Pouch knife: strap or bag mounted?

[Stumpkiller]

Finally did what I have wanted to for a long while and am having a knife forged specifically for attaching to a shooting bag. A copy of a pre-Revolutionary, 'home-spun' slightly upswept general purpose skinner and patchknife (from Madison Grant's archives). 5" blade, 10" overall with a stag crown handle. My favored shooting bag has a small 2-1/2" blade) patch knife on the strap and a larger (5" blade) knife attached to the bag. Had a re-design on that one because my first try allowed the lower knife to clack against the horn. I'm thinking I will place this knife on the strap ('course I'll have to make a new bag 'cause now I have an excuse) so it is at the center of my chest. Also have a few ideas for simplification that I want to work into my next bag. I currently have too many things fastened to the outside (2 knives, 5-hole bullet block, short starter, two powder measures, vent pick & brush). Next one will have just the knife on the outside and everything else inside - as most originals seem to have been. For shoots I can hang an extra bullet block around my neck.

I'm curious: What's YOUR preference? On the strap or down on the bag?

 

[musketman]

quote:Originally posted by Stumpkiller:
I'm curious: What's YOUR preference? On the strap or down on the bag? I have my patch knife sheath sewn (with sinew) into the shoulder strap about mid-chest high...

I use a small, 2 1/2 inch Damascus blade on a stag tip handle...

 

[LRB]

I am no expert, TG could give you a more definitive answer, but from what I know such a carry would have been rare to possibly non existent in that period. Knives were generally carried in the belt or sash. I would also advise you to be careful of Madison Grants dating of early knives. Many of his dates are at the very least, questionable.

 

Mine is in the same place as musketmans....don't know how authentic it is but it's sure handy!

Vic

 

[weasel]

I also have a3in blade patch knife on the bag strap I also carry an original green river behind my sash
weasel

 

[tg]

my understanding on bags and attatchment of knives to same is that there are few if any documentable colonial bags, that documentation for anything specific is a real booger, I put a small knife on the strap of two of my bags but I do not claim it as PC logic would suggest it was a possibility...it sure is handy, as is one on the bag this is one of those things that one must decide how documentable they want to be I guess, I would look at it as a very minor stretch considering most of the stuff we use and things we do, when you look at the overall picture, we can get a little deeper in our quest for documentation and ask which side of the sash is PC for carring a knife..what angle the knife rests in... how far into the sash does the knife rest...I guess I really do not have much to offer here but mors questions..

 

[Stumpkiller]

Worst case if I mount it on the strap is that I'll need to make a knifeless strap of the same leather & dye so I can swap it if off I ever need total correctness.

As you say, I have enough other 'cheats' in my gear that this wouldn't be noticed. I'm going out this weekend in the single digit temperatures, and I'll be wearing Sorels instead of center seam moccasins stuffed with straw grass.

My usual mantra: "They'd a used it iffen they'd a had it and they'd a done it iffen they'd a thought'a it."

 

[tg]

I make my small sheaths out of rawhide with a BT cover and make two small holes "high" and two "low" in the strap and tie off the sheath through these, if I remove it there are only 4 small holes or slits that one can leave as is or run wangs thru or whatever.

 

[Stumpkiller]

BT? Brain tan?

 

[squirejohn]

I used to use a patch knife attached to the rear of the bag. Now I just use a butcher knife attached to my belt or sash. Even when dull the long blade length makes for easy cutting of the patch at the muzzle. The knife is also handy for cutting meat, bread etc., as well as other camp uses such as brush and saplings.

 

[tg]

Yeah..BT= brain tan..LT=lazy typist, with bad eyes and a bumb arm (VBG) I rarely use my strap knife any more as I have come to use pre cut square patches that I keep in my little 3"x5"bag under my arm with xtra balls. I like to carry my big 11" blade butcher in a rawhide sheath covered with coon fur in my sash, the fur helps hold it in place.

 

I used to carry a liddle patch-knife on my shoot-bag strap, but the last few years, I carry only my Green River butcher.

I use the "butcher" handle for short-start'n balls, by lay'n the side of it's handle on the ball and "wack'n" it with my hand, then I cut the "excess" tick'n off, and return the butcher back to it's sheath.

I make my butcher sheaths out of "double rawhide" and cover'em with brain-tan elk hide. I punch 2 holes "side-by-side" at the top of the sheath and run a 10" thong thru it. This way if I go shoot'n "naked" (jeans, 'stead'a buckskins'n sash) I can tie the butcher sheath to the front strap of my shoot'n bag.

"Works well" fer me anyway, and eliminates the "patch" knife, and short-starter.

 

[TwoShadows]

Well, here I am running my mouth again....but I feel that caution is the watchword on the subject.

