Craftsman Knives

[Mumbleypeg]

Obviously that design was made for the slim and trim physique! Someone with a spare tire or muffin top hanging over the belt might have a little difficulty.

Ken

[Ripster]

For anyone who likes the 165OT or 165UH, or any other nice trailing point, this is a pretty cool knife. Craftsman Heavy Skinner from the 1970s.

CraftsmanHeavySkinnerMark.jpg
CraftsmanHeavySkinnerPile.jpg

That is a cool trailing point
Is that sheath original?
Thank you

[Papa Bones]

Added another one to the Craftsman Family. Was out and about yesterday and stopped at a couple Antique / Consignment shops. Found this one A Craftsman 9540 Barlow. Delrin handles have a little wear, and the pile side has some spots of some kind of adhesive. The blades still have the original factory grind finish and luster, but it did have some rust on the blades in places. The blades look full, with little wear or sharpening abuse. They have great snap, but the primary clip blade does have a very slight side to side wobble. I gave it the spa treatment, carbon / eraser rub on rust spots and went over the blades with some Flitz. I think it turned out well and will make a good Craftsman EDC rotation.

[Meridian_Mike]

Man... you did great on that Barlow!

That joker looks like new!

Congrats on the find!!

[New_Windsor_NY]

Added.....

FINE l@@king BARLOW Smitty.

[Papa Bones]

Man... you did great on that Barlow!

That joker looks like new!

Congrats on the find!!

Thanks Mike!

Added.....

FINE l@@king BARLOW Smitty.

Appreciate it Skip!

[Ripster]

Added another one to the Craftsman Family. Was out and about yesterday and stopped at a couple Antique / Consignment shops. Found this one A Craftsman 9540 Barlow. Delrin handles have a little wear, and the pile side has some spots of some kind of adhesive. The blades still have the original factory grind finish and luster, but it did have some rust on the blades in places. The blades look full, with little wear or sharpening abuse. They have great snap, but the primary clip blade does have a very slight side to side wobble. I gave it the spa treatment, carbon / eraser rub on rust spots and went over the blades with some Flitz. I think it turned out well and will make a good Craftsman EDC rotation.

Craftsman 9540 Barlow_a.png
Craftsman 9540 Barlow_b.png
Craftsman 9540 Barlow_c.png
Craftsman 9540 Barlow_d.png

Nice one Smitty
The spa treatment,that’s a good one .
Take care .

[Papa Bones]

Nice one Smitty
The spa treatment,that’s a good one .
Take care .

Thanks JP!

[Ripster]

Afternoon, received these 2 Craftsman yesterday. The Ulster is post WW2 believe it’s in great shape and no cracks in the bone anywhere.
The 9472 is like new ,Craftsman tang stamp, and nice bone ,it’s a snappy piece. They both fit in with my growing Craftsman knife group.
Thanks for taking a look and have a good one

[Meridian_Mike]

Oh yes!!

Nice group of Crafts MEN!

[New_Windsor_NY]

Afternoon.....

JP, they are both FANTASTIC l@@king examples of CRAFTSMAN cutlery.
I really like the background "scenery."

[doglegg]

I like them both JP. Both look to be in wonderful shape.

[Ripster]

Thanks Mike
Thanks Skip
And Thank you Floyd
There’s something about these older Craftsman that draws me to collect them !
Take care fellas

[Meridian_Mike]

I found a Craftsman Trapper #9481 that needs a good clean-up.
It looks like the blade are full..... Not a lot of rust.

[Ripster]

I found a Craftsman Trapper #9481 that needs a good clean-up.
It looks like the blade are full..... Not a lot of rust.


9481_1.jpg
9481_2.jpg
9481_3.jpg

Nicely done Mike
A little cleaning and that’ll be good to go ! Something about a Craftsman , So many of us have had a Craftsman tool of some sort in our hand . It’s just American to me .

[doglegg]

Good find Mike.

[Papa Bones]

I am going to place this one here, but not entirely sure if it is produced by Schrade as there were several companies who produced knives for Sears/Craftsman over the years. But here it is.

