94 ot trapper

[ricky]

Can any one tell me what year they made this 94 ot trapper thank u. And if they are valuable thank u have a chance to buy it.

[knifetime]

I will have to look up the date on my Schrade tang stamp date chart on my computer "on Kindle"but I'm going to say 1980s.
As for worth,just what I have saw on eBay not a lot. $10.00 to $20.00 range. I have saw mint examples in original box go for around $45.00 .
They are great knives and I have one that I have carried and used for around "34ot" 20 years. It don't have much snap and 2 of the blades are wore down to just about the spine but it still holds a killer edge and works just fine. I grew up with a knife just like yours in my pocket just about all the time.
They fist showed up in the 1976 catalog and run threw the 2002 minus the 1999 catalog. Got that from the research article on this forum.

[Shearer]

1976 to 2002
Here is a list of knives done by Dale ( orvet ) .
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/sch ... _timer.php
Hope this helps.
Grant

[orvet]

There is no way to date an Old Timer by tang stamp.
That pattern was made between 1976 to 2002.
That knife could have been made at any time between 1976 & 2002.

[knifetime]

Hear is that chart, but as always the highly knowledgeable guy's hear on AAPK are right on with the info.

[orvet]

That chart appeared in an article about Schrade’s 100th anniversary written by B.K. Brooks. Ironically the article appeared in the July 2004 issue of Knife World Magazine. July 31, 2004 was the day Schrade closed its doors forever.

The chart was a collaboration between the author, B.K. Brooks and Mark Zalesky the editor of Knife World Magazine. I have spoken with both of them regarding this chart and it was never intended to be a exhaustive list of Schrade tang stamps, just an example of some of the stamps they used in their 100 year history.

Mark has been after me for 3 years or more to write an article on Schrade Tang stamps; but the more I study & research on Schrade tang stamps, the less I know!

So far I have cataloged 5 different 2-line Schrade Walden tang stamps, 7 different 3-line Schrade Walden tang stamps and 2 different 4-line Schrade Walden tang stamps. That is 14 different tang stamps from the Schrade Walden era: 1946-1973. Those 14 stamps used in that 29 year period are more than were listed in the Knife World article and those stamps spanned the full 100 years of Schrade history in the USA. There is one thing I am reasonably certain of and that is that I do not have examples of all the Schrade Walden tang stamps that were used!

Now, moving on to the Schrade era, 1973 to 2004; there are so many tang stamps that the few hundred Schrades I have in my collection (about 1000), and the ones I have seen here on AAPK is far too small a sample to say I have seen anywhere close to all the various tang stamps Schrade used in that time frame. So far I only have about 2 dozen stamps cataloged for that era. I suspect there are probably at least a dozen more that I have not yet cataloged, perhaps more.

The number one problem is getting examples of all the tang stamps used and then trying to figure out what pattern it was on, and when that pattern was made. Then a person might be able to make an educated guess as to when each stamp was used. However there are a number of patterns that were made from 1973 to 2004, (8OT, 34OT, 152OT, etc), and other patterns were made for the majority of those years. So the amount of data to be crunched is absolutely massive. Many of the Schrade patterns were made in the millions of knives. I have several examples that have different tang stamps on the same pattern.

To make an exhaustive list of which tang stamps Schrade used and when they used them and on which patterns would require extensive production information from the Schrade factory and from all accounts I have heard, such records were probably not even kept; and if they were kept they have almost certainly been lost since the bankruptcy and the liquidation of all assets from the factory.

I don’t think there will ever be a complete list of Schrade tang stamps after the sale of Schrade Cut Co to Albert Baer in 1946. Schrade was a company that made tools; they did not primarily make collectable knives. Their offerings to the collector market were few and far between until the latter years. They were in the business to make and sell knives for use to cut things, i.e. cutting tools. They were not in business to sell limited edition 1 of 100 or 1 0f 25 knives, they were in business to sell lots of knives and that they did. Their primary focus was not on catalogs, nor keeping detailed records for collectors. They were there to make lots of quality production knives, and that is exactly what they did.

So after years of studying Schrade knives and specifically Schrade tang stamps, I know less about them now than when I started. There are a few things I can generally tell you about most Schrade knives for example; if you hand me a 34OT with the tang stamp SCHRADE/USA 34OT, I can confidently tell you it was made after mid 1973 (because the word ‘WALDEN’ has been dropped from the tang stamp) and before August 1, 2004, because Schrade closed its doors July 31, 2004. Between those dates, the 34OT was made and there is nothing in the tang stamp that can narrow down that date that I am aware of in spite of my years of studying. It is not a Case knife with nice xxs, dots, and different shaped letters and numbers that all nicely spelled out in company literature to tell you the year(s) it was made in which colors and handle materials.

It is just a Schrade 34OT one of many millions made, with proper care and a little oil it will last the original owner his lifetime and he can pass it on to his son or grandson. (I know, I have my grandfathers). It is what it is, and if that ain’t good enough, then you will probably be happier collecting a different brand that goes to all the trouble of documenting for you when it was made and in how many variations; but of coursed the price will be substantially higher to pay for all the record keepers!

The very first thing any serious Schrade collectors learns is:
With Schrade nothing is carved in stone!
You might occasionally find something etched in Jell-O, but nothing is carved in stone!