Carrying a sharp knife on the strap of the hunting pouch sure is handy. Think for a minute about the fact that there is this knife hanging next to your heart. Is it in a flimsy thin sheath? How thick is your hide over your heart? If you slip in those slick mocassins and take a fall, is the knife going to remain where it is? Could it puncture the sheath and end up in your "pullybone"? A lot of my shooting and especially my hunting is over rough terrain. I have many knives that are carried in various places/positions. I began considering what can happen a long way from assistance and now make a point to build a strong heavy sheath to protect me from the edges and points of knives. Maybe old age has made me more cautious....maybe near castrophies have wizened me....either way I just want to throw that thought out there. Rawhide inner sheaths and or metal tipped ones are becoming my favorite method of protecting my knife AND my innards

 

[Chuck Deaton]

In my opinion knives are underrated as weapons.

At Christmas one year I was shopping for a present for my brother in law and went to the fishing/hunting area of a super center. On the counter was a display of boxed bone handled fillet knives. I picked one up and when I did the end flap on the box was open, the knife slipped out, fell and hit the glass counter top. Then the slim razor sharp fillet knife bounced, punched a hole in my shirt and ended up stuck in my stomach. Fortunately I wasn't seriously hurt, I just bled like a stuck hawg, but Wal-Mart moved the knives off the counter.

Even a dull patch knife could be dangerous in a fall.

 

[Haggis]

My Patch knife is a strap mounted homemade affair with a 2" blunt pointed blade of handsaw origin, and sporting a 2" bone handle. The blade shape is similar to that of a coping blade frequently seen on whittler type knives.

 

[roundball]

Case multi-purpose pocket knife in pants pocket tethered to belt;
Schrade Golden Spike 5" sheath knife, on belt off back hip, bottom half sheath down into a rear pocket,
with knife handle tethered to belt;
They're not 'home made' or 'traditional', but they stay razor sharp, are where they're supposed to be when
I reach for them, and always get the job done.
I keep extra skinning knives in the truck, and OxYoke cuts my patches so I don't use a patch knife. ::

 

[musketman]

I too use pre cut patches, for the sole reason of my fingers don't heal the way they use too when I was 20 years old...

Sharp things and I don't mix well, I can show anyone the knapping flint scars on my hands too... ::

 

I'm seeing PC go way out of its boundries here. Just because the documentation has not surfaced does not mean it wasn't done. PC and good sense should go together. There's a difference between using a knife style that was not available and debating over where it was hung on the person.
I carry at least three knives most of the time. One on the belt or sash, one on the pouch strap and one in a nearly full coverage sheath straped to my leg by my legging tie and a leather thong.(no I don't lose them in the brush or laural thickets) I'm jurried at several of the strictest sites in the nation and they have had nothing to say about where I strap the blades. If I had been born in 1730 I'd wear them the same way, cause it just works for me.
There was a SA at one of the sites who objected to neck knives, said they were too "Indian" for the settlers to have done that. Course he was standing there in breechcloth, leggings and moccs at that moment. We hit him with documented references to neck knives in use on the Cumberland frontier and shut him up.
As far as safety goes, there isn't any such thing as a safe knife that's also usable. There is only safe use of the knife, just like safe use of our firearms. Use good sense and wear the knife where it suits you.

 

[Claude Mathis]

...PC and good sense should go together. There's a difference between using a knife style that was not available and debating over where it was hung on the person.

I agree.

If you carry a knife for a number of years and use it as a tool, not a decoration, you will find a method of carry that works for you. I would guess that this was true all through history.

I am too concerned about the style of knife I carry being period correct for my persona to really care what other people carry or where they carry it. ::

 

[Ashelocoa]

Hera are my thoughts....We have many more shooting acoutrements than were normally used then, a seperate patch knife, priming horn, and short starters just weren't in common use on the fronteir or in the late 18th early 19th century. Also, many things a person used were duel purpose, a knife was (relatively) an expensive item that didn't allow a person to have set in the kitchen ,a work knife, a hunting knife for big game, one for small, and another just to slice excess patching on the end of the barrel. While there may have been strap sheaths, it seems more likely that the all in one medium to large knife that was common amoung froniersman and farmers served most or all these duties for the man thereby necessitating it's own sheath to carry it around. Taking it out of it's usual sheath the carry it on the bag would only increase the liklyhood of losing the main sheath.

Personally I don't care where they're carried but most sketches and contemporary descriptions of folks fail to mention bag strap sheaths. I tuck mine in my sash, but to each their own!

hmmmmmm...one thing to wonder about though, were they not mentioned because they were'nt in use or just to common to mention/describe? (Many everyday things tend to go unexplained in contemporary texts)

My 2 cents....sleep close by the fire...