Schrade/Stainless/285UH

[gwelker62]

This knife has been discussed in other threads. A 285UH with a tang stamp Schrade/Stainless/285UH and s# 81611.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Schrade-Walden- ... Swux5YP73H

Our 'charity' seller claims it's a misstamp. A lot of us like myself dismissed it and were of the opinion it's just more of his monkey business. But I picked this one up off feebay today.

The seller wanted way too much, but after some haggling he cut is price in half. Still too much for a non mint 285UH w/o a box IMO, but decided to take it anyway to satisfy my curiosity. The serial#s are within 4k of each other with this one at 85510. Mr Charity claims his is a Walden that is misstamped. I have a Schrade/NY USA/285UH that has a serial# of 90510. So these three examples are within 10k of each other. Could this be a misstamp? Are these two examples possibly a Walden, or post 73 production? Could it be Schrade did use the Schrade over Stainless stamp for a short period?

Thoughts?

[Mustanger]

I'm thinking it is what I refer to as a "Transition" knife. Knives produced during the transition from Schrade Walden to Schrade Ny. to Schrade + and the transition to the new scale molds from the ones during the SW period. I see your knife as one that has a short lived "transition" tang stamp with the older style SW scales. It's interesting to note that yours is the only one to have the word stainless stamped on any of the blades, that I have found. The older style scales lasted into the Schrade + tang stamp before being changed. Serial numbers carried through to the Schrade + tang stamp also. I have a Schrade / Ny. USA / 285UH with serial # F20416 and a Schrade + / USA 285UH with the older scales and serial # F1384+. Since that serial # has a + in it, I think it's safe to assume that they intended to carry serial #s foward that far and it's not built with a liner left over from SW.
Just rambling......

[gwelker62]

I need to do some investigating on the scales. I have a Schrade+ and Schrade/NY USA to compare, and they are different. Just going off memory, the Waldens look like the NY USA versions.

[Mustanger]

I chose pictures of knives that have lesser amounts of dye in the scales to better show the mold pattern. A Schrade Walden, Schrade NY and two Schrade + knives. The mold was changed after the Schrade + tang stamp, whenever that was. Many scales will look different and harder to identify because of varying degrees of mold fill-out during the molding process and amount of dye. Cooler molds fill-out less than a hotter mold giving the scales different textures. When I shop for Uncle Henry knives I look for ones that have scales that have been filled out fully. Notice the long grooves in the older ones.

[JAMESC41001]

Safe to say its not a misstamp. Interesting that the secondary blade in your pic has the 285 stamp. All my SW have 285 on the reverse of the clip blade. Good luck with this one. You could spend a lifetime looking at it and only narrow it down a bit. One clue might be with the 885uh where stainless is stamped on the sheeps foot. And the 897 SW has it on all three. See a pattern here. Possibly schrade wanted to taut their high end signature product without the extra production step of another stamp and decided it looked to busy. Which it does. Pure speculation of coarse. Never seen a plus sign at the end of a serial??? Also doubt management would authorize "spare"liners with serials to be sold. It was a logistical nightmare without the added confusion. A couple people had the foresight to grab some paperwork and records as the plant closed. Probably less then 1% everything else went into dumpster after dumpster. Leaving us to our imaginations.

[Mustanger]

Opps! My mistake. Not having any magnification other than my reading glasses and using a flashlight, I mistook a smudged or ill-stamped number 5 for a +. I had to take some pictures and enhance them to tell. Only the top half of the 5 can be seen. Glad you called me on the + sign.

[JAMESC41001]

I have mistaken scratches and marks in liners like that too. I wasn't counting it out though. Every time you think you got it figured with schrade it goes another direction. Great to see all these variations.

[gwelker62]

Hoping to get this knife in today. Tracking is showing it's taking a merry go round ride with USPS distribution centers.

[gwelker62]

The mystery 285 came in today. The scales have less red tint as the other two. A Walden 885UH I have resembles this shade also. But guess it just could be faded due to age and wear. Appears somebody did make it EDC at one time. It does seem to be genuine. The most interesting thing I find though, it has jimped liners. They are worn down, but still very apparent.

[gwelker62]

Got this 285UH in today acquired from one of the AAPK sellers. Serial# 85414, and it has the Schrade+ tang stamp???

I now have a 285UH with the Schrade/Stainless/285UH stamp and serial# 85510, w/ jimped liners.

A 285UH with a Schrade/NY USA/285UH stamp, serial# 90525 no jimped liners.

That's three diff tang stamps within 10k of each other on the serial#. The first two are within 100 of each other with diff stamps. One has jimped liners and the other don't

[gwelker62]

I first suspected a reblading on this latest Schrade+ 285UH, but it is in pristine shape along with it's box and papers. Like it's been in a controlled environment since its first acquisition. I don't see any evidence of it, but I could be wrong.

[Mustanger]

That one is like the Schrade + that I posted above with a serial # and the older style scales (no jimping). Nice knife!!
Last night I pulled out a rather ugly and forgotten 285UH, that I bought a long time ago, to see if it had a serial #. It has the newer scales and Schrade + stamp. It doesn't have a serial #, which didn't surprise me. What I didn't remember about the knife was that it does have jimped liners. I generally think of jimped liners as being on older knives or special editions. Go figure! It's nothing special and is kinda ugly from the dye and not well filled out scales. Not even sure why I bought it. It's a user. It came in the '98 - '01 grey box. I don't know why it has 1991 written on it. The only reason I saved the auction picture is because I keep track of my purchases.

[gwelker62]

That one is like the Schrade + that I posted above with a serial # and the older style scales (no jimping). Nice knife!!
Last night I pulled out a rather ugly and forgotten 285UH, that I bought a long time ago, to see if it had a serial #. It has the newer scales and Schrade + stamp. It doesn't have a serial #, which didn't surprise me. What I didn't remember about the knife was that it does have jimped liners. I generally think of jimped liners as being on older knives or special editions. Go figure! It's nothing special and is kinda ugly from the dye and not well filled out scales. Not even sure why I bought it. It's a user. It came in the '98 - '01 grey box. I don't know why it has 1991 written on it. The only reason I saved the auction picture is because I keep track of my purchases.

Now that is interesting... being a later regular production having the jimping. From the tings I was told, the jimping on OTs and UHs was done for a limited time on some new models when they first came out. Then discontinue doing it after a year or two. There's a story I think Orvet told of a lil old lady that did the jimping for Schrade at her house.

That box looks right for 91 to me. Old Timers came in black n tan boxes of the same style, while UHs came in black n gray. I still have a 7OT purchased in 91, and its box is black n tan.

Since ya think it's so ugly... I'd be more than happy to take it off your hands and put it in my knife retirement home with the other retirees.