All About Pocket Knives

I just received this 293 from AAPK store Ozzie Marie and am totally pleased with the knife and service

I would like to know if the handles are delrin or bone.

Mr. Orvets chart shows bone. Some threads I have seen show the 293 being in the brown delrin era.

Any of you Schrade guys know?

Pix from Ozzie Marie

Anytime someone begins a project as vast as documenting the production history of 100 years of Schrade knives there will be details left out.

When I began the spreadsheets of the Schrade patterns I took the knife description from the earliest source available, usually a catalog or a price list published by Schrade-Walden or Schrade (if it was after 1973). The description for this knife was taken from the 1953 Schrade-Walden catalog.

Due to the lack of room and the fact that if you try to include too much information a spreadsheet becomes quite unwieldy, I use the earliest description of the knife available to me. I realize that there are times when the Schrade changed their production methods, materials and even the design of a pattern, however I have yet to figure a way to include all of this information in a tool as simple as a spreadsheet.

In the 1960s & 1970s most knife companies had moved away from bone handles and began experimenting with plastic handles. It seems the most stable and serviceable of these plastics was DuPont Delrin.

Since your knife has the Schrade tang stamp it was made in 1973 or later. If the plastic sleeve is original to your knife, my best estimate would be your knife was made in the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, long after Schrade had switched to Delrin handles on their standard production knives.

I hope this helps to it alleviates some of the confusion caused by trying to simplify the last 58 years of the Schrade Open Stock production onto a simple spreadsheet.

Thanks for asking. I'm sure several others have had the same question.

Dale

Dale, thank you for the detailed answer.

Schrade did a good job with the delrin.

oldways wrote:Dale, thank you for the detailed answer.

Schrade did a good job with the delrin.

Yes they did.
I like their jigged Delrin a lot better than the "saw-cut" Delrin used on the Old Timers.
It is much better looking, IMHO.

Dale

Looking at that 293 trapper, placing the pattern stamp on the back, and using N.Y. in the front, would indicate a 1st generation version after 1973 when they stopped using the Walden designation. Not all patterns had this combination of stamping details once "WALDEN" was dropped, but when they did, it makes dating at least a bit more apparent. That 293 sure looks like a MINT example, both the knife and the View Pak tube container.

Hal,
I think you are right about it being one of the early post-Walden stamps.
Do you know when Schrade started using the View Pak tubes?
I know I have at least one Schrade Walden, an 825RB that came in the View Pak tube.

Dale

orvet wrote:Hal,
I think you are right about it being one of the early post-Walden stamps.
Do you know when Schrade started using the View Pak tubes?
I know I have at least one Schrade Walden, an 825RB that came in the View Pak tube.

Dale

I do not know the year. I have thought they came out in the early to mid 1960's. Basing that on seeing 8OT, 34OT, and 108OT in tubes, ans assuming those were after the hinged boxes. I have an early 825SS with threaded bolsters, and it came out 64-65. I have never seen a bone handled Schrade in a tube either.

Also noticed the OP's tube is a Walden. I've received 861 with the NY USA stamp with Schrade Walden tubes, and have even seen an 861 with no Walden in the stamp, but Schrade Walden engraved on the shield. The transition period when they dropped the Walden from the name is an interesting aid to date knives.