All About Pocket Knives

I was surprised to open up the mail box this afternoon and find a small package from my sister. Inside, was a short letter along with this old Schrade knife. This knife belonged to my brother Brian, who died 12 years ago...she has held on to it since then, and recently came across it again and thought that it would find a better home with me, so she dropped it in the mail and passed it along to me for safe keeping. I miss my bro a ton, and this knife has just shot up to the top of my list of most treasured knives....Brian was only 41 when he died in 2000...and since this is a Schrade CUT CO, and the tang stamps date it from 1917--1946, I am guessing that he perhaps received it from our Grandpa, or another older relative...it's original orgins will forever remain a mystery, but knowing that it was my brother's makes it a very special knife to say the least.
Obviously the blades are very well worn, but there is no wobble, and both still have strong half stops. It's a shame that the back handle is cracked and missing a large segment....Do you think it would be worthwhile or possible to have it repaired?
Also, can any of the Schrade experts here share any more info about the knife? Perhaps a model number, or a link to a catalog that has it listed? Any idea of a possible year of manufacture? Any info anyone could post about the knife I would very much appreciate it.
Thanks much, Mike

On this web page you will see the catalogs. The pre-1947 catalogs are here for you to read. You should be able to identify your pattern by reading these. http://www.collectors-of-schrades-r.us/ ... /index.htm

Thanks for the link!..I scrolled through all of those catalogs and supplements already though, and was not able to locate that exact knife. For one thing, this knife only has three pins in the handle, and similar ones in the catalogs had four pins...also the shield was different on some of the others that were close...and others that were close were ruled out due this knife having a long nail pull, and many of those having a short nail nick.....also there were differences in the bolster....so I got close, but was unable to find the exact one....yet..

313 Mike wrote:Thanks for the link!..I scrolled through all of those catalogs and supplements already though, and was not able to locate that exact knife. For one thing, this knife only has three pins in the handle, and similar ones in the catalogs had four pins...also the shield was different on some of the others that were close...and others that were close were ruled out due this knife having a long nail pull, and many of those having a short nail nick.....also there were differences in the bolster....so I got close, but was unable to find the exact one....yet..

Cal may know better about this, as he has more Schrade Cut Co.s than I do; but I think things like the number of pins, shape of the shield and the nail nicks can change over time. Materials change, what is available in materials changes and even the tooling can wear out and new tooling is not always identical. Even production techniques can be responsible for changes to a knife.

You will find differences in the catalogs within a given model.
In my Open Stock list you will find many knives listed as having bone stag handles, but in the last 30 years of the production they were made with Delrin handles. I used the oldest available data to describe the knives, because the catalogs from the 1940s & 1950s had good descriptions of the knives in them. When possible I used those descriptions as the newer catalogs only had pictures of the knives, some didn’t even have the handle material listed.

When you look at the Schrade Cut Co catalog E & Supplements you see how that knife was made that year. You don’t see how it was made 10 years later (or if it was discontinued), unless it appears in a later catalog. Schrade did some strange things with their knives, including changing the size of at least one pattern I know of; The 175 grafting knife was a Schrade Cut Co pattern carried over into Schrade Walden. It was 3-3/8” in length from 1946 until 1964 when the knife was lengthened to 3-3/4”. Why that change after all those years? I have no idea, but that is one more radical example of their changes in knife patterns.

Thanks for taking the time to reply Dale, as I've heard you and others say before, it seems like Schrade really focused their efforts on making the highest quality tool they could for the working man, rather than worrying about how easy it would be for future "collectors" to put exact dates of manufacture on their knives at some later date....I understand that and certainly appreciate that point of view! Regardless of date of manufacture, I am sure grateful these knives were made with such care and attention to detail that they are still around to be appreciated by us 50, 60 or 70 years later!
Mike

You are absolutely correct Mike, Schrade made working knives; good quality at a reasonable price.
They didn't worry about collectors. The hobby of knife collecting really only became popular in the 1960s.
Prior to then most knives were made with the user in mind, not the collector.