All About Pocket Knives

I was just about to go to bed when I refreshed the Schrade buy-it-now listings one last time for today. I am so glad I did!

It took me about half a second to pull the trigger on this customized stainless 7OT. Awesome pearl and who-knows-what-else inlays of two Vikings and nicely engraved bolsters. Looks like a mirror polished blade too.

It seems the bar has just been raised as far as which knife is my most embellished Schrade. The sellers pics aren't good but I see enough to know this one is going to blow me away when I get it. The diagonal pearl checkerboard is outstanding. I think someone gets an "A+" in the "fit" catagory.

Sellers description said nothing I couldn't see for myself but I think I know who might have done the inlays if not the bolsters. I will do some happy digging.

"This is an Old Timer Schrade+ knife with a 70T base style.
It has a very intricate inlaid pattern, featuring a viking on one side and a samurai on the other.
There are gold stylized bolsters, and a lock back design.
Closed, it measures 5". Open, it's 8.5".
New: never used carried, or sharpened.
Out of box."

Sleuthing fully complete. Memories re-kindled.

I now remember when this knife was originally sold in 2016. I drooled on my monitor at the time but couldn't afford to go after it. 2016 was far enough back that the memory had faded. Here's the original 2016 listing with great details.

"This true auction with a 99 cent start and NO RESERVE is for a 5 inch now discontinued manufacturing in the USA 70T and it is a Schrade.. The brass bolsters have been hand engraved and as you can see in the photos I down loaded here they are very intricate deep and very sharp. This is the same style that is used on American paper money and is called Ricocco. The front side has a lot of different colors and materials and all of them have a mother of pearl border around each of them.. This is a lock-back knife and although the blade has been buffed down to a mirror like shine the blade is a little slow going back into the frame of the knife might have a little sludge in it from polishing so I will shoot it with a drop of oil and work on it so that when the lucky high bidder receives it it will be the best it can be.. Now on the backside we used another viking and it is the center inlay and we did it in MOP and around it we used gold lip pearl.. The border around this Viking is Jett Onyx and there are lightning rods of pearl 3 each on the sides.. These borders have silver spacers around them... On this side we did channel inlays of MOP with Jett Onyx spacers and then lattice work of gold lip and mother of pearl.. on the center stripe that separates the two different sides we used more Jett Onyx and drilled out holes and put in red ruby man created opal for a great shine and extra pop."

You almost need sunglasses to look at the original 2016 pics. Those colors pop!

Definitely different!

WOW!

bladecollectorr wrote: ↑Sat Aug 01, 2020 5:18 am I was just about to go to bed when I refreshed the Schrade buy-it-now listings one last time for today. I am so glad I did!

It took me about half a second to pull the trigger on this customized stainless 7OT. Awesome pearl and who-knows-what-else inlays of two Vikings and nicely engraved bolsters. Looks like a mirror polished blade too.

It seems the bar has just been raised as far as which knife is my most embellished Schrade. The sellers pics aren't good but I see enough to know this one is going to blow me away when I get it. The diagonal pearl checkerboard is outstanding. I think someone gets an "A+" in the "fit" catagory.

Sellers description said nothing I couldn't see for myself but I think I know who might have done the inlays if not the bolsters. I will do some happy digging.

"This is an Old Timer Schrade+ knife with a 70T base style.
It has a very intricate inlaid pattern, featuring a viking on one side and a samurai on the other.
There are gold stylized bolsters, and a lock back design.
Closed, it measures 5". Open, it's 8.5".
New: never used carried, or sharpened.
Out of box."

01.jpg02.jpg03.jpg04.jpg05.jpg06.jpg

I normally don't like highly embellished knives, but this one is flat out gorgeous.

That's amazing! I bet it sold for way more back in 2016 - you stole that knife! Congrats

Thanks for all the kind remarks.

I'm waiting to get confirmation but I'm 99% sure the knife was done by Jimmy Ray Sabo and his team at Jimmyz Pocket Jewelry. His inlay work often has a whimsical comic-book/graphic-novel style that is quite unique.

jxr1197 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 01, 2020 3:22 pm That's amazing! I bet it sold for way more back in 2016 - you stole that knife! Congrats

You'd win that bet!

