All About Pocket Knives

They don't seem to get much attention, but the little
2 3/4" frame for the various stockmans and pen knives is a great pattern. I have quite a few throughout all the major eras of schrade. Let's see yours.

Some old and slim pre swinden walden 808's, a 708 and an 809. The 809 has a long flexible file instead of a sheepsfoot.
A good small knife for the working person, with strong springs.

This is an 805 in wondawood with a very faint KON-KAV etch. I believe this to be an early swinden knife. The blades have the look of an older schrade, with more crisp grinds and better swedging. However it has a slightly larger frame than its older brethren. Absolutely no evidence of pins either.
The swinden suspect 805 is about an 1/8" longer than the pinned 808. The 805 handle is slightly thicker but still well rounded without a sharp shoulder like on later knives.

Here are my 'girlie' stockmans.

Peanut.

I like them Cal. Are the bottom two stocks marked stainless? I have a stainless 808, they seem to be a little tougher find. Yours looks as good as can be.


An early bird in the walden category.
This is the first schrade cut I ever laid hands on. It is a cutie. Thankfully nobody ever messed with it's nice original patina.

The black 808 and the 805 are marked stainless. These might be the only Schrades this small that I own. 2 7/8 inches, 3 inches and 3 1/8 inches are the next sizes up; I mistakenly posted a 2 7/8 inch peanut in this thread.

I have a good sampling of little stockmans and others on the frame that I'll be posting over time. They interest me looking like and being made like a big knife but they are so tiny. It must have been tedious to make them; the ones I use are tedious to sharpen.

A mistake posting the peanut perhaps, but a good mistake. Your little stocks are good ones to have.

805, 808, 809, 818, 820 & 302

Here is what I have to post along with some questions...
718RB with a faint "RAZOR BLADE STAINLESS" etch on the master clip (can't really see it in the photo)...
Question... When was view pack tube packaging introduced? I


808Y
Question... What was the material used for the yellow handles?
Mine appears to have shrunk as the brass liners show on the blade side & the spring side both front & back.


...and anyone heard of a 307? Can't find it in any catalog...

KAW wrote:...and anyone heard of a 307? Can't find it in any catalog...

I haven't seen a 307 before but a guess would be that it was made around 1957. In my pic above the jack on the bottom right is a 302. The 302 and 308 are only found in the 1957 catalog and they have 'duo-tone bonite' covers, which I think your 307 does as well. Neat little knife!

The 808Y was made from 1957 on thru the 70s. Could it be celluloid?

Nice little knives Jason and Ken. Jason the slant bolster is very nice.

From where I'm standing the handles on the 808Y look like celluloid.

I don't know when the view paks were introduced but I have seen some red wavy bone schrades come in them. Considering that I'd say we can assume the view paks came along late 50's or early 60's, unless somebody knows a more exact date.

Thanks Paul. The oblique is an 818M which isn't found in a catalog but can be seen on the 1955 and 1956 price lists. Ken's 307 got the better of my curiosity so I dug a little and found its story. It is a duo-tone bonite like the 302 and 308 and while the latter two can be found in the 1957 catalog, the 307 wasn't included but, interestingly, the three of them together can be found on the price lists for 1957, 1958 and 1959. Here's an obscure bit of Schrade lore - the bonite trio was created specifically to fill a niche of tough, small and low cost knives that would be packaged in small quantity 'starter units' to entice smaller retailers to start ordering knives. Uncle Henry wrote a memo to his sales staff in March of 1957 explaining what the new 300 line of pocket knives was and how to sell it.

*all attachments courtesy of COSRUS

1957 Price List: 1958 Price List: 1959 Price List: Uncle Henry's Bonite Memo:

Jason... Thanks for doing that research... great information there...

Adding my 2¢.

The bonite memo is very interesting; I had not seen that before. So 1957 was an important number for the bonite phenomenon.

Well done Jason. Thank you.

Jerry that little critter fits right it. I have a couple of them.

Checking to see if this knife was made by SCHRADE. Blade is etched JACK KNIFE BEN HANDY DANDY JR, no tang stamp but numbered 0302 on the back.

Jacknifeben wrote:Checking to see if this knife was made by SCHRADE. Blade is etched JACK KNIFE BEN HANDY DANDY JR, no tang stamp but numbered 0302 on the back.

I'd say schrade. From the look of the bone I would guess it's a 1950's knife, which could explain the slight differences it has from the cut co pictured in the catalog. This was not a pattern shown in schrade catalogs post war.

My small schrades

That is a great display of them, right thar!
Here is a silly itty bitty song that I couldn't help thinking of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VumaYtVeJuc

tongueriver wrote:That is a great display of them, right thar!
Here is a silly itty bitty song that I couldn't help thinking of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VumaYtVeJuc

That flat cracked me up.

I haven't heard that song in forever, 'tis quite silly.


Nice little schrades oldredbone.

Thanks.

Today I picked up this Shapleigh DES 352Y that fits right into this thread. Shown with the 808Y for comparison.

The pair of those are dandy.

Is that shapleigh an ebay find? One just like it sold a few days ago.

KnifeSlinger#81 wrote:Is that shapleigh an ebay find? One just like it sold a few days ago.

That's the knife - I won the ebay auction yesterday and it turned out the seller was 10 minutes down the road so I was able to save $5 on shipping and didn't have to wait those pesky few days for it to arrive