The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
GmpaJim
and others I'll try and keep it relatively clean.
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It is a common saying among people who raise livestock that God makes too many males. Some folks say the same thing about humans.
Horsewright took me back 40 years. Just as I remember it. Some blade of yours, any blade, is on my 'will buy' list.Howdy guys. Can't speak much to sheep and pigs but can tell ya bout cattle and horses. As far as the knives go really just bout anything will work. You'll see some differences regionally probably more than anything else. In cowboy vernacular a knife for castration is referred to as a "nutter". For
In our area and many places the knife of choice is a Case Trapper or something similar. Can't say I've ever seen a Stockman used and seldom the Spey blade on the trapper. Mostly the pointy one. My small fixed blades are very popular too and I would say most of my customers are working cowboys rancher types. Here the wife and I were helping the neighbors:
This young man was using the spey blade and honestly thats the first and only time I've ever seen that:
Ya might be interested in this thread:
Helping the Neighbors: Traditionals in Use
Last week, my wife and I were invited to help a neighboring ranch (couple of ranches down from ours) brand. A branding is the processing of young calves usually 2-3 months old. This work in our area is done traditionally and traditionals were used. Saddle up, kick back and see how traditional...
And this one too:
Cowboying up North
Its been a while since I've done one of my cowboying threads. Lots of leather work to be seen here, not only mine but others too. Here ya'll get to see stuff really being used in the work of making that steak that ya had last night and that roll of leather ya got sitting on the shelf ready to...
I do make a Castrator as I call it. I don't make a lot of these as its just a different tradition around here but they sell other places. Here's a thread on its development and some of the regional differences and the why:
Well its pointless....
I make cowboy knives, its what I do. Around Christmas time I'd received several requests to build an old style knife pattern known as a blunt nose castrator, or in the vernacular a "nutter". Honestly, I didn't really want too. They were kind of foreign to the traditions I know growing up in the...
I once had a very experienced cowboy from our tradition draw out the perfect branding knife (a branding is where the castration is done). I'd asked him in his 40 years of being a big outfit bedroll cowboy how many calves he'd cut. Ya could see the math going on in his head and he said bout a million. This is what he designed for me. I've made and sold many hundreds of these:
Heck of a Bird and Trout too. Anyhoo, as far as technique goes, there's lots of different ways of cutting a calf its just not slash em off. A few folks had mentioned rubber bands and we did, some years back, experiment with banding. It's not as effective and we felt it was more painful and bothered the calves more. Banding takes a couple of months. Unless a ranch is raising bulls to sell to other ranchers all bull calves are cut and then they are steers. My wife does most of the cutting on our outfit and she had me design and make her a special one off castrator. Basically took one of my paring knife designs and rounded the front tip off:
She carries it in a boot sheath while branding:
Handy that way when needed. Remember approx half your calves are gonna be heifers and won't need cutting:
I'm generally involved in roping:
A disinfectant spray is used afterwards and the knife is rinsed and dried in between calves:
Using her regular EDC here for some reason:
A young lady 17 at the time, had been helping us for some time and she wanted to learn how to cut a calf. So my son and a friend Cody (whom between em have probably cut a quarter of a bilzillion calves) were talking her through it. After she made the first slice she asked what she did with the knife till it was needed again. They told her to put it in her teeth and she did without hesitation (keeps it out of the guacamole). Not squeamish at all.
Kinda a pretty pirate look.
Thats partially due to being extra work!It is a common saying among people who raise livestock that God makes too many males. Some folks say the same thing about humans.
Yes, we have had to repair or replace a few gates or fences. But a ram with nice big horns is actually easier to handle because of the handles.
I hear ya. I used to raise goats, and had a male named Jumper, whose name eventually turned to Humper for obvious reasons.
Horsewright
As always, great photos with wonderful knives. Living a great life, it seems. Like you say, the style of knife varies with the part of the country. I've used a large stainless steel Buck stockman's spay blade (easy to sterilize) and a disposable scalpel. The main thing I want is small and razor sharp. One difference between the way you are doing it and my days with a small herd is that I usually worked on them when they were only a week or two old. Easier to take them to the ground when you don't have horses. My dad never liked the blood and gore of cutting so he used both a clamp and bands. And every so often he missed a nut and paid for it at auction.Howdy guys. Can't speak much to sheep and pigs but can tell ya bout cattle and horses. As far as the knives go really just bout anything will work. You'll see some differences regionally probably more than anything else. In cowboy vernacular a knife for castration is referred to as a "nutter". For
In our area and many places the knife of choice is a Case Trapper or something similar. Can't say I've ever seen a Stockman used and seldom the Spey blade on the trapper. Mostly the pointy one. My small fixed blades are very popular too and I would say most of my customers are working cowboys rancher types. Here the wife and I were helping the neighbors:
This young man was using the spey blade and honestly thats the first and only time I've ever seen that:
Ya might be interested in this thread:
Helping the Neighbors: Traditionals in Use
Last week, my wife and I were invited to help a neighboring ranch (couple of ranches down from ours) brand. A branding is the processing of young calves usually 2-3 months old. This work in our area is done traditionally and traditionals were used. Saddle up, kick back and see how traditional...
And this one too:
Cowboying up North
Its been a while since I've done one of my cowboying threads. Lots of leather work to be seen here, not only mine but others too. Here ya'll get to see stuff really being used in the work of making that steak that ya had last night and that roll of leather ya got sitting on the shelf ready to...
I do make a Castrator as I call it. I don't make a lot of these as its just a different tradition around here but they sell other places. Here's a thread on its development and some of the regional differences and the why:
Well its pointless....
I make cowboy knives, its what I do. Around Christmas time I'd received several requests to build an old style knife pattern known as a blunt nose castrator, or in the vernacular a "nutter". Honestly, I didn't really want too. They were kind of foreign to the traditions I know growing up in the...
I once had a very experienced cowboy from our tradition draw out the perfect branding knife (a branding is where the castration is done). I'd asked him in his 40 years of being a big outfit bedroll cowboy how many calves he'd cut. Ya could see the math going on in his head and he said bout a million. This is what he designed for me. I've made and sold many hundreds of these:
Heck of a Bird and Trout too. Anyhoo, as far as technique goes, there's lots of different ways of cutting a calf its just not slash em off. A few folks had mentioned rubber bands and we did, some years back, experiment with banding. It's not as effective and we felt it was more painful and bothered the calves more. Banding takes a couple of months. Unless a ranch is raising bulls to sell to other ranchers all bull calves are cut and then they are steers. My wife does most of the cutting on our outfit and she had me design and make her a special one off castrator. Basically took one of my paring knife designs and rounded the front tip off:
She carries it in a boot sheath while branding:
Handy that way when needed. Remember approx half your calves are gonna be heifers and won't need cutting:
I'm generally involved in roping:
A disinfectant spray is used afterwards and the knife is rinsed and dried in between calves:
Using her regular EDC here for some reason:
A young lady 17 at the time, had been helping us for some time and she wanted to learn how to cut a calf. So my son and a friend Cody (whom between em have probably cut a quarter of a bilzillion calves) were talking her through it. After she made the first slice she asked what she did with the knife till it was needed again. They told her to put it in her teeth and she did without hesitation (keeps it out of the guacamole). Not squeamish at all.
Kinda a pretty pirate look.
May I have your Rockstead, I need to cut something off from something. I'll give it right back. Promise.
Her year book picture has the caption, “Least likely to be bullied”
