All About Pocket Knives

I bought a knife on the bay. It was a celluloid handle, really dirty and went for what I considered a reasonable price.
What caught my eye is that it is a Schrade Cut Co that was the pattern from which the 2OT was taken.

The seller’s pics were bad, which probably accounts for the reasonable price.
When I got the knife there was not much life in the blades, they were really sluggish.
I oiled them with some Quick Release Oil and got a little snap to them & decided to clean it up more.
I could see some straw or something in the blade pocket so I grabbed a dental pick to clean it out.
Out came a wooden matchstick. I threw the matchstick in the garbage and kept digging.
Before I was done I had pulled out $ wooden matchsticks that were lying down in the blade pockets, two for each blade!
I don’t know if it was intentional or accidental, but after I cleaned more dirt out, blew it out with compressed air
and gave it more Quick Release oil, that bad boy snaps like a bear trap! It about took my finger off.
Good thing I had not sharpened it yet.
While it is not perfect, I am not through with it yet, but I think it has cleaned up pretty well so far!

Yes, a lot of them. When a blade wears down and the kick is filed to keep the blade tip down, the nail nick sinks below the liner when the blade is closed so people put match sticks folded cardboard or whatever to raise up the nail nick up so it is easy to open

I would call this an old timers trick. Yes, done to allow easier access to the blades and their pulls. I have seen quite a few like this. Even seen it done on knives will little or no wear as well.

One of the first "collectible" knives I bought was like this. It was a Case USA 6265 SAB that was near mint. I was rather proud of my gun show purchase and had put the knife in my back pocket blade tips up. Leaving the show I couldn't wait to take another look at the knife. When I reached in my back pocket to retrieve the knife the result was a nice slit cut down into the ball of my thumb.

Yes there was a matchstick between the kick and back spring that left the tip of the skinning blade just high enough to cut me. That was an early and painful experience with this old timers trick.

Nice old Schrade Cut with marine pearl (celluloid) handles.

Great old knife.

Sorry, my fault, I should have explained myself better.

I have seen the match/cardboard trick before in old knives I have cleaned or repaired several times.
But the nail nicks of this knife have not changed position since removing the matchsticks; they are at the same level now as before I removed the matches, still very easy to access. The kick of the master does not appear to have been filed.
The pen blade is the old style that appears not to have a kick; in reality it is there, it just makes contact near the bottom of the tang. What amazed me was the volume of wood and a lot of dirt, lint, etc, that I got out of the knife.
The wood appeared to serve no function that I could deduce, except to kill the snap of the blades and make the knife harder to open. It did not change the level of the nail nicks at all.

It is almost like the guy used his knife as a container to carry used matchsticks.

The other thing I thought was really cool was the fact I got a direct ancestor to the 2OT!
I found the pattern in the E Catalog, # 2202 is the ebony spear blade version, #2203 ¾ is the bone stag, clip blade version. Though I don’t see it in celluloid, if I understand their numbering mine should be #2204 ¾ for the clip blade celluloid version.

I was pretty jazzed to get such an early ancestor to the 2OT, and even more jazzed when it cleaned up pretty well and now has excellent snap!

orvet wrote:.... that bad boy snaps like a bear trap! It about took my finger off.....

....The wood appeared to serve no function that I could deduce, except to kill the snap of the blades....

Maybe you have answered your own question....

IM

Is there a chance that the match sticks got compressed/ pulverized to the point that the kicks were nearly touching the springs again?

That's an awsome knife Dale, congrats!!
Never seen it done with both blades, but maybe someone had it set up as a Dixie Switch. Whatever the case, that is one fine knife and glad you were able to bring it back.

WB

btrwtr wrote:Is there a chance that the match sticks got compressed/ pulverized to the point that the kicks were nearly touching the springs again?

I suppose that is possible, but to the best of my recollection the stick with the fuzzy end was in the pen blade side and the fuzzy end was away from the kick.


Thanks Rob!
I was pretty excited to get it.
I had one other similar, but is was the 3 1/8” version, not the 3 ½” like the 2OT.

Dale nice knife.
I have the bone handle one and it snaps better than some of the later knives.No match sticks in mine but hard on the finger nails.
Grant

HOWS THIS ONE

Great find indeed Dale! Sometimes I'll clean a knife's joints 2 or 3 times before the snap fully returns and all the rust or whatever is dislodged. Interesting that here were 3 match sticks stuck in there. Since the kick or nail nick was not the issue for them, I wonder why they were in there to begin with. Beautiful Washington bolsters BTW!

nice save Dale those are the one I like to resurect

I agree with everyone else Dale, great old knife, and great job bringing her back!

Thanks guys.

Grant & Redtrout, those are both beauties!

What a great find, Dale!

That cleaned up nicely, good score.

That is a nice knife Dale. Great eye to spot that diamond in the rough.