All About Pocket Knives

I just received a made in the USA Schrade Uncle Henry LB5, purchased on eBay. In the listing, seller noted 'discoloration' on the tip of the blade. As I looked it over prior to leaving feedback, I looked carefully at the 'discoloration'. I am quite surprised at what I see. It looks like plating flaking off and the difference in color is the base metal. Is that possible? Attached are photos. The two close ups are front and back sides of the tip.

It may be neither here nor there, but there seems to be something filling the stamps in the tang. When I received the knife, the nail nick was also filled with white stuff. I think it is something like plaster or spackle mud - rather fragile and easily picked out of the nick.

My question is Is this a real USA made Schrade+ Uncle Henry LB5? If so is it unusual to use plated steel for a blade? Any comments welcome.

Your knife looks fine. The tang stamping is correct for Schrade from about 1990's to closure 2004. Gunk/stuff in nail nick, liners, etc is standard with used knives.
The blades are stainless steel, not plated. Have you tried a metal polish like Flitz, etc. on the blade tip to see if it cleans up ?
kj

I will polish up the tip of the blade. I am pretty sure it will polish nicely but I still think it is not a discoloration or stain. The boundaries between shiny and dull are just too crisp. Sure looks like something flaking off. It's tough getting a real closeup photo, but here are two more tries without a flash. The lighting is causing a color shift that I tried to correct in my image editting software but it's not perfect - the actual background is pure white. And the discolored area is actually a dull grey, not the bronze color in the photo.

Will post again when I have polished one side of the blade. I'll try Simichrome first.

First photo is after vigorous hand polishing with Simichrome. Next is after the above, then buffing with 1000 grit wet or dry, then 2000, then hand buffing with leather and Flexcut gold. Next two shots is after the above, then buffing on a muslin wheel using white buffing compound. The first of the two final shots shows that the affected area did indeed buff really well. The interesting thing to me is that the grinding scratches from original manufacture are still visible every where except right in the area of the discoloration. This implies that the discolored area is not the same hardness as the rest of the blade. The second shot shows that the discolored area is still there, it is just shined up. It has not changed shape. It is hard to see this one unless you get the light just right, but I managed to catch it here.

I am convinced that this knife blade is plated. I can't imagine Schrade using plated blades and in fact I have several Uncle Henry knives from about this same era that are undoubtedly SS through and through (including one other LB5).

I guess my question becomes something like "Has anybody ever seen counterfeit Uncle Henry knives?" Seems like a hard way to make money when you could just as easily be counterfeiting far more valuable knives.

I still would like to hear opinions before I ask for a refund on the grounds of being a fake. But the discoloration is not a surface scratch or a tarnish spot or some kind of chemical etch. It is almost certainly some kind of different metal from the rest of the blade.

I don't think your blade was plated, I think the more likely scenario is that the tip was heated very high, and both lost its temper and gained some scale as well. Maybe some cowboy had a wound to cauterize a la John Wayne.

Eric

A common way of smoking hash is to heat up the tip of a knife blade and then place a piece of hash on the hot blade and inhale the smoke. I think this is more likely than cauterizing a wound.
hh, you certainly did good detective type work with the blade polishing steps that you performed n this blade.
Eric is a cutler who worked for Schrade so his assessment can be relied on 100%.
kj

Oh! I guess it shows what a sheltered life I have led that I didn't think of the possibility of hash involvement Like, wow, man.

Seriously, I agree that it doesn't make sense for it to be plated, especially with an authentic tang stamp. So I dug around and found my old 10x loupe and looked really really close. Yup. I now think you guys are righter than me and my dark suspicions.

Thanks for your input. For the record, I am leaving my usual positive feedback and keeping the knife.

As i mentioned previously this is a good LB5. With knives like the LB7, LB5 & 125OT the tip of the blade should be a sharp point, created by the sharpening of both edges going all the way to the very end. With used examples the tip is often rounded off usually due to poor sharpening technique, but some have had the tip broken off by using it to pry, and then re-tipped leaving a short blade.
Your LB5 has the original factory tip making it a "good one" in my books.
kj

Roland I think the main factor of a "good one" in any case is a full blade or blades.

I was not aware Eric had worked for schrade, I can't imagine a more enjoyable job