When do you reach for a Sheepsfoot?

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If you look at the original sloyd knife, it shares a lot in common with a sheepsfoot. The old timers used those knives for all kinds of things because they likely knew that’s a very useful blade shape.

A sheepsfoot is one of my favorite small-medium sized blade shapes, rivaled perhaps only by the wharnecliffe.
 
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Not too often if I can help it, you can get a nasty kick/hoofing o_O

Oh the BLADE? right yeah. Used one on a CASE Med Stockman the other day to cut a patch of wallpaper for a lazy repair, it worked as nobody started moaning. They're all round useful especially in the garden, cutting twigs for sticks or taking harder cuttings, stripping open plastic protectors around trees once they've outgrown them (or the Hares can't chew the tree anymore) Cutting pictures out of magazines for collages when I was creative....Thousands of years ago when I smoked a pipe a small Sheepfoot was an ideal scraper for the bowl and I much preferred flake tobacco and that could be cut in strips. Probably a tidy cigar cutter too. A larger Sheepfoot is good for some food prep too, slicing hard salami, scraping vanilla pods and scoring Chestnuts prior to cooking comes to mind.

I'm sure there's more, another thing, they look pretty good too, the blade that is not the hoof!
 
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Hyesouljah said:
What’s a California clip, sir?
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Someone replied with a photo already but I thought i would elaborate. A California clip is an elongated clip point. Compare the clip on a Buck 110 to the clip on a Case Trapper and the portion if the blade it takes up. I like this arrangement for up to deer sized game as it allowed for tight rotation (consider boning out backstraps on a beaver) to minimize meat wastage. Yet it still gives some decent belly for efficient skinning. Consider these muskrat patterns I modify to be the best combination for me. A sheepsfoot for regular use and a clip for fish and fowl. And sandwiches.

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jmarston said:
Someone replied with a photo already but I thought i would elaborate. A California clip is an elongated clip point. Compare the clip on a Buck 110 to the clip on a Case Trapper and the portion if the blade it takes up. I like this arrangement for up to deer sized game as it allowed for tight rotation (consider boning out backstraps on a beaver) to minimize meat wastage. Yet it still gives some decent belly for efficient skinning. Consider these muskrat patterns I modify to be the best combination for me. A sheepsfoot for regular use and a clip for fish and fowl. And sandwiches.

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You have the right perspective sir, well done and thank you for sharing. Surely enough I prefer my buck 110 for fish
 
I like the Turkish Clip or Muskrat Clip as the main blade too. One of the coolest looking Turkish Clips is the main in Case’s 07 pattern Trapper; problem is I don’t care for the long Spey secondary blade at all. I recently bought the least expensive Case 07 I could find and cut that Spey into a Sheepfoot blade. Now I have a Trapper I really like. OH
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Old Hunter said:
I like the Turkish Clip or Muskrat Clip as the main blade too. One of the coolest looking Turkish Clips is the main in Case’s 07 pattern Trapper; problem is I don’t care for the long Spey secondary blade at all. I recently bought the least expensive Case 07 I could find and cut that Spey into a Sheepfoot blade. Now I have a Trapper I really like. OH
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I did this with the same model too. I hated my sheepsfoot mod however, and made it into a single blade clip point. Really great thin and capable package.

EDIT: I actually nodded a full size trapper not the mini.
 
J jmarston I’m pretty happy with the way my Sheepfoot blade turned out, but my nail-nick grinding is definitely bush league. I‘ve decided to just look at it as a toolroom type mod and use the knife - the blade works great and the nail-nick works fine, its just ugly. OH
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Old Hunter said:
J jmarston I’m pretty happy with the way my Sheepfoot blade turned out, but my nail-nick grinding is definitely bush league. I‘ve decided to just look at it as a toolroom type mod and use the knife - the blade works great and the nail-nick works fine, its just ugly. OH
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Yeah mine was Bush league too. My problem was when I used a cutoff wheel, I went to snap the tip offthe blade, it took more than I intended so my sheepsfoot was nearly 90 degrees. Your profile is what I was going for. Oh well. The single blade clip is really great. A happy mistake.
 
Nice to know I'm normal, my stockman use is mostly sheepsfoot with the clip for food (clean) use and the spey for dirty (and as an improvised screwdriver-dont judge). Excluding my SAK pruner I dont have a single blade. sheepsfoot. Thanks to the beautys shown above that might have to change!
 
Whenever I have to open a clamshell package or open a box of medical supplies for my stepfather. I have a Schrade trapper with the staglon handles that I've often that about modding the spey blade into a sheepsfoot.
 

As a lifelong member of the "look it up club" (remember that from grade school?) I looked it up! OH​


bush-league​

adjective

\ ˈbu̇sh-ˌlēg \

Definition of bush-league​

(Entry 1 of 2)
: being of an inferior class or group of its kind : marked by a lack of sophistication or professionalism

bush league
noun
Definition of bush league (Entry 2 of 2)
: Minor League
 
I have used a sheepsfoot blade for cutting through tough plastic piping. Intuitively the strong point feels very appropriate for such heavy duty tasks. The RR Congress I used did the job better than my carbon Mora, which otherwise is my go to hard work knife
 
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