All About Pocket Knives

That’s a real fine knife Cal.

Finally got one of these today... altho nowhere near as nice as those shown by others on this thread... but since it is my first it will make due until something better comes along... and it was only $10 from a local antique store.

They didn't collect them; they USED them! Nice one, KAW!

Here' an update to a knife I posted back in December. It was a crusty ebay knife that was only described as 'Schrade'. I gambled $10 on it. I thought it was an ebony 2172. I scraped off some crud and found an arch stamp. I decided to have it restored and it just appeared in the mailbox today. After cleaning off 100+ years of neglect it turned out to be cocobola, so here is the after pic of my 2171:

Always great to see a good score like that! Congratulations!

WOW....
That is a real beauty!!

Nice find indeed!!

Mike

Thanks Cal & Mike.

Great save on a beautiful old Schrade .

Mike

Jason looking good

I recently added a couple more arches to the pile including an unusual electrician's knife that has and old-style screwdriver and punch but there's no knife. I've been calling it my no-blade Schrade. The second one is a nice 3-1/4" jack 2264G:

Nice additions Jason! I have a bare head harness jack that I think is like yours. That blade may have been reshaped a bit I’m guessing. Here is mine.

Sweet little harness jack JAMESC. Great bones even prettier being a bare head.

Thanks. Love the old Schrades.

JAMESC41001 wrote:Nice additions Jason! I have a bare head harness jack that I think is like yours. That blade may have been reshaped a bit I’m guessing. Here is mine.

I like that knife! On my knife the pocket blade is nearly the same shape as the screwdriver wire scraper shown in Catalog E. I don't think it's been reshaped but I could be wrong. I attributed the different shape to it being a bit older than the image in the catalog. It's blunt on both edges with a just hint of a bevel on the business end and has uniform thickness from edge to edge. The punch is tipped and has a weird abbreviation on the back that I think yours has too? It reads: PAT'D APL'D FOR

I'll add another one here that I might have posted already - sorry if this one's redundant. It's my oldest Schrade - a 3" jack with the company's original tang stamp. Not an arch but at least as old and I think a bit less common.

You may be right Jason. I like the S.C.C Mark. That’s one I do not have. Another nice old Schrade for sure. Here is a pic of my other bone handle curved stamps.

Here is a curved stamped with the screwdriver for comparison.

JAMESC41001 wrote:Here is a pic of my other bone handle curved stamps.

What a great group! Are the tangs on that 2203 also arched stamps? I've got a 2201 with the arched cap stamp but straight line tangs.

Jason, it is an arched stamp. Sorry for the bad pick. I think looking at the two yours is a screwdriver as well but that is strange to see the other punch and no blade. I believe I remember a pattern similar with three blades/tools. It’s possible someone either swapped out the blade for the punch or eliminated the blade and liner. It would be strange if it came from the factory with no blade at all.

Here is a pick of the three blade pattern.

I found the variations on it in Catalog E and I'm not sure if that's the right answer. The bone and liner are 'scalloped' for a thumbnail to pluck that punch up and I don't believe that feature would have been there on the patterns you see in the catalog. It's definitely possible at some point along the way the knife was taken apart and the punch put in and the person doing that then cut the bone and liner (*and also fitted it with a period correct punch) but given that the simplest answer is usually right I tend to believe that it's just a weird no-blade Schrade pattern that existed and disappeared before Catalog E went to print. No way to know for sure but I thank you for the detective work .

Nice knives fellas.
Love that bone on the old ones. I assume they’re from the Walden Handle or Bone Co. ?

Jason, good observation with the nail groove. They sure keep you guessing don’t they. I have noticed in the past this pattern shows up in both curved stamp and straight line versions. I always thought of them as being around the transition to the straight line stamp. Like Lyle points out the bone I believe is from the Walden Bone Handle co. It matches all the bone handle curved stamp Schrades I posted here. I’m not sure but I always assumed WW1 was when these signal Corp style electricians knives became in demand. All the dates seemed to point to a change to the straight line stamp being around the beginning of WW1 but who knows. Your SCC stamp is new to me. I have seen them on some Barlow’s I think and a couple uncle henry knives I have but did not know they were among the first as you pointed out so I still have a lot to learn. Thanks for posting the knife. Makes for good conversations here.

Here is a Schrade Cut Co. “arched” tang stamp tear drop barehead jack I just recently acquired. It is 3 & 5/8 inches with superb mechanics. Robust pull of around 9 on both blades and each is absolutely flush at closed, half and full open. It doesn’t look to have been used much and the blades appear near full with perhaps the slightest of honing. It exhibits the “hallmark” of pre war US knife makers namely a mark side crocus finished primary spear blade, pile side glazed along with both sides of the pen blades glazed. The jigged bone handles are in undamaged perfect condition.

It's a purty one!