[Shearer]

Dale is there a mistake in the list of tang stamps Schrade NY USA 8OT ( 1973 to 2004 ).I though they only used it for a few years (2 to 3 ) and than changed to Schrade 8OT USA?
( Just a simple man asking a simple question try to kill a few more of your brain cells )
Grant

[tongueriver]

Dale is there a mistake in the list of tang stamps Schrade NY USA 8OT ( 1973 to 2004 ).I though they only used it for a few years (2 to 3 ) and than changed to Schrade 8OT USA?
( Just a simple man asking a simple question try to kill a few more of your brain cells )
Grant

I believe you are correct, Grant; however it is not a mistake, just an omission, one example of what Dale just said, it was not an exhaustive inventory. Now here is another aspect to the issue: The real bugaboo about Schrade tang stamps, imho, is the proliferation of "bogus" Schrades since the bankruptcy with "Walden" tang stamps. These have been (and continue to be, in some cases) manufactured in the U.S. for Taylor first by Camillus, then Bear & Son, and now by Utica. Camillus was making them for Schrade for YEARS before the bankruptcy and was owned by the same corporate group, so I kinda call them "authentic," but not the others, and they are all over ebay now. These tang stamps look "real" to new collectors, and I was fooled at first, but they don't even look like Schrades to those who have studied the genre relatively thoroughly.

[orvet]

Dale is there a mistake in the list of tang stamps Schrade NY USA 8OT ( 1973 to 2004 ).I though they only used it for a few years (2 to 3 ) and than changed to Schrade 8OT USA?
( Just a simple man asking a simple question try to kill a few more of your brain cells )
Grant

I only have 12 brain cells left any you are going after those!


You may well be right Grant, but upon what do you base that?
I think the trend was toward simpler tang stamps as time went on, with a few exceptions, but I have no way to prove it.
But if you know something I don’t or know how to prove that, I would be ecstatic to know!

The real bugaboo about Schrade tang stamps, imho, is the proliferation of "bogus" Schrades since the bankruptcy with "Walden" tang stamps. These have been (and continue to be, in some cases) manufactured in the U.S. for Taylor first by Camillus, then Bear & Son, and now by Utica. Camillus was making them for Schrade for YEARS before the bankruptcy and was owned by the same corporate group, so I kinda call them "authentic," but not the others, and they are all over ebay now. These tang stamps look "real" to new collectors, and I was fooled at first, but they don't even look like Schrades to those who have studied the genre relatively thoroughly.

Boy Cal, you said a mouthful!
And you made an excellent point about being able to see a real Schrade by studying the real things.

To have a real intuitive feel for any brand of knives you need to have several hundred of that knife that you use on a regular basis; that will give you a feel for the knife brand. Then you need to look at and handle thousands of real Schrade knives. You can look at them on line, here on AAPK and other websites like Collectors-of-Schrade (see link below). You can handle real Schrades at knife shows, (always ask first!), and at club meetings and just looking at knives with other collectors and sharing your collections. You will need to handle thousands of knives and then you will be able to look at a knife and without seeing the stamp or name on the knife and say, “that looks like a Schrade.” Bernard Levine says something handling ten thousand knives, but I cannot recall the quote directly, but the point is that after you have handled 10,000 knives you begin to develop a inherit feel for them and can spot them on a table full of similar knives. He is absolutely correct. I can spot a Chinese Schrade on a table full of US made Schrades because the color of the Delrin is so different and even the shape of the knife is different; it just doesn't "look right." The person who has handled 2,000 Schrades sees a table full of Schrades. The person who has handled 10,000 Schrades sees a table full of Schrades with one imposter in it! Is it 100%? No, but I think it is close to 95% or better!

So if you want to be able to spot the knives that say Schrade or Schrade Walden knives, handle all of them you can, especially the old & used ones because they are probably not made in China. Handle all different patterns and all types of Schrades, and there will begin to form in you an innate sense of the style and design that Schrade used in the last 50 years that they were in business. You will be able to look at a knife with the wrong shield, handle and color and say, “that looks like a Schrade.” Then when you pick up the knife you won’t be surprised to find it was a SFO Schrade made for Sears or some other company. I guess I would call this my “Schrade sense” developed by handling, looking at and working on thousands of Schrade knives.

Back to what Grant said for a moment about the 3-line 8OT stamp: my “Schrade sense” tells me (often correctly), which knives are older, and I also think the tang stamps with serifs are older than the sans serif tang stamps. But at the moment, that is merely my working theory.

Now I need a nap to let my 3 remaining brain cells recover!



You can look at lots of Schrade pictures at Larry Vickery’s website:
http://collectors-of-schrades-r.us/

[knifetime]

Dale, I just want to thank you for all the good information. I got it copied and added to my Schrade notes.

[orvet]

Dale, I just want to thank you for all the good information. I got it copied and added to my Schrade notes.

Phil you flatter me.
Sometimes the things I write on Schrade confuse me even worse!
And then there are times I just have to put all the data away because after a while none of it makes sense anymore!

[orvet]

Stay tuned, Grant, (shearer) has come up with s good method of researching tang stamps.
I won't have much time to do it until next week, but it may tell us something.
Or it may .......................................................................................................................... just be another annoying Schrade dead end!



But y'all can help out with this if you like.
Post close up picture of all the different 8OT tang stamps you have and the approx date they were made if you know it.
Duplicated info is fine, in fact it is desired so that we can verify them against one another.

What we are trying to do fins all the different 8OT stamps and try to fit them into a time line & figure out which were made at Camillus and when and see if there is a difference in the tang stamps.
If it all works out, we may have a method to apply to other patterns. It is a long shot, but I think worth the effort.