I looked at the Schrade custom shop lockbacks to see if the bolster engraving was the same. It is not.

tongueriver wrote: ↑Sat Aug 01, 2020 7:03 pm I looked at the Schrade custom shop lockbacks to see if the bolster engraving was the same. It is not.

Schrade-heads think alike so it seems Right off the bat I grabbed the 1984 ISC Sales Meeting SC507 that was sitting beside me and checked that engraving as well. I happened to have a handy example. Then I found the 2016 listing where it confirms my knife has "Ricocco" hand engraving.

I didn't want to get too far ahead of myself before I heard back from Jimmy Sabo but I really do think he did this knife. I found a good quote from him posted elsewhere. Someone else had asked if their knives were done by him and this was his reply. It speaks to who does his engraving.

"...The engraving is done by my cousin Paul and he does all of our engraving and has been doing it for almost 30 years now. I design and we have two people that do our inlays and they have been in the jewelry business for a combined 45 years.
Sincerely JimmY Ray Sabo "

I kindly heard back from Jimmy Ray Sabo. He confirmed it was his and that those are indeed opals included in the mark side checkerboard. His cousin can no longer do the engraving for him which is why he is currently not engraving the bolsters of his latest creations.

I can't help but feel that I got a great example of his work. Knife's mark side is a crash-course in semi-precious stones.

"Those I did about 4 years ago and they are vikings with opal and pearl on the front and the backside has a viking as you know and the red is man made opal and gold lip and pearl lattice work with lightning bolsts around the viking and the front side and backside the bolsters were engraved..."

Always good to see that a knife gets to its rightful owner.

tongueriver wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2020 8:01 pm Always good to see that a knife gets to its rightful owner.

I don't know if I hadany "rights" to it last week but it's 4-year slow-train to my collection does make me wonder yet again if some things are indeed "meant to be".

Earlier this week the knife finally arrived from my parcel forwarder. Today it got cleaned and polished. All I can say is WOW!

I can't believe how many small inlay pieces make up these knife handles. So many of them are very small and/or very thin. At the same time, the finished product is rock solid. I'm totally impressed with what Jimmy Sabo does to his knives.

Inlay pattern itself is built on a thin pearl liner. The opals on the mark side really sparkle. They are thin slices mounted on an equally thick blue gemstone slice. The pearl lattice strips look so thin and fragile. They are deeper than they are wide. If the metal spacer material outlining the Viking on the pile side was any thinner it would cease to exist. The engraving is very nicely done.

This knife is a total eye-catcher! I'm very happy to have it in my collection.
With an abalone '49er, a pearl 877 and a suitably embellished sheath.

Remarkable work; I am impressed!

It's a " looker " for sure. Should look great in your collection. Do the modifications add weight to the knife?

That kind of embellishment isn’t typically my thing, but this knife is quite stunning. The precision and level of detail is off the charts. Congratulations!

tongueriver wrote: ↑Sun Sep 20, 2020 10:41 pm Remarkable work; I am impressed!

Thanks!

LRV wrote: ↑Sun Sep 20, 2020 10:49 pm It's a " looker " for sure. Should look great in your collection. Do the modifications add weight to the knife?

Thanks Larry! I dug out my scale and weighed both the Sabo knife and a stock 4-pin 7OT for you. The factory delrin knife weighed 230.5 grams or 8.13 oz. The Sabo knife weighed 233.2 grams or 8.23 oz.

There is some significant blade loss on the Sabo knife from previous sharpening efforts. It removed quite a bit of steel as well.

The short answer is "Yes". The inlaid stone and pearl handles do weigh more than the original delrin.

The two knives paired to highlight the measurable amount of blade loss:

Colonel26 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 20, 2020 11:06 pm That kind of embellishment isn’t typically my thing, but this knife is quite stunning. The precision and level of detail is off the charts. Congratulations!

Thanks! I completely agree.

WOW.... that is a wonderful piece of work!
What a beauty!

Meridian_Mike wrote: ↑Mon Sep 21, 2020 11:46 am WOW.... that is a wonderful piece of work!
What a beauty!

Thanks Mike!