All About Pocket Knives

When does one become a "collector" of a brand vs. just a guy with a few knives? Thanks to my good friend and fellow Texan Ray Paladin, I now have 5 Schrade knives. Ray should join the WWE. He has a unique Full Nelson hold that he put me in, but I could still reach my wallet All joking aside, Ray is easy to deal with and has some beautiful Schrade knives in his AAPK Sweetwater store.

Here is a picture of my Schrade group of 5 and a couple of individual pictures showing the blade etches and unique blade configurations. Thanks for looking.

Outstanding!!! Really like that one in the middle.
Mike.

A fine group of knives, Ralph.

Nice knives Ralph!

Hey Jerry! Does Ray have you on the payroll now?

Ralph,

Awesome group of Schrades!

Keith

Jerry, Awesome group

Larry

Beautiful knives gone to a good home. Thanks for the kind words Jerry.

Ray

Excellent group Jerry.

How 'bout a pic of the middle one with blade open.
Mike

They all look so good

Especially like that last one

Bob

Thanks to all for the compliments! I "major" in Case collecting and "minor" in Remingtons, but I also try to keep an eye out for old knives in great condition.

JerryD, I am not Ray's payroll (yet). Ray does have a couple more knives that I like so I am trying to get on his good side by saying nice things because buying his lunch didn't help me much (lol). I was also trying to promote the AAPK store in general. The AAPK strore is a great resource with many great knives and sellers. I would encourage everyone to wander around the AAPK store periodically.

Tangent alert: I'm very grateful for the friendships I've made through AAPK It is a short drive for me to get to Ray's locale and I hope to meet a few more of the folks from Texas and some non-Texans at future knife shows.

Here are some additional pictures of the "middle" knife which is a Farmer's Jack. It is an easy guess who contributed to my interest in this pattern . Check out the pointy tip on the pruning blade.

That is a very good one Jerry. I think I remember when Ray got it.You got some beauties.

Nice Schrade's Jerry. I'd say you're for sure starting a collection! It has always seemed a shame that Schrade gave up on bone and went to synthetics for handles on so much of their product line. I realize this is 20-20 hindsight, seen from a collectors viewpoint, but think of what and how many more old beauties we could be finding today.

Ken

Jerry that's one fine Farmers Jack!

Mumbleypeg wrote: It has always seemed a shame that Schrade gave up on bone and went to synthetics for handles on so much of their product line. Ken

I believe that they 'gave up' because the supply dried up. I don't know where CASE got theirs, but everyone else was scrambling for handle material. When Delrin showed up in 1960 or a little later, it was like manna from Heaven. It is mostly ugly stuff compared to bone/ebony/ivory/stag/pearl, but it lasts (more or less) forever. Along with stainless steel, it just doesn't have the character, but you can't fault either one for their efficacy as tools. When Schrade started releasing some knives for the collector market in the 1980s, I think I read that they were getting their bone from Germany. And I have also read that a lot of German knives got their bone from cattle in South America (and I believe Boker owned sources in South America (Argentina). Aaah.... ; it's all good!

Interesting thoughts on the subject. You may be right - I guess we'll never know for sure the reasons for it. Up to now I assumed they did it because Delrin makes an outstanding handle material, for all the utilitarian reasons you listed, and at the time there wasn't really a collector market large enough to drive a niche market of its own.

Anyway, it wasn't my intent to blame Scrade for anything, just lamenting, as a collector, that there aren't more Schrades with bone and stag handles. I guess in a way that makes those that exist even more desirable.

Ken