Coping blade question

U

Unclepapa

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Jul 14, 2012
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While looking through my copy of Remington Knives Past and Present I saw something that has me curious. On the page illustrating the different blade types it shows a short wharncliffe with a saber grind and labeled it as a coping blade. It describes what we all call a coping blade as a cut off pen. Did Remington use different terminology than everyone else or did the name of the blade change over the years?
Thanks,
Jeremy
 
Coping blade (Spear Main)....

922213-jack-black-buffalo-horn1.jpg
 
Buzzbait said:
The 1946 Camillus catalog gets it right.
Click to expand...

I don't know if it is "right", but I agree that the Camillus definitions match my understanding of such things.
It kind of is not an exact science, though.
 
I don't have any insight on the coping blade conundrum, but I did want to point out that the spey blade that they're showing is awfully pointy. It looks more like a drop point to me than a spey, or a very slightly clipped clip blade. I wonder what the reasoning for that blade shape is as it wouldn't serve the purpose of being a blade without a sharp point, which is what I've come to accept as the definition of a spey blade.
 
Thanks for the replies. I suspect if Camillus was calling it a coping blade in 1946 that Remington was just being different.

Cory I agree about the spey . The one in the picture is shaped a lot like the one GEC puts on the calf ropers. When I got mine I remember thinking it was awfully pointy.
 
Coping (in carpentry) is fitting one piece of wood to another. Usually it involves mouldings, so for instance fitting a cove moulding to another at 90 degrees. You can scribe it, cut it with a coping saw, then refine the fit with a little paring with a coping blade.
I learned to do it that way, but the art is largely lost. Consequently the term is prone to being confused/mis-understood.
I can see the Remington blade (pictured a few posts back) being useful, as well as the cut-off pen. But there is a properly named coping blade in existence as well! And when it comes to naming them, I hate the way makers and purveyors use questionable names for knife patterns and blades!
 
'Cut-off pen' is a name I have heard old Sheffield cutlers use, and I think that pattern may have even earlier names. I'm with you on the 'questionable names' Charlie, and it seems that once a manufacturer gives a blade or pattern a new name (sometimes the wrong name), it quickly gets adopted. Plenty of businesses don't seem to be able to tell the difference even between basic blade-shapes like Wharncliffe, Sheepsfoot, and Lambsfoot, and are happy to mix-up traditional patterns and misname them, so the confusion among users is hardly surprising.
 
oldways said:
Cut Off Pen =COPing
Click to expand...

Well played :thumbup::thumbup:

waynorth said:
Coping (in carpentry) is fitting one piece of wood to another. Usually it involves mouldings, so for instance fitting a cove moulding to another at 90 degrees. You can scribe it, cut it with a coping saw, then refine the fit with a little paring with a coping blade.
I learned to do it that way, but the art is largely lost.
Click to expand...

Not by everyone :D





Pete
 
waynorth said:
Coping (in carpentry) is fitting one piece of wood to another. Usually it involves mouldings, so for instance fitting a cove moulding to another at 90 degrees. You can scribe it, cut it with a coping saw, then refine the fit with a little paring with a coping blade.
I learned to do it that way, but the art is largely lost. Consequently the term is prone to being confused/mis-understood.
I can see the Remington blade (pictured a few posts back) being useful, as well as the cut-off pen. But there is a properly named coping blade in existence as well! And when it comes to naming them, I hate the way makers and purveyors use questionable names for knife patterns and blades!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the very informative post, Charlie. :thumbup::thumbup: I had always assumed that a coping blade on a knife was somehow related to a coping saw, but I didn't know how. Now I think I do!

My next question is whether either the coping blade or coping saw is related to my attempts at coping with misinformation. :D:D

- GT
 
You guys are funny ;)

That coping blade is certainly a very useful day to day blade to have at hand,

Eureka_coping.jpg~original


G2
 
Nice to see you coping so well, Pete!
;)
Nice blade to cope with also, Gary!
:thumbup:
 
Often the shape of a Sheepsfoot and Coping are the same shape
The sheepsfoot is bigger and the coping is finer
Often you will find a coping blade on the two back small blades of a split spring whittler

I am showing on a Queen Whittler with a split spring



And a S&M Horticultural knife




I too when working as a finish carpenter used a coping saw and a coping blade.

Now a days the plastic utility knife with the breakable blades has taken the place of the coping blade of a penknife
It can act as a cutting tool also as a fine marking tool
 
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Thanks for the informative posts thus far guys...I do learn something new everyday!
 
I'm not a historian of blades or patterns but for the finish carpenters above, is the presence of a coping blade what defines a carpenters whittler???? I use coping and other zero-belly blades to score my projects instead of using a pencil. But I'm by no means a pro. I watched my Dad use a miter box and coping saw to install crown molding in a bay window bumpout in a post-Victorian house. How he managed those compound miter and back cuts had me scratching the old noggin'.
 
I think a carpenter's whittler refers to a larger whittler, usually closer to 4" closed, than the more common balloon whittler at 3½".
 
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