All About Pocket Knives

In cleaning up my cousin's estate I came across a Daniel Boone Commemorative Limited Edition knife, in the case, with the medal, etc. The interesting thing is that the blade has the signature "W.F. Cody Buffalo Bill".
The rest of the knife is the Daniel Boone with the correct figure of D.B. on the handle.
What the heck is this? Could it be a mistake made at the factory?

It is hard to tell without seeing the knife.
Can you post a pic or two?

http://cgi.ebay.com/SCHRADE-WALDEN-USA- ... 4aa7fb51d9

http://cgi.ebay.com/DANIEL-BOONE-COMMEM ... 27b802aef1

I found the two above,maybe they put the knife,in the wrong case ??? or like you said,put the wrong blade,on the knife at the factory???

Please post a picture,and keep us up-dated

Possibly you have a "Franken-knife." And if so, consider yourself very lucky.

I bought an early Strider AR. At that time the knife was advertised as being made of S30V with a black pocket clip. Mine was stamped 'BG-42' and came with a stainless clip.

In doing research I found that Mick had an order from TAD to make 100 ARs. He had 95 of them done, and used other parts to finish the order. The blade was in fact S30V, but erroneously stamped BG-42 by a new employee. There were only five of these, making them an instant collectible.

It's not just knives. Smith & Wesson has sent out blue revolvers with nickel-plated cylinders. A few years back they produced an alloy frame J-frame with a stainless cylinder called a 642. They were not satisfied with the color match on many of these revolvers, and placed them in a vault.

The public didn't seem to care, so S&W overstruck the "6" with "0" and re-issued those revolvers as a "042." And that firearm became an instant collectible, as well.

It happens with postage stamps, which become very valuable.

My suggestion is to do a little research. You might be pleasantly surprised on what you now own.

Since Schrade knives have been all made with the Swinden Key system, since about 1962 or '63 it is very unlikely that they would (or could) switch a blade by mistake, or even intentionally It could be done, but it would take deliberate effort to do so. All the blades, the center liner and the spring for the master blade are all held together in a single assembly.

Without pictures it is very hard to tell what he has.
It may be that the wrong handles were put on a set of blades (if both are built on the same frame) but I find it pretty unlikely that a single blade would be substituted.

orvet wrote:but I find it pretty unlikely that a single blade would be substituted.

I don't know how a nickel-plated cylinder gets installed on a blue revolver, but it happens, as well. So often, in fact, then many guys collect them.

Here's a factory produced revolver as an example:

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewIt ... =197592534

I'm thinking that the most likely scenario is that the knife is one of the thousands that were put together with whatever parts were available when Schrade went belly up. Could have been done pre-auction, or by whoever bought all the inventory afterwards.

ea42 wrote:I'm thinking that the most likely scenario is that the knife is one of the thousands that were put together with whatever parts were available when Schrade went belly up. Could have been done pre-auction, or by whoever bought all the inventory afterwards.

You are quite right Eric!

haatsie, is it possible to that you can get a picture(s) of this knife and post it here, or send it to me and I will post it for you.
Without seeing pictures of the knife we are all shooting in the dark here.

My email is [email protected]

Thanks,
Dale

Have one to add. Have a 833UH w/ a clip blade tang stamped 834UH. The plus on this knife looks more like a clover leaf than a +(if that helps in dating it). I know the knives were built on the same frame. The 833UH was disc. in 95 (so this would exclude it being thrown together at the end of Schrades run 2004, with the 834 being made up until the end). According to what i've read about the Swinden machine the blades could not have been switched. So any ideas on how this would have happened? Maybe they made a 833UH when the factory was closeing with left over parts and the blade just happened to have a 834UH tang stamp? Is this a real FRANKIN-knife?

ambrose wrote:I know the knives were built on the same frame. The 833UH was disc. in 95 (so this would exclude it being thrown together at the end of Schrades run 2004, with the 834 being made up until the end). According to what i've read about the Swinden machine the blades could not have been switched.

You wouldn't be able to switch out the blade at the last minute in the assembly process.
I have often heard someone say, "Well, they just stuck the wrong blade in when they put it together, or maybe they picked up a blade off the floor and stuck it in by mistake."
That wouldn't happen at the the final assembly of a Swinden Knife. BUT If they were trying to get merchandise out the door to pay back the bank, as Schrade was, they may have taken blades with different tang stamps that were the correct size and put them in the machine that assembled the inner assembly and put them in the 3-5/16" frame.

I imagine that is precisely what happened.
Schrade was scrambling to get the money to pay the bank before they called in the loans.
I believe LT once said that Schrade had enough merchandise shipped and ready to ship that if the bank would have waited until the accounts paid Schrade, ISC would have been able to pay their debts and have money left to reorder more materials and could have easily stayed in business.

They rushed a bunch of stuff through production to get the money to stay in operation, hence all the strange End-of-Days knives. The bank got impatient (or greedy?) and demanded it NOW! They wouldn't wait for the money to come in.

So your saying this is an 833UH patn that was made at the end and a 834UH blade was thrown in. I forgot to mention, I have the original silver box for the knife. Would they have had those boxes left over from the 90's? Also do you know about that cloverleaf instead of the plus sign? Could this be a stamp that was just badly worn out?

The first thing I learned about Schrade collecting is "there are no absolutes," & "nothing is carved in stone."
I was offering possibilities as to what may have transpired that would explain your knife.

I can't offer much more on your knife until I you post some pictures.
I am not sure what you mean by "silver box", Schrade did use a black & gray Uncle Henry until 2001 or so. it is possible that they were still using them until the end or may have still had unshipped merchandise in those boxes. I know I have bought knives in much older boxes off store shelves since Schrade closed.

I don't have a clue about the tang stamp until I can at least see a good close up picture of the tang.

Hey Dale, guess I should have said gray box, but here is the paper work that came with it also. Still not the best at closeups. Have a Samsung TL105 12 mp and 4X zoom(any suggestions on closeups would be much appreciated also). The tang stamp is pretty straight foward. SCHRADE +(looks more like a clover leaf) Then next line is. U.S.A. 834UH.

Probably like you said, put together at the end. If they had extra gray 833UH boxes, ran out of sheepfoot blades(to make a 834UH), and the "clover leaf + sign" could be the stamping machine was just really wore out. Have you noticed if other "end of day's" knives had a + sign that looked more like a clover leaf? Thanks for your input!

The stamped + looks right to me from the picture you posted.
Their stamps could be less than optimal and many were small enough that people always have problems reading them. I have lost track of the number of emails I have received asking about 88OT, 84OT or 39OT knives. (It should read 33OT, 34OT & 89OT).

BTW, about left over boxes, 2 or 3 years was not a long time for them to keep the old stock of boxes.
At the bankruptcy auction Taylor Brands managed to get a bunch of plastic tubes used in the Schrade Walden days and for a while after the name change in 1973. There must have been thousands because they have been causing confusion to new Schrade collectors every since Taylor started using them for knives ha had made by Camillus, circa '05 or '06. Apparently they were setting around the factory since the 1970s.

As far as your camera goes.........you are on your own!
I have enough with mine!