All About Pocket Knives

As some of you may recall,the wife and I took the 5th wheel and went to Oregon and Washington state in August and September.
We stopped and visited a couple Schradeaholics along the way,namely CrowButte and Orvet.Max and Dale were very gracious hosts and I enjoyed seeing parts of their collections and talking knives.
The search for new/old stock Schrades was not very fruitful until we got to Dale's area.There,he tipped me to a couple of his honeyholes and I was able to pick up some NIB Schrades.
Before we left Salem,Dale presented me with a gift.I was sort of overwelmed by his generosity and was at a temporary loss for words.
These pictures don't do it justice.
I really like the Schrade PH series and this Dale Vincent Custom reminds me of them.
The knife was not marked but Dale had an etcher ordered and when we returned to Pennsylvania,he sent an e-mail saying he was ready to etch my knife.
Thanks again,Dale !!!
Ron

Ron.. Good to have you stop in here. You wrote me a personal email wondering if this thread was off-topic. I don't think so. Dale is a friend to many of us, a supoorter of AAPK, a collector of old Schrades and new, and what the heck, we're not so uptight around here that we can't stick a square peg in a round hole once in a while. Besides, sure looks like old-style craftsmanship to me.

Nice work, Dale!

Ron, why don't you make another post in the 'Custom Knives' forum here at AAPK so everyone gets a change to see Dale's work. Been my experience that people get better at knife making the more they have their work admired.

Thanks, and welcome home. Glad you had a good, safe trip.

Phil

Aw heck I didn't even go see him all I did was send him a few parts I had laying around of which I picked out 3 Schrade oddball pattern Sheath knife blades and mentioned I would like to see these finished. This crazy man sends me a thousand dollars ( or more of custom knives ). He won't take any money so i sent more parts. Dale probably will be ticked off with me for saying this but he is amost constantly in pain he has trouble using his hands and suffers when he does, can you imagine if he wasent afflicted. I did send more parts. Amazing especially to a mechanically challanged person such as myself. I often say that I can look at a screwdriver across the room and have it fly off and assault me. Thats me Mr Handy. Dale like we used to say on the job you are just to MUCKING FUTCH. LT

Just one more pic Dale so you do not think i have these in the attic and only bring them out for special occasions or to stick someone. LT

Outstanding !!! Great job Mr. Dale!! Dale tell us the story about these knives.
Randy

I am humbled that you all appreciated my efforts. I am glad you liked the knives.

Also I am frustrated! I just spent an hour and a half typing in a post about these knives with pictures of the process. I hit (what I thought was my spell checker) & my browser took me to ebay and I lost all I had typed in and the 9 or 10 pictures I had put on here.

I will try again tomorrow.

Dale

orvet wrote:I am humbled that you all appreciated my efforts. I am glad you liked the knives.

Also I am frustrated! I just spent an hour and a half typing in a post about these knives with pictures of the process. I hit (what I thought was my spell checker) & my browser took me to ebay and I lost all I had typed in and the 9 or 10 pictures I had put on here.

I will try again tomorrow.

Dale

I don't type or keyboard much anymore. I started using Dragon Speaking Natually Preferred, the $200.00 version. Not the $99.00 or the $1000.00, ouch. It takes a while to learn and you can teach it new words. I was really impressed when it learned my last name (Hukkanen) after 4 tries. It takes time and patience and it taught me to dictate and speak clearly. Recently I did a 17 page paper with my feet up on the desk, speaking into a microphone. I finished before lunchtime. It's not for everyone, fast typers will get bored. Those of us who hate to type and take the time to teach it new words will generally like it. It takes time to teach new words and find the few mistakes (two, to, too, 2 for instance) but in the long run it has become indespensible to me. I should start to use it here also, it is supposed to work on the web. I have even done a little HTML with it too.

lt632ret wrote:Just one more pic Dale so you do not think i have these in the attic and only bring them out for special occasions or to stick someone. LT

stick someone? I'd be afraid of gettin those bloody, I'd have to find a different knife to use. Dale does great work and is a super nice fella.

