All About Pocket Knives

Roland, I don't recall seeing any info pertaining to that, but I'll have a look. It just seems odd to me that they'd purposely make a rigging knife with a lock release present along with a spike that doesn't lock. Seems like that would open the door to world of lawsuits.

Eric

Eric, thanks for seeing what you can find out about the "Mystery of the 735".
Perhaps the rather flimsy notch, as pointed out by Capt. Rob, was breaking off, resulting in many returns. To prevent so many 735's being returned, perhaps S-W ground the spike tangs smooth, no notch, will not lock, but for simplicity kept rest of knife unchanged.
Hence there are 2 'types' of S-W 735 Stainless: notched spike tang, locks open; and a no notch spike tang, does not lock.
100% speculation on my part.
As for lawsuit regarding not locking but release lever present implying a functional lock, maybe this was not a great concern in the days of Schrade-Walden. People then were less litigious than today. This is slightly better than speculation as i was there, alive during all of Schrade-Walden days.
Somewhere in the masses of S-W notes i bet there is something that says, "hey Albert what should we do with these busted spike locks that are piling up ? " And "No i won't shove it up there !"
kj

yes it makes no sense both legally and business wise as it cost more to produce a locking spike than a non locking spike knife.To eliminate any lawsuits or bad publicity as well as correct the design flaw They could have easily and cheaply just put an unmarked bail or ring on them without changing anything and sell them as yacht knives rather than rigging knives.??????? it's a mystery and I'm curious to find out the truth. May be time to bite the bullet pay up and ask Levine if he can unravel the mystery.

I have here 3 knives all marked the same:"Schrade/Walden/N.Y. U.S.A." and "735/Stainless". Picture below shows 2 of these open. There is a picture of all 3 spike tangs: the only one that locks has a 'tab' present to engage, the other 2 don't lock and the 'tab' looks to be partially sheared off in one and totally removed in the other. This is what Capt. Rob has already reported & posted similar pictures.
The last picture shows 2 Camillus locking spikes & the one S-W that locks. You can see the 'tab' that holds the lock is beefier in the Camillus (also as reported by Capt. Rob).
As i have these knives i thought it worthwhile to post so as to support what 'The Capt.' has posted. (i.e. not just his knives having flimsy/sheared off 'tabs')
kj

Thanks Joe!