Do you consider a Congress to be a "whittler"??

bamabronco · Post by **bamabronco** » Wed May 16, 2007 6:00 am

Well, I do, if I was going to whittle, that would be my knife of choice, and I have heard them referred to as "Congress Whittlers". The reason I'm asking is because I was with some guys today (eating lunch) and, I had sold one of them a Case 6308 whittler the other day, anyway, I showed him a 10 dot small congress (user) I had on me, I told him that some considered that a "whittler", and another knife guy argued that it wasn't a whittler. I know a true whittler has split backsprings, and a Congress doesn't, but a Congress is definitely a good whittling knife, with a coping blade and all. You're thoughts????

jonet143 · Post by **jonet143** » Wed May 16, 2007 6:16 am

any knife can be used to whittle. a congress is not a whittler by definition. the man using a congress, canoe, etc. to whittle is a whittler.

longbeachbum · Post by **longbeachbum** » Wed May 16, 2007 6:25 am

A congress may not be a "whittler" but it's one of my favorite patterns for whittling. In fact I prefer it to a "whittler" for that purpose.

justold52 · Post by **justold52** » Wed May 16, 2007 6:27 am

I under stood that one... you said it right jonet143..

Can some one good with words add a riddle and a riddler to this.

jholcomb · Post by **jholcomb** » Wed May 16, 2007 1:19 pm

Case has made some "congress whittlers" in the past. They are 3 blade split backspring knives based on a 52 pattern. I found this one on collectorknives.net.

Hukk · Post by **Hukk** » Wed May 16, 2007 2:06 pm

jholcomb wrote:Case has made some "congress whittlers" in the past. They are 3 blade split backspring knives based on a 52 pattern. I found this one on collectorknives.net.

Hmmnnnn, I like that, pretty functional pattern. Thanks for sharing. I've bought Bulldog knives from that site. Mike Latham (sp?) has some nice knives and I found them to be always accurately described.

tank · Post by **tank** » Wed May 16, 2007 3:58 pm

This lil tad of info on whittling with a congress courtesy of A.G. Russell.

Len Yule and his dad are the only father/son team to win the National Wild Turkey Call Championship. While his dad dominates the collectible duck call market, Len has earned his reputation with turkey calls, where his calls fetch from $1000-$4,000 each.

Len is an avid user of Böker pocketknives, primarily because the blades are made of carbon steel. His only problem was that, because of the blade configurations, he was forced to use different knife patterns. Under Len's guidance, Boker incorporated 4 different blades into the popular Congress pattern which they are now producing for the wood carver.
This special production piece contains a 2-1/4" sheepfoot, 1-13/16" pen, 1-7/8" coping, and 2" spey blade of 1095 high carbon tool steel at 55-57 Rc.

El Lobo · Post by **El Lobo** » Wed May 16, 2007 4:02 pm

Hey tank,

Thanks for the interesting information. I learn something new here most everyday.

Bill

jonet143 · Post by **jonet143** » Wed May 16, 2007 4:06 pm

quote:Case has made some "congress whittlers" in the past. They are 3 blade split backspring knives based on a 52 pattern. I found this one on collectorknives.net.

the congress is my favorite pattern. is the main blade thicker or are spacers used? are there two backsprings or one spring split halfway to accommodate the two smaller springs?

jholcomb · Post by **jholcomb** » Wed May 16, 2007 6:47 pm

the congress is my favorite pattern. is the main blade thicker or are spacers used? are there two backsprings or one spring split halfway to accommodate the two smaller springs?

I'm not really sure... I didn't actually buy the knife

. I should have stated that more clearly

.

miked32 · Post by **miked32** » Wed May 16, 2007 7:15 pm

the main blade is quite a bit thicker and they are on the split back sprin setup

smiling-knife · Post by **smiling-knife** » Wed May 16, 2007 7:45 pm

Please forgive me for being pedantic

. A split backspring is one spring that is divided at some point to form two smaller branches like a Y. These are rare and I believe mostly limited to knives made in the 1800s. More modern whittlers have two springs. There are two main designs of two-spring whittlers. One has two springs which are generally equal and consistent width and are joined at the master end but separated at the small blade end by a wedge. The other version has two springs that are not seperated. Each spring is thicker at the small blade end and taper to thinner at the master blade end. However, the total width of the two springs supporting the master blade is greater than the width of each of the springs supporting the smaller blades. Just my 2p worth.

s-k

This relates to knives categorized as traditional whittler patterns and not all of those knives that might be suited for whittling.