An Essential Pocket Knife : The Stockman

You're so right.
I should be writing about Whittlers instead of Stockman knives. Afterall, this is a wood working blog. But do you whittle the whole day? Perhaps. Can you peel an apple with a whittler? Maybe, but not as well. What if you forgot the butter knife at a picnic, or you somehow need to spey or neuter an animal in an instant?.. (ok, I'm pulling your leg, but I'm referring to the ubiquitous spey blade in your stockman.)

A stockman knife (Also called your Gandpa's EDC) will do all of the above with ease, and it will WHITTLE.
My shallow pocket and minute brain says that Whittlers are for collectors. Try buying a Stag handled split-backsping whittler. They are not cheap.

This is one of the forty stockmen I've purchased online. The other 39 are on their way.
And yes, I have issues. The stockman bug maybe.
Wait till my wife sees them:

I like to imagine myself as a craftsman first, woodworker second. Now you see why I bought this brand. Looks so hot it sears..

Wife: "Why would anyone need 40 pocket knives?"

Me: ".. the collector,.."

Wife: " they're so rusty..are they of any use?"

Me: "I clean them.."

Wife "..the dead geezer who owned it probably cleaned his toenails with it..wash your hands..why would anyone need 40 pocket knifes? They all look alike..."

Me" ok.. I'll stop at 40"

But before the exchange above, the knife arrived like this:

I still resented cleaning it, as the lovely patina take years to build.
To wax some DH Lawrence :
"..some old things are lovely, warm still, with life of forgotten men who made them..."
ok ok, this is not that old. See the (C) copyright symbol next to the logo..

I cleaned it to use it. Pure Utilitarian Object here.


 Not just a pretty, romantic curio nesting in my pocket. It should be clean enough to eat with, strong enough to fight with, sharp enough to fillet a fish or two, comfortable enough to hold all day and not twist in your sweaty hand.

Polished blade resist moisture, cleans easier, not to mention looking nicer. (Note the blade-rubs.  These are typical on even the best stockmans, resulting from blades touching one another on closing and opening in a tightly packed knife.)

When you get too carried away with sandpapers, leather and green polishing compound:

I still think the original patina looks better. Then again, this is a user.

Blade shapes in a stockman: Their uses and their upkeep.


The Clip point:

Clip point:

The longest of the trio, the clip does the most work, slicing meat, peeling fruits, dressing small game, filleting a fish, and whatever tasks that deems the blade handy. This example has a swedged top edge (false edge), and a long nail-pull. (This blade can be retouched on a soft arkansas or sharpened on the coarse side of a man made stone and finished on hard arkansas. This will give a polished micro serration to the edge, good for general slicing tasks)

 

The Sheepfoot
(Some folks calle them "Wharncliffs", or Coping blades, though the former are usually more raked and lower in profile)

Sheepfoot are meant for push cutting tasks, as suggested by their short length and almost straight cutting edge, like chopping (downward push) a thick rope on a raised block. They are similarly shaped as sailor's rigging knives, and are meant to be blunt at the point. The strong point is also handy for opening boxes, and shallow slitting on flat surfaces, like cutting out a newspaper article. Keep this blade honed on your finest stone.

....and finally, to Spay the Bitch, we have the.....you got it,..the

 SPEY blade:





 I do not think farmers or ranchers neuter or spay their lifestocks much with a pocket knife these days, if at all. But as the blade profile suggests, this is used to carefully slice through meat, with an almost 90 degree point to prevent puncturing a struggling animal's vital organs. 
For tradition's sake, keep this knife reserved for the unexpected task, demanding the  keenest edge.(In older CASE XX stockmans, this blade have an etching that reads" FOR FLESH ONLY"

Carefully hone this blade on your best stones and finish by stropping on leather.
DO NOT USE IT UNLESS YOU HAVE TO!

All men should carry some form of cutting implement.

So, grab a stockman Today, you cowboys (cowboys In a positive, handy sense)
 

I will also try...to do a post on cleaning old, cheap but well built carbon steel stockman knives so abundant online for the price of dirt. Carbon steel because ...do you use a stainless steel chisel for woodworking? and why?...Now you know. And notice how small my words are, on things I may not do even though I said I would.

                                                                                       

Here are 2 Buck 301 Full sized Stockman that I picked up on ebay:

The recent model 301 that sports a laminated wood scales (dyed to look like cherry wood), the new 2 tone anvil logo in blue/silver, integrated nickel silver bolster/liner (one piece construction), slightly concaved wide primary bevel, 2 exposed scale rivets (curiously, the rivet for the back spring is hidden)This tang code dates this to year 2012. 420 HC stainless high carbon.