The only way to make a knife better is to get it bloodied. Got your card thanks i appreciate it I do not get many. LT

Looks like I won't get the pics on tonight. Busy day today, had computer problems. I will try and get them on tomorrow for those of you who are interested in the process I went through to make the three knives for LT.

Dale

I am interested in how they were made but could you also relate the saga of what you went through for posting the procedure. Just kidding Take your time and thankyou again. LT

lt632ret wrote:The only way to make a knife better is to get it bloodied. Got your card thanks i appreciate it I do not get many. LT

Very True.

Glad you liked the card.

Hukk,
I usually use NaturallySpeaking Professional if I am doing any great amount of typing. It's a great program. I started using DragonDictate in 1995 and then upgraded to NaturallySpeaking a couple years later. Great software.

I will attempt to add some pictures and will try to explain the pictures in the text box above each picture. Bear with me, please.

Dale

I think I will break this up into several posts. This first post will be about the blades themselves. As most of you are probably aware, Schrade did not make many fighting knife patterns except for those they made for the US government. What I found so unusual about these knives is that two of them are basically fighting knife patterns. The Bowie, being the notable exception. However, if you remember your history the Bowie was sort of an all-purpose fighting knife pattern itself.

Well I have reached the maximum number of pictures I can put in one post so I will end this post and start another one on the handles.



Dale

OK, it looks like the first post when in without any problems. In this series I will talk about making the handles.

Well there you have it. That was the process of making one of LT's knives. It was a great deal of fun and for me a real privilege to work with these three old Schrade Blanks. It is kind of like completing a piece of history.

I want to thank LT for giving me the opportunity to complete these three knives. I learned a great deal in doing so. He was very generous in his remuneration of lots and lots of blanks that I will get to someday. I had some health issues in the process of making these knives and it took me about three months to complete them. LT said, "take your time, no hurry."

Thanks again LT for allowing me to complete this one little piece of Schrade history.

Here are a few more pictures.

Dale

Fascinating to see the process Dale. Great work . Thanks.

Dale
Bravo Bravo!!!!
see ya Randy

Great work, Dale!
Nice to see the process! Thanks for the tour!!
Charlie

Hi Dale;
WOW, what a display. The how you done it was of particular interest. I never realized the steps or work involved to reach this degree of perfection. IMO the number 020s closeup in LT's post is really fantastic.
That is not to say that any of your work isn't. Thats my favorite.
Thank You,
W.B.
PS Edit; The fighting knife profile in 022s is something else, I betcha Bo is somewhere smiling over that one.

WB,
I quite agree, LT's pics are better than mine, w/o a doubt, as are the pics Ron took. I didn't take any pics of the knife I made for Ron. I was just experimenting and wasn't sure that it would come out right.

There are a number of steps I left out as I got so into the making of the knives that I forgot to take pics. Also it is a bit unsafe to operate power tools and take pics of the process at the same time. The only reason I have a pic of me buffing the handle is because my grandson was staying here for a week and took the pic.

While I was making these knives for LT this summer, 4 of my Grandsons came to spend a week at our house (a week each, not all at once ). They ranged in age from about 9 to 16. Of course I took each of them fishing at least once and they each made their first knife. They all enjoyed it. I am saving up a bunch of old folders and think I will help them rebuild an old slipjoint to add to their collection this next summer.

All four of them are starting collections of their own. I believe in starting them young!
Incidentally, the youngest is probably the most ardent collector. A year or so ago I found an old Cub Scout knife and fixed it up & gave it to him is he is in Cub Scouts. I explained to him that it is carbon steel and that he needed to oil the joints & wipe the blades with oil periodically. When he had his birthday I gave him a 34 Old Timer. His first question was, "Is it carbon steel?" I said "Yes." He asked, "Then I need to oil it like my Scout knife, right?" I was surprised that at 8 years old he had retained so much of what I told him.

Dale

That is great Dale, both the process, the finished products, and the interest your grandsons have in knives. That is just great stuff!

Incredible...I agree..Bravo, Bravo....