All About Pocket Knives

After my little love affair with Camillus, the Old Timer name got me interested in Schrade, but not because I'm an old timer, and I'm not.
The stockman 8OT seemed one of the more popular ones and then I noticed the 881 and looked for comparisons of the two knives.
Eventually I read somewhere that the 8OT is the poor man's 881.
If this is true, is it because the 881 is an older production when knives were a little better (the older the better), or is it because the 8OT quality was not as good, to make it more affordable to a wider public?
Or is the quality of both knives exactly the same? Both prices in the same year may be an indication but AAPK's phenomenal Schrade reference guides only list the last retail price which is in 1986 for the 881 and 2004 for the 8OT.

Thanks to AAPK for those fantastic reference guides.

They are really one and the same knife, when you compare them in the same era of production. A delrin 8ot does not hold a candle to an old walden 881. A delrin 8ot and a delrin 881 are practically identical, an early bone walden 8ot and a bone walden 881 are also practically identical.

The 881 was once called pattern 8813 in the cut co days which ranged from 1904-1946, this was before the old timer and uncle henry line, the days of peachseed bone, mother of pearl, hardwood, colorful celluloid, and more rarely stag. These were the knives that were truly excellent, the finest of all schrades.

The 8ot first came out in 1960 or 61, or thereabouts. By then the 8813 was called the 881 with the change from schrade cut co to schrade walden in 1946, along with many other pattern number changes and discontinued patterns. Peachseed bone was still being used on the 881 at that time along with other patterns, but the days of bone handles were coming to an end. The 8ot was made with bone handles for a very short time, and those ones were quite a premium knife. The bone was sawcut and they had a match strike pull on the main blade, some (maybe all?) had a very nice hinged redwood gift box, so it may be safe to assume it was considered more premium than an 881, though they were functionally and dimensionally the same. I think they also had the same crocus finish on the main blade.

After schrade started using delrin for the handles and the swinden method to assemble the knives, they were very different from the previous pin through knives of the same pattern, many patterns were also dropped. Thicker blades behind the edge (but more thin tangs and spines), thicker bolsters and handles are the most evident changes. Still the 8ot and 881 remained practically identical to each other with these manufacturing changes. The 881 was discontinued somewhere in the mid 80's I think, I guess they thought making multiple versions of the same knife was redundant. The 8ot was made until the closing of schrade.

Very well said, Paul, and very complete. One addition: Right toward the last the 8OT sported stainless blades for a very brief time. Also, they brought back the 881 for maybe one season with stainless blades. I am much more attracted to both versions pre-Delrin. And not just for the handles.

Many thanks. I can't think of anything you haven't covered about my favorite Schrade model/models

Paul that was a very complete and succinct coverage of the two knives. I have saved that post in my bookmarks. Thanks for that bit of history!

Thanks I hunt for a 881.

Thank you for the comments Cal and Greg. I was not aware at the very last the 8ot had stainless blades, was this a standard sawcut delrin 8ot?

KnifeSlinger#81 wrote:Thank you for the comments Cal and Greg. I was not aware at the very last the 8ot had stainless blades, was this a standard sawcut delrin 8ot?

There are some other folk here like Orvet and Chase and a guy or two in Australia that could chime in here; I believe I heard that towards the last there was no non-stainless steel on the Schrade property. But some of the blades were sent out lacking the tell-tale plus sign for stainless. I also would like to know more about this.

Thanks

Here is a pic of the last of the 881s offered by Schrade. It is stainless. I can't see whether the clip blade has the tell-tale plus sign or not. I got this pic off the bay today. The seller wants $250. I feel he has the decimal point in the wrong place.

tongueriver wrote:Here is a pic of the last of the 881s offered by Schrade. It is stainless. I can't see whether the clip blade has the tell-tale plus sign or not. I got this pic off the bay today. The seller wants $250. I feel he has the decimal point in the wrong place.
881 Founders.jpg

One of the Schrade 881 I have has the Schrade +.
I also have a 8OT Old Timer with a Schrade+USA blade.

Grant

tongueriver wrote:Here is a pic of the last of the 881s offered by Schrade. It is stainless. I can't see whether the clip blade has the tell-tale plus sign or not. I got this pic off the bay today. The seller wants $250. I feel he has the decimal point in the wrong place.
881 Founders.jpg

I have seen a handful of + 881's, not too common. That's a nice one, but I agree, wrong price. Were they made in the 80's when the pattern was discontinued, or brought back to life as stainless in the last years?

tongueriver wrote:

KnifeSlinger#81 wrote:Thank you for the comments Cal and Greg. I was not aware at the very last the 8ot had stainless blades, was this a standard sawcut delrin 8ot?

There are some other folk here like Orvet and Chase and a guy or two in Australia that could chime in here; I believe I heard that towards the last there was no non-stainless steel on the Schrade property. But some of the blades were sent out lacking the tell-tale plus sign for stainless. I also would like to know more about this.

There is a post from Orvet somewhere on the forum that explained the missing "+" stamp on some stainless blades, and the year(s) this happened.
I know I copied the post but it's not in the folder it is supposed to be in????
The forum search might find it for you.

Some of the "+" blades in Old Timers or the 881 are seen in End of Days "EOD", knives when whatever parts would fit were used to make finished knives. These knives did not have to be a 'correct' Schrade pattern.
kj