It is a Craftsman 3-3/8" two blade equal end Jack Knife, pattern number 9522. It has a Clip & a pen blade. The Clip blade has blade etch with the word "Craftsman" with the long tail "C" that underlines the entire word. Below this it has "Forged Steel" with the pattern number "9522" to the right. There are no tang stamps on the blades, and no shield on the handles. With this pattern number I date this knife around 1948. I will give the reasons below. According to the 1948 Sears Summer Catalog the 9522 2 blade Jack Knife has Vanadium Steel blades, brass liners, plastic imitation staged handles, and Nickel plated bolsters. The blades have good snap with no wobble. They have the original luster, with the blade etch visible, but do have age spots. The handles do have some shrinkage but are tight and no cracks.

Now for the dating. In the early 1940"s in the Sears Catalog, a 9522 Pattern Jack Knife was listed, but the blade etch at that time was "Craftsman over Sta-Sharp". Around 1947 which is the next Sears Catalog I had access to, The blade etch changed to the "Craftsman Forged Steel." In 1948 Sears also introduced another two blade equal end jack, the same dimensions as the 9522 but it was pattern 9466. The difference was that the listing for the blades was High Carbon Steel, handles were listed as simulated bone stag. No mention of plastic. In 1949 there was no pattern 9522 listed and none listed in the catalogs afterwards. So it seems the 9466 replaced the 9522. This is why I date this one around 1948.

Just for information purposes, the pattern number was re-used by Sears for Craftsman in the 1965 and 1966 Sears Catalog as the 9522 3 blade Old Timer, which was only 2-3/4 inch, was a three blade serpentine stockman style knife, a totally different knife design.

But here is mine

[kootenay joe]

I think your Forged Steel 9522 could have been made by Ulster.
kj

[Ripster]

I am going to place this one here, but not entirely sure if it is produced by Schrade as there were several companies who produced knives for Sears/Craftsman over the years.

Just for information purposes, the pattern number was re-used by Sears for Craftsman in the 1965 and 1966 Sears Catalog as the 9522 3 blade Old Timer, which was only 2-3/4 inch, was a three blade serpentine stockman style knife, a totally different knife design.

Smitty,thanks for including the info from your research. It makes it more interesting of a knife .
Roland mentioned Ulster , it does look and seem the dates would support that
Where did you find the Sears catalogs. Need to do some research on my pile of Craftsman and your info seems better than what I’ve been able find .
Thanks for posting this and the info.

[Papa Bones]

I think your Forged Steel 9522 could have been made by Ulster.
kj

Appreciate your input! I was kind of leaning towards Ulster myself.

Smitty,thanks for including the info from your research. It makes it more interesting of a knife .
Roland mentioned Ulster , it does look and seem the dates would support that
Where did you find the Sears catalogs. Need to do some research on my pile of Craftsman and your info seems better than what I’ve been able find .
Thanks for posting this and the info.

Appreciate it JP. I was kind of thinking it might be Ulster.

There is a site that has many years of Sears Catalogs with most of the pages. I will include a link below. It is a useful tool for Looking up Sears or Craftsman items. It kind of works on the eyes a little. But it usually has all pages of the Catalogs and if you can find the page with the index listings, then you can find the page number with knives or pocket knives listed. Most of the later catalogs posted, the pages listed for the site do coincide with the pages of the catalog. But some of the earlier catalogs will be a page off or so. The site lists the catalogs by year and when they came out. such as 1960 Spring Summer, or Christmas Wish Book. It also has a few Montgomery Ward Catalogs.

Here is a link to the site https://christmas.musetechnical.com/

[Ripster]

I think your Forged Steel 9522 could have been made by Ulster.
kj

Appreciate your input! I was kind of leaning towards Ulster myself.

Smitty,thanks for including the info from your research. It makes it more interesting of a knife .
Roland mentioned Ulster , it does look and seem the dates would support that
Where did you find the Sears catalogs. Need to do some research on my pile of Craftsman and your info seems better than what I’ve been able find .
Thanks for posting this and the info.

Appreciate it JP. I was kind of thinking it might be Ulster.

There is a site that has many years of Sears Catalogs with most of the pages. I will include a link below. It is a useful tool for Looking up Sears or Craftsman items. It kind of works on the eyes a little. But it usually has all pages of the Catalogs and if you can find the page with the index listings, then you can find the page number with knives or pocket knives listed. Most of the later catalogs posted, the pages listed for the site do coincide with the pages of the catalog. But some of the earlier catalogs will be a page off or so. The site lists the catalogs by year and when they came out. such as 1960 Spring Summer, or Christmas Wish Book. It also has a few Montgomery Ward Catalogs.

