly the same size and are a clip and spey..This is a tradition trapper in my book..But,I recently recieved a SWEET trapper from Finedges and it has a clip and WHARNCLIFF blade..Its now in my wifes possesion until Christmas morning,lol...
CD
 
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