All About Pocket Knives

This year marks the 50th anniversary the Uncle Henry knife first appeared in the schrade walden catalog.I have always thought this was the first year they were sold.Going through some of my papers for a simple post I see that like most things with schrade it's not cut and dry. Here are some pics of the original trade mark docs and an interesting invoice that was in the same folder.

Excellent information; doesn't get more exact than that. October 28th, 1965. Thank you!

My only UH, an 833.

My 82 year old father gave me his Uncle Henry LB5 yesterday.

Dad worked 43 years for the United States Forest Service.

"As he recalls" he bought this knife in the early 1980's. Not sure how accurate this is. Dad's memory isn't what it once was.

However, This knife has fought forest fires from California to North Carolina and just about every state in between! It has walked many a timberline in its life and spent many nights out on fires.

I am very proud to own it and will pass it to my son one day.

Cool story to go with your dads knife. Thanks for sharing.

Flea market find. 127UH.

Here is a picture of some of mine.
Were ALL Uncle Henry knives made with stainless steel? Some of the early ones don't have the Schrade+ stamp, but does that mean they are NOT stainless? Since that photo I added another one, a mint in box 127UH.

My memory is hazy about some of it, but I know for a fact that the first 153UH and the first 165UH knives were not stainless. I have an early 171UH fixed blade with the bird head pommel and I am reasonably sure that it is not stainless. I believe that the first UH folder was the 897UH and I am reasonably sure that it and all following UH folders were stainless.

Thanks, Cal, I should have been more specific. I meant the folders. I, too, have 152, 153, and 172 fixed blades with carbon steel and Staglon handles.

Hi, Jeff; I notice that you have come over to the dark side in the last couple years. Wait until you hold a pre-war Schrade.

black mamba wrote:Here is a picture of some of mine.

UHcollection.jpg

Were ALL Uncle Henry knives made with stainless steel? Some of the early ones don't have the Schrade+ stamp, but does that mean they are NOT stainless? Since that photo I added another one, a mint in box 127UH.

127UHopen.jpg

Very nice group of UH’s there. The 127 rounds it off nicely.

Thank you, James, I have a couple of 897s coming in next week to add, a mid 1970s NY USA and a late '60s Schrade Walden. Pics in a couple of days.

Looking forward to seeing some pics! I have an SW 897 in the original hinged box. It’s a fairly low serial #. Shoot me a PM I f your interested. They don’t come around to often and I already have one in my collection. Thanks for reviving the thread. These UH’s are great knives!

James, the one I just received today is a mid-'70s NY USA with the belt finished edges. My understanding is these were from about 1975-'78, but any help narrowing this down even further would be greatly appreciated. The serial number on this one is S16617, and the tang stamp is:
SCHRADE
N.Y. U.S.A.
STAINLESS
897UH

Wish I could be more helpful with the serial numbers. Turns out you have a 897 mark I do not. Thanks a lot. Lol now I have to shop for a knife. Funny thing is I have one of the actual tang stamps. Did your knife come with the original packaging? Sometimes it help dial in on these things. The knives pictured here are both Schrade Walden marks the one on the left is in the 21000’s the one on the right has an “A” prefix. Both have jimpping on the liners. That is a cool UH you have there. My understanding is that was only used for a short time before the SCHRADE mark without the plus sign. There were some SCHRADE knives that still carried serial numbers

James, it seems like my 897UH would be a very early tang stamp after the Walden era, and the belt finished edges started in 1974 or '75, so maybe only a 1-2 year window for that stamp.

black mamba wrote: ...the belt finished edges started in 1974 or '75...

Mine is a Schrade Walden, serial #53xxx, milled liners, hinged box, belt-finished edge. ?

It just occurred to me as well, that with the serial numbers rolling over to a new letter prefix every 99,999 knives, that an A prefix on a Walden means that between 1967 and 1973 they made over 100,000 897s. That's about 17,000 per year, so your 21xxx should be from 1968-'69.

black mamba wrote:It just occurred to me as well, that with the serial numbers rolling over to a new letter prefix every 99,999 knives, that an A prefix on a Walden means that between 1967 and 1973 they made over 100,000 897s. That's about 17,000 per year, so your 21xxx should be from 1968-'69.

But why would it have the belt finished edge?

Cal, I can't answer that. Maybe it's a different sharpened edge than the A.C.A. Edge that both Schrade and Camillus used starting in about 1974. Somewhere else, either in another thread here or on BladeForums, Eric (ea42) stated the patent started in December of 1973???

In the 1964 Schrade Walden catalog, I see the Razor Blade Stainless marketing ploy featured for the first time (on open stock knives). As far as I know, this is the exact same edge stropping that we have been talking about here on the 897UH knives.
http://www.collectors-of-schrades-r.us/ ... W-CATS.pdf

That does make sense, as Eric also said the A.C.A. Edge was used mostly on larger blades, as it was a fairly rough grit followed by polishing. I stand corrected!

black mamba wrote:That does make sense, as Eric also said the A.C.A. Edge was used mostly on larger blades, as it was a fairly rough grit followed by polishing. I stand corrected!

And that is good info to me; I did not know. I will have to dig around for a Sears ACA and have a look.

re A.C.A. Edge. Extremely rare 165 variation for Sears with hidden tang, brass pommel and elephant hide sheath.

Whoaaa, Cal, that is a fabulous knife! When did you pick that one up?