All About Pocket Knives

Nice DE Dale, and I really like the 50OT - 2blade jacks like that are one of my favorites.

Geez you guys are showing some rare ones!

In reference to the OP's question, the Ulster line was officially discontinued in 1972. It just came to the point where they weren't selling enough (300,000 in 1971 I believe) to keep it going, and what they were selling, such as the scout knives, was actually losing money due to cost. On top of that there was just too much overlap and confusion between the Schrade Waldens and the Ulsters. Inspection of one line was different from the other, and that process was oftentimes mixed up.

Eric

Thanks for the official date Eric. I wasn’t sure when they officially stopped the line.
Typically however, they did some scout knives in 1984 & 1985. The knives were actually made by Camillus. They were, to the best of my research, the last knives made using the Ulster name.

Below are the S-cards that the Camillus factory used in the production of these knives.

here is my ulster 580t its had a rough life

orvet wrote:Thanks for the official date Eric. I wasn’t sure when they officially stopped the line.
Typically however, they did some scout knives in 1984 & 1985. The knives were actually made by Camillus. They were, to the best of my research, the last knives made using the Ulster name.

I've seen some discussion (I'm forgetting where) about the weakness of the Ulster "key something mumble" construction. I have an old Ulster BSA knife in my shop that I got when I was 8. I earned my first trip to an ER with 5 stitches in my thumb - not a bad summer for an 8 year old, but I digress!!!

In any event, that old knife is missing a bolster and is coming apart thanks to too much abuse on the screw driver blade and you can clearly see the "key hole" that the riveted pin slots into.

I think I saw this discussed relative to Buck first outsourcing some of their early stockmen knives to Ulster but then moving it to Camillus, with the issue being the difficulty in replacing the blades on the Ulsters compared to the Camillus design that put the pin all the way through the bolster. (I could have this wrong.)

All of this to ask, did the Schrade Old Timers and Uncle Henry knives share this key hole construction? Did all Ulster's use this construction technique?

I believe you are referring to the Swinden Key, patented c 1962 by Dave Swinden of Schrade. Schrade was the only company who ever used the Swinden construction of knives. If you see a knife made with the Swinden Key, you know it was made in the Schrade factory, this includes Ulsters, Bucks (a couple models for a short time), Old Timers, Uncle Henrys, and the Open Stock patterns of Schrade, if they are slipjoint patterns. There were other contract knives made with the Swinden system as well, such as some of the John Primbles.

For more info on the Swinden Key System, read the following thread:
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... it=Swinden


More Swinden info:
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... en#p114939

On the 2nd page of this thread you will see a disassembled Swinden knife.
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... en&start=0

pinnah wrote: All of this to ask, did the Schrade Old Timers and Uncle Henry knives share this key hole construction? Did all Ulster's use this construction technique?

Yes, if they were slipjoints (as opposed to lock backs like the LB series) and they were made in the Schrade factory after about 1962 or so. Some Old Timers, Uncle Henrys & Ulsters were made by Camillus and likely some by Imperial, those will not have the Swinden Key as the Camillus and Imperial factories did not have the Swinden machinery.

I havent been doing much in the knife trading lately and in a bit of a financial bind so this one is coming out and going to eBay. I wanted to make sure my old AAPK friends saw this.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Old-Timer-by-Ul ... 1642113681?

PS:Man I miss those peanuts I used to have.

Hawke