All About Pocket Knives

So I've never been a fan of the muskrat pattern - 2 identical blades never made much sense to me (I guess I wouldn't know a trap line if I stumbled over one). But I'm a tinkerer and I've always been a fan of the wharncliffe blade. I'm always frustrated by how difficult it is to find a Case pattern that lends itself to reshaping into a wharnie (the trapper is a perfect example - the long spey blade would be perfect to reshape into a wharncliffe, but the nail nick is way too far forward).

So, recently I was perusing eBay, irritated at the sheer number of muskrats that are always on there & I noticed the nail nicks are on opposite sides - lightbulb goes off. I enlarged a picture of the blade & it looks like there just might be enough meat to reshape into a wharncliffe. So I figured I'd take a chance & give it a shot.

Took my time on the disk sander and low and behold it worked out great - I give you the ... Wharnrat (note the 2nd picture where I roughed out the shape with a marker)

Looks like you made your own Hawbaker (well, pretty close) and saved a LOT of money in doing so - Cool! OH

I likey

I prefer Ratcliffe and I really like what you did there.

Very nice. Now I wonder how many requests you're going to get to do that on other people's knives...

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Mike

jerryd6818 wrote:I prefer Ratcliffe and I really like what you did there.

NICE - I prefer Ratcliffe too !!

Nailed it.

I like it, great job.

Thanks guys - it was a fun project

You did a good job on that one. I always liked the looks of the Hawbarker rats! Yours looks like a very useful edc.

Now that's cool!

Nicely done mod

Very nice personalized knife. Good for you.

Bob

Nice job! The knife you've made is similar to a pattern popularized by Stanley Hawbaker for sale by his trappers supply company. https://books.google.com/books?id=LL_7w ... on&f=false. Several companies have made the pattern. Hawbaker contracted with Case to make the pattern for his company, calls it the "Hawbaker Special".

Ken

I have a Robeson "in the style of" the Hawbaker Special. I'm pretty sure Case was the only company authorized by the Hawbaker family to call it a Hawbaker Special.

I like it! I may try that mod myself.

I really liked what lansky1 did with this modification, and no way would I try this on a Case or other good knife, but l found a bottom feeder uncle Henry cheap, and I hated the gut hook blade and I thought I'm gonna try to mod this thing. Now fellers it won't stand any close inspection but it was a fun rainy day conversion.

Nice personalizing mod.
Bet this won’t be your last.

BH, I like it.

Here's another Lansky1 signature Ratcliff mod that ought to be in this thread. I was never a big fan of the muskrat pattern (still aren't), but I absolutely love this customized Ratcliffe he gave me. In fact, the only muskrats in my entire collection are both Lansky1 mods.
~Q~

Being a big lover of the wharncliffe, I'd have to say that knife is excellent. By the way, I'm not a muskrat fan either. They never did anything for me.

Ken

That is an awesome mod. Not a muskrat fan usually either but I like that.

bighomer wrote:I really liked what lansky1 did with this modification, and no way would I try this on a Case or other good knife, but l found a bottom feeder uncle Henry cheap, and I hated the gut hook blade and I thought I'm gonna try to mod20180816_165151.jpg this thing. Now fellers it won't stand any close inspection but it was a fun rainy day conversion.

Nice job BH. I like the vision of how you saw that wharncliffe blade inside that skinning / zipper blade just begging to come out ... to me, that's what makes blade modding fun - figuring out how to make something cool out of something you otherwise wouldn't want.

PS - I'm with the guys above - never was a fan of the muskrat pattern either ... having 2 of the exact same blade never made any sense to me (at least for what I do with a knife), so making one blade into a wharnie makes the knife so much more versatile.

Thanks for the kind words John, when I saw this knife with gut hook I thought man I wonder if I could pull a Lansky on that thing. I actually like rats especially improved rats with the spay blades, and I like this one a lot better now.

To revive an old thread but worthily so. I had ask John, Lansky 1, if he might make one for me. We settled on a more than fair price and I bought a new Muskrat and had it mailed to him. Well in about two shakes of a dead muskrats tail (it was really quick) I am the proud, make that PROUD, owner of one of his Ratcliff's. Excellent job and the pictures don't do it justice. A big thank you John and maybe another one or two in the future.