All About Pocket Knives

I joined the forum a few months ago and several people were a lot of help on a very nice Camillus Scout knife I found.

I was at an estate sale and was able to purchase several vintage pocket knives, but I am just beggining to learn about them. I searched the forum for information about this, but didn't find a specific answer.

One of the pockets knives I bought is an Schrade Old Timer. On the tang stamp it does say Walden:

Here are a few pictures:

Since it has Walden on it, that means it was made before 73? Is that right? What is the handle made of? Its not smooth there is a texture. Does that texture grip have a name?

Sorry for all the newbie questions.

Your knife has DuPont Delrin plastic covers, or handles and they are referred to as "saw-cut", as they were molded to look like saw-cut bone. These knives (the 8OT) first came out in 1959-1960, and the very first ones had real bone handles. Very quickly, they went to Delrin (not Derlin); the first Delrin factory was built in the year 1960. The Schrade company was still called Schrade Walden, but they had already moved to Ellenville in 1958. They continued to use the tang-stamp like yours until the summer of 1973. Sometime well before that time they stopped the "matchstrike" nail pull. Your knife has that matchstrike nail pull, called that because someone thought it was a good place to be able to strike a wooden match. Welcome to this forum!

tongueriver wrote:Your knife has DuPont Delrin plastic covers, or handles and they are referred to as "saw-cut", as they were molded to look like saw-cut bone. These knives (the 8OT) first came out in 1959-1960, and the very first ones had real bone handles. Very quickly, they went to Delrin (not Derlin); the first Delrin factory was built in the year 1960. The Schrade company was still called Schrade Walden, but they had already moved to Ellenville in 1958. They continued to use the tang-stamp like yours until the summer of 1973. Sometime well before that time they stopped the "matchstrike" nail pull. Your knife has that matchstrike nail pull, called that because someone thought it was a good place to be able to strike a wooden match. Welcome to this forum!

Wow! Thanks for all the great information! AND thanks for the welcome!

I found another one very similar to the Schrade Walden but its an "Old Crafty" it looks just like the Schrade OT, so I assume that Schrade made them for Sears.

Nobleprofessor wrote:I found another one very similar to the Schrade Walden but its an "Old Crafty" it looks just like the Schrade OT, so I assume that Schrade made them for Sears.

Yes they did. And also a version of the 34OT, @3 5/16 inches, also a stockman. Maybe others in the Old Crafty marque.