Here is a link to the site https://christmas.musetechnical.com/

Thanks Smitty
Will check it out .Just fished a Shrade Craftsman Cadillac knife yesterday and am having a hard time finding this one . It’s got a Caddy shield, with Caddy and Craftsman etched main , not sure of tang stamp yet , it’s in the mail .
Stay dry down there my friend

[Papa Bones]

Thanks Smitty
Will check it out .Just fished a Shrade Craftsman Cadillac knife yesterday and am having a hard time finding this one . It’s got a Caddy shield, with Caddy and Craftsman etched main , not sure of tang stamp yet , it’s in the mail .
Stay dry down there my friend

Hey JP. I've not got one in my collection, but I've seen a few at shows and seen that knife popup from time to time on auction sites. It was not produced as a Craftsman knife, but rather by Schrade to commemorate either Craftsman who built Cadillac automobiles, or the Craftsmanship of the Car. They are usually a 708B pattern number, with a shield that looks like the Cadillac Automotive emblem and were a SFO through Schrade. The only thing I have not found out yet is if it was given as an anniversary gift or safety gift to workers at one of the Cadillac plants, if it was at some time a promotional given when you test drove or bought a Cadillac, or just as a commemorative of the Cadillac Craftsman who built the cars? There was also an all metal handle pen knife with "Cadillac Craftsman" on it. I believe Jerry has one.

[Ripster]

Thanks Smitty
Will check it out .Just fished a Shrade Craftsman Cadillac knife yesterday and am having a hard time finding this one . It’s got a Caddy shield, with Caddy and Craftsman etched main , not sure of tang stamp yet , it’s in the mail .
Stay dry down there my friend

Hey JP. I've not got one in my collection, but I've seen a few at shows and seen that knife popup from time to time on auction sites. It was not produced as a Craftsman knife, but rather by Schrade to commemorate either Craftsman who built Cadillac automobiles, or the Craftsmanship of the Car. They are usually a 708B pattern number, with a shield that looks like the Cadillac Automotive emblem and were a SFO through Schrade. The only thing I have not found out yet is if it was given as an anniversary gift or safety gift to workers at one of the Cadillac plants, if it was at some time a promotional given when you test drove or bought a Cadillac, or just as a commemorative of the Cadillac Craftsman who built the cars?

Hey Thanks ,now that makes Sense!
Going to give it to a friend who has bought a couple of Resto Caddy’s from our Car shop ! He maybe able to tell us more from the Cadillac end of it . He’s the Go to here in the Valley on Anything Caddy .
When it gets here and I’ve had a chance to talk to Rick , and go thru his Caddy literature, will post anything that we find out .
Thanks for pointing this ol Soldier in the Right direction

[Papa Bones]

Hey Thanks ,now that makes Sense!
Going to give it to a friend who has bought a couple of Resto Caddy’s from our Car shop ! He maybe able to tell us more from the Cadillac end of it . He’s the Go to here in the Valley on Anything Caddy .
When it gets here and I’ve had a chance to talk to Rick , and go thru his Caddy literature, will post anything that we find out .
Thanks for pointing this ol Soldier in the Right direction

That would be great JP. I have also heard that they may have been given out to possibly dealers or Workers at certain Seminars,or technical update training. You might ask him if he has heard of Cadillac giving out knives for these reasons. This must have been done for years. I have seen them with Schrade Walden tang stamps and also with just the Schrade U.S.A. tang stamps.

[kootenay joe]

The Sears catalogs are very helpful but what you will discover is how frequently the Craftsman knives changed their pattern numbers. There were at least 4 major catalogs per year and you can often see the 'same' knife with 2 or 3 pattern numbers, each having had a minor change, maybe blade position, or blade finish different, etc.
It soon gets confusing and then on to mind boggling.
And, Expensive ! Some catalogs can sell for over $100 and 4 per year for about 100 ? years.
If anyone ever was able to get all the knife pages from all the Sears catalogs and assemble them in chronological order, that would be an incredible resource for the Craftsman collector. You would be able to date a Craftsman knife sometimes down to the exact year and month.
Then if you had catalogs from Schrade Cut Co, Schrade Walden, Schrade, Camillus and Ulster Knife Co and Ulster Knife (no "Co." = after 1941),
you could try to match patterns of same age range and see who made which Craftsman knife.
O.K., JP and Bones, you can work on this and become The Authority on Craftsman knives. There are at least 10,000 different Craftsman folding knives so it is not too narrow a focus.
Good Luck.
kj