Why a trapper?

I use my trapper for daily EDC tasks. I don´t go any hunting or fishing, because of german laws.

But here´s a good example for food preps, I did some weeks ago with my Case Trapper CV

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Kind regards
Andi
 
Modoc ED said:
I've got a picture around here somewhere of a pile of furry, multi-colored, ball-sacks from a roundup I participated in a few years back. No blood or gore involved. We turn them inside out, scrape the skin away from the inside of the hide/sack, turn them rightside in, put some salt in them and let them set for a couple/three weeks to cure, lace a piece of string rawhide around the open top for a cinch string and use them for small item storage pouches.
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I offered to do this to make guitar pick holders for my wife and her band, but for some reason they turned me down.
 
get a bigger sack, scrape it out the best you can and fill it with wheat seed, the wheat will pull the moisture out of it while making it keep its shape, when all dry you have a neat little bowl to throw change or whatever in
 
I've had a few of those large bags, I use to use one as a trash can in my truck. The dog got ahold of it and that was that.
 
Modoc ED said:
I've got a picture around here somewhere of a pile of furry, multi-colored, ball-sacks from a roundup I participated in a few years back. No blood or gore involved. We turn them inside out, scrape the skin away from the inside of the hide/sack, turn them rightside in, put some salt in them and let them set for a couple/three weeks to cure, lace a piece of string rawhide around the open top for a cinch string and use them for small item storage pouches.
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Isn't that how many guys used to carry their gold, coins, tobacco, etc.?
 
ranchmanben said:
What makes you think that? Is it all the talk of trappers that turns you off?

Ben
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I like Trappers just fine. It's when the spey blade starts a'speying that I gets a bit queasy. Heh.

Even so, I was hanging in there with that notion until all this current discussion of the post-spey uses of the Parts!

I'm still relatively new to these knives, and didn't realize spey = spay (a word I've known most of my life) until someone was showing me different blade types and their uses. Gulp.

I love learning about how and why different blades/patterns developed as they did, according to use, and find it fascinating (in a good way) that people still use these knives for their intended purpose(s)!

I just live in a very different world. And have always had a tendency toward this:

unreal.gif


~ P.

(All in good fun! :))
 
P,
I can understand how this could possible gross you out. But what we are talking about differs little from the leather that your shoes are made of...but probably not from the same parts of the cow. The castration of livestock is as traditional if not more traditional to America than pocket knives. It's all part of the process in putting delicious ribeyes on our plates. I can assure you that the process has changed for the better since my grandfather homesteaded our family ranch in 1897. It is cleaner, less stressful on the animal, there's less chance of infection and a quicker recovery time. The talk about what can be done with the left overs is just something to talk about and I hope it didn't offend you. As I told one the mods, cattle is my passion and I will do my best not to show it in a bad light. That being said, I don't think I'll post and pictures of the castration process.

About your comment about spey=spay, I've never understood calling it that. I've always thought a neuter or nutter blade would be a more apt description.

Ben
 
JAB said:
Isn't that how many guys used to carry their gold, coins, tobacco, etc.?
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Yes they did and some still do.

Now that the roundups are nearing completion in this area, little furry sacks will be for sale in some of our general stores as counter items until they run out and then the wait begins for next year.
 
Hi Ben,

Thanks so much for your thoughtful response. I really didn't mean to derail this thread(!). It just was (and is) funny to me, how after a few pages of of posts interspersed with the usual discussion and pictures of bone, blade length, cutting fruit, etc., we're discussing fishing loose change out of nut sacks. (Here I say again, laughing: O, my.)

I am, admittedly, squeamish. But please know that I took no offense, and mean what I say about being fascinated by your world-- of which I am mostly ignorant. I appreciate your perspective and passion for what you do, and why. It's not your fault I wandered into a Trapper thread, unawares. ;)

If you choose not to post the pictures you were thinking of, I understand. But please, don't change your mind simply because of me. I'd hoped my fainting emoticons and winky-smilies would help communicate my amusement (at myself not least!) at what I found myself reading about and starting to picture, and am sorry that my posts seem to have come across as disapproving-- not my intention at all.

And you're right-- technically it really should be a neuter/nutter blade, not a spey. :-)

Carry on. :)

~ P.

ranchmanben said:
P,
I can understand how this could possible gross you out. But what we are talking about differs little from the leather that your shoes are made of...but probably not from the same parts of the cow. The castration of livestock is as traditional if not more traditional to America than pocket knives. It's all part of the process in putting delicious ribeyes on our plates. I can assure you that the process has changed for the better since my grandfather homesteaded our family ranch in 1897. It is cleaner, less stressful on the animal, there's less chance of infection and a quicker recovery time. The talk about what can be done with the left overs is just something to talk about and I hope it didn't offend you. As I told one the mods, cattle is my passion and I will do my best not to show it in a bad light. That being said, I don't think I'll post and pictures of the castration process.

About your comment about spey=spay, I've never understood calling it that. I've always thought a neuter or nutter blade would be a more apt description.

Ben
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That's part of what makes this such a great place - you not only get a discussion about knives, but also a history lesson, a glimpse into other people's worlds, great anecdotes, etc.:thumbup:
 
P,
No sweat, I've been all over the place and I've gotten use to the fact that a lot of people don't think about where there food comes from. I've met plenty of people in my home state who think their steak, potatoes and corn come from the grocery store. They've never given a thought about where it originated and the work that went into it. Unfortunately, the way of the independent cattle raiser is dying out. People don't know about the little fella taking his handful of calves at the sale in hopes of bringing enough to buy a couple of young momma cows to replace his dry cows. It's all part of the process. If at possible buy locally grown food!!!

I've derailed this thread long enough, buy a trapper because it's a handy knife. Small enough to feel good in your pants, big enough to get the job done when you pull it out.

Ben

IMAG0179.jpg
 
I grew up in farm country in the Midwest. Though I've never lived on a farm, I've worked detasseling corn, milking cows, moving pipe, and helping an elderly couple raise and butcher about 300 chickens annually. Processing them was incredibly eye opening as a child/youth.

I'd welcome any pics of you and your trapper at work on those calves. It would give me a deeper appreciation of beef, where outcomes from, and of course show a very traditional use for the Spey blade.
 
Having been "neutered" myself after our second child, the idea of the use of the spey blade on livestock, without anesthetic of any kind, does tend to make your legs cross. LOL

I hope they aren't as sensitive down there as we are.
 
I really like the trapper pattern, and it would be great to see where its design got its roots.

Hunting, farming, and meat processing should be a natural things for any human carnivore to see.

The fact that we can live our entire lives in the modern world (eating meat) and never have to see the gore that we generate is what is weird, IMHO.
 
I'm goin to the odd fellow of the bunch. Ive carried trappers and stockmans and for castration I prefer a smaller Spey blade. We cut our calves at birth and cut the bottom of tha scrotum off and remove the testicles, but on larger stuff we do it different. I've tried the scalpel lookin disposable blades but I prefer my knife. I like the smaller Spey bc I just feel more comfortable with it. Here lately I've been using my case soddie jr and tha blade shape is wonderful for cuttin calves or hoggs. My dad and grandpa used to carry trappers and most of the older farmers carry larger knives bc they are great work knives. We used to raise tobacco before the buy outs and when suckering it a big knife just tires u out after a while. The trapper is an awesome pattern but it's all in what u like I guess.
 
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