 

Buck Knives' Chairman,Chuck Buck's signature is proudly laser engraved on the reverse side.

Now, I bought the knife below because it has a long nail-notch (nail pull, nail nick, nail mark etc). And for that reason alone. I cannot recall seeing Buck using a long nail notch anywhere.This is an older pre-1986 Buck 301 that according to an expert in the AAPK site (Author's name:"300Bucks"), was made by Camillus for Buck.It seems like a credible theory, especially when you look at the grind (Flat ground), and the swedged false edge at the top of the main clip blade (note the stopped chamfer). All these are very unBucklike.

 Black synthetic sawcut scales, with only the backspring rivet visible. The shield has a picture of a Buck knife being pounded by a hammer to cut a bolt. Buck's propaganda on it's famous heat-treatment on their steels. Is this 440C ?

 

 

 The newer 301 has a more modern swedge at the clip, and also a crescent nail-notch like all other Buck folders.

Another feature worth mentioning: The new Buck has one spring for EACH blade, while the older 301 uses the typical 3 blades to 2 spring configaration.Why? We all know that we should avoid opening both the spey and sheepsfoot at the same time, as they share a backsping and can jolly well break.My guess is buck added the spring to reduce a potential warranty problem. But.....how in the world did Buck manage to retain the overall thickness of the knife while adding another spring?! Well, they removed all the brass liner between the springs! All three of the liners. So how does this affect the "Walk"(smoothness of the tang-edge rubbing along the inside of back spring while knife is being opened/closed) and the "talk" (the snap-shut or snap-open click of the knife)? Not much. I was quite prepared to bust a thumbnail when I saw the one-blade to one-spring configuration. The knife opened with suprising ease and smoothness.

A Deviation from Tradition or a Conformation to Logic?
The spey blade has now changed sides, away from tradition.
 To get my point, grab a stockman and do the following:

If you hold your stockman in your left hand, the first blade your right thumbnail catches will be the main clip blade. Flip the knife over in your left hand, and the first blade your thumbnail catches will be the spey. To get to the sheepsfoot, you will transfer the knife to your right and open the sheepsfoot with your left thumbnail. We are talking about ease here. You may say that you can easily open the sheepsfoot with your right hand, but when you are ready to make your cut, you will eventually transfer the opened knife to your right


The picture below is nothing more than a compromise in aesthetics. It is rather safe to run my fingers across exposed portion of the closed spey blade. The spey blade must remain on the outer side (and not sandwiched in the middle, as the sheepsfoot blade will then block the nail notch of the spey blade completely) About the only thing I don't like about the new 301. Buck could have lowered the spey blade's drop point so that the point is hidden.

PERHAPS BUCK WAS RIGHT. FOLKS DO NOT SPAY ANIMALS NOW, SO IT MADE SENSE TO MAKE THE SHEEPSFOOT THE MOST ACCESSIBLE BLADE WHEN YOU FLIP THE KNIFE. WE OPEN A LOT OF EBAY BOXES, DON'T WE?

COULD ANY ARTICLE ON POCKET KNIFE BE COMPLETE WITHOUT GIVING CASE XX KNIVES A MENTION?
 

I need to find out why a Case knife is a Case Knife. What is all the rage about. So I purchased a LARGE traditional bone scaled stockman. The model number is 6375 CV. CV steel is similar to carbon steel, but with Chrome and Vanadium added for edge retention and a little rust resistance. The color of the bone dye is amber, the jigging pattern is "Sawcut". The Mark side of the scale seems to imitate bones rough cut on a reciprocating saw blade (such as a bandsaw). The pile side suggests blanks cut on a circular saw. The blade are then riveted to the liners and flush polished at the bolster. The dye tries to imitate bones that were handled and pocket-worn for a few decades.

 

 

 

 

I believe some of your dollars goes to extra mirror polishing the back-springs. Note also the perfectly formed dome-shaped rivet head

Some reviewers complained about Case cutting costs by gluing on their shields, rather than pinning them as they did in the seventies and before. They say the shields are apt to fall out. This knife (of the Rancher" series), have no shield to fall out. Instead, the company logo is (laser?) engraved onto the bone scale.

 

 

The factory edge looks deceptively coarse. They are in fact, deliberately rough ground to produce micro-serrations. I was stupid enough to wipe the edge carelessly and open up my index finger.