General discussion > Contemporary Accoutrements

Patch Knives

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Red Owl:
Are small patch knives historically correct?  I have seen a couple of hunting pouches with a sheath attached but for what looks to be a full sized knife.  Any one have any images of original patch knives- if they are PC? Thanks. :o

BrownBear:
No personal research on the PC side for small ones, but I keep reading claims that there's not much evidence for small knives in this role, at least in the Rockies.  I'm not too worried about PC, but I have learned a couple of really important lessons about patch knives in general.

They have to be sharper than sharp, and stay that way for quite a while if you do lots of shooting in a single session.   And I'm happier with them if they're long enough to make the cut in a single pass, rather than having to saw.  Longer knives seem to meet both criteria best, lasting longer than short ones, making that one pass cut more reliably at the beginning and end of a shooting session. 

I've tinkered around with lots of knives for patch cutting- home made, custom made, and commercial made.  Best luck for me is a good grade of carbon steel with a blade no shorter than about 4" and 5" is better.  Longer is superfluous to me and harder to carry, no matter where I put it. 

Another small detail worth passing on.  My favorite home made has a very pleasing (to me) handle out of highly polished slick wood.  Absolutely stinks as a patch knife if you lube at the muzzle like I do, and get lube on your hands.  With even a thin film of lube on my hands (what's left behind after I wipe my hands on my pants, for example), that grip is as slick as greased glass or wet ice.  It may be my favorite knife, but it's not a patch knife any more.

Jerry V Lape:
I have no idea what may be historically correct for a Lancaster Longrifle.  However, the one I use has about 4 1/2" of cutting edge and the whole thing was made from an antique table knife from sometime in the 1800s.  It has old ivory scales.  The blade has integral butt and bolster forged into it.  Looks good on the sheath attached to the bag and is an absolute razor.  Watch for an old German table knife in your local antique stores and reshape the blade a little to make it into a great patch knife. 

LRB:
  I don't know about 19th c., but patch knives in the 18th c., are not documented, or mentioned anywhere that I know of. From what is recorded from that time, pre-cut, and pre-lubed patches were used almost exclusively, and carried in the patch box, or stored in the shooting bag. There is a reference to the women of Boonesboro cutting patches for the men while under siege in the fort, and I seem to remember other references of the same nature. If PC is a concern, patch knives should not be used for 18th c. reenactment, nor bullet boards and short starters. There simply is no documentation for the use of any of these items by common hunters, or militia.

Red Owl:
Hey Wick- Red Owl is Dave.  There's a knife show starting this Friday in Lakeland and there's supposed to be some old knives- I am told- not sure if true.
  and....getting back to the subject- The reason I asked is because there just didn't seem to be that much of a mention on patch knives, patches, etc in historical records and it got me to thinking about a few things. ALWAYS DANGEROUS.
1. Always seemed in a combat situation- patching a ball would take too much time- I was wondering if just a bare ball was ever loaded to speed up the process, trouble is you may need a slightly larger ball.  Plain balls are shot out of pistols and seem to work okay.  So my thought was whether in hunting a patched ball was used but in an skirmish was the patch eliminated?  I think some of Mark Baker's writing speak of long hunters reloading on the run- did they really use a patch? 

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