Craftsman knives; who made them, and how to tell them apart

[Robbie K]

have opened a hornets nest with this enquiry. I have just come across 4 Craftsman knives ; An electricians knife #95208, a 3 blade stockman #9546, &
2 "peanut" type, #9507.: The 9546 seems to be the same as a 34 OT, and has a name plate "Old Crafty", which suggest to me that it is Schrade.. One of the Peanut knives has very fine jigging, and is an easy opener with a Craftsman long oval shield inlaid. I tend to lean towards Camillus. The main blade is a clip, long pull, with swedge. The electricians knife is just that, with delrin sides, which have a timber grain look. Is there any information available as to identifying the firms which made the Craftsman knives, and some way of deciphering their tang stamps. I only bought them as company for my only other Craftsman, a Schrade Walden 2OT, which was easily>I.D.
Any Information, would be gratefully received, and faithfully applied. Thanks in anticipation RobbieK

[btrwtr]

Sounds interesting, would like to see pictures of the trio. That would certainly help identify and we love to look at knife pictures.

[Dinadan]

Any Information, would be gratefully received, and faithfully applied. Thanks in anticipation RobbieK

I agree with Wayne: we need photos. You still may not get any helpful info, but the rest of us can enjoy looking at the pictures! If you care to use the AAPK site search engine, there are some posts on this topic. Here is a link to one.
https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kn ... 46#p575805

[rea1eye]

Most of my Craftsman, Sears , OldCrafty knives were made by Schrade.
95202. Wood 1986
95201 Delrin. 1985
95222. Delrin. 2005?
95234. Wood. 1980?
95072. Delrin 1979. The 5 mentioned were Camillus I believe

Bob

p.s.

There is a forum here also “It’s Sears Craftsman Thursday” which may answer some of your
questions. Quite often there are pictures.

[Mumbleypeg]

Sears contracted with numerous cutleries, among them Napanoch, Camillus, Ulster, Schrade, Utica, and possibly others. As others have said, pictures will help identify who made them. There is a LOT of information and pictures of Craftsman knives here, accessible using the keyword search. I found 203 pages of posts! https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kn ... mit=Search

Ken

[Lars0729]

Hey Robbie - I am hip to your conundrum. I collect 5-inch lockback folding hunters, and I have quite a few from Sears and Craftsman (yes - there is a difference). I have found lots of forum talk about who made certain models for Sears or Craftsman, but few if any that I can recall ever stated their source of information. Without verifiable source info - it's just hearsay, even if well intended. More than once Google AI searches have provided information that "pointed me" in a different research direction than I was expecting, but has yet to be a reliable source of facts. I have found that much of AI source is just other hearsay found on the web (Ebay, Etsy, other forums, Redit, etc.).

One such AI result, however, led me to discover this site which has a great collection of Sears and Craftsman catalogs.
http://www.vintagemachinery.org