All About Pocket Knives

i picked up an LB7 this weekend. My plan is to rebuild it and give it to a friends son. I have never seen one with a serial type number on the bolster. then i pop it apart and it has N.Y. stamped on the tang. I thought this was so cool cuz those are my initials. What is the significance of the stamp? what does the serial number tell? are the pins SS and brass? had a heck of a time getting this thing apart. broke 4 razor blades in the process.

I don’t know about the NY stamp, other than the obvious, New York. I don’t know why it is on some and not others. It may have been a way of telling blades made by Camillus for Schrade from those made in-house at Schrade. I don’t know which factory would use the NY mark, if that were the case. Camillus made a lot of parts for Schrade, and even a lot of complete knives when Schrade was busy.

You are right about the pins: brass and stainless. I generally drill the pivot pin on the LB7. That is a lot to expect of a razor blade to cut such a big stainless pin!

The purpose if the serial number was for the Uncle Henry one year guarantee against loss. The knife was registered when it was purchased; this served as proof of purchase so someone couldn’t just send a letter saying they lost a knife, please send me a new one without ever purchasing a knife.
So far as I know, the serial numbers had no significance as to knife itself, other than the lower the number, the earlier the knife was made. I think the numbers were discontinued in the late 1980s, but I am not sure on that. Maybe someone else knows for sure.

Do you drill the holes out bigger. Seems like the hole is an "in-between" size. Seems like all the blades i pull aboart have an odd size.

wildcat wrote:Do you drill the holes out bigger. Seems like the hole is an "in-between" size. Seems like all the blades i pull aboart have an odd size.

They used 2 different sized pivot hole on that series of 5" lockbacks.
The larger hole was drilled so they could put a bushing between the pin and the blade.
Which hole size do you have? It appears to be the smaller size, but what is the diameter of the hole.

It appears to be just a hair over 1/8"

In that case you can probably just use some 1/8" stainless rod to pin it. You want pin a few thousands smaller than the hole for compression swelling in the pin when you peen it as well as clearance for it to pivot freely.

In reality you can probably use brass or nickel silver, as there shouldn’t be much side play in that solid knife with such large solid bolsters. Just be sure there are no burrs in the pivot hole of the blade and it should be fine. Brass & nickel silver are much easier to peen than stainless.

Thanks for the info. I am gonna use brass for the pins. Now, i think i might make this a bearhead

Are the bolsters and side frame made in one piece? It kinda looks like it the way it is shown in your pic. If so, you would have to machine off the aft bolster to make a "bare head". If it is just kept on by the rivets and epoxy then no problem taking it off. As a "bare head" you would have to really use strong scales and rivets because of the pressure of the spring wanting to move the rivets when pressing down on the lockbar to close the blade.

The liners and bolsters are all one piece on the LB7, LB8, 7OT & 6OT.
You can grind the rear bolster off. Not problem, better yet just get a 6OT.
The 6OT is a bare head. They don’t use rivets on the bare end at all, it is held together by the lanyard tube that is pressed in and flared over a little on the ends.
IMHO, the two rivets that hold the LB7 together are a lot stronger than the lanyard tube of the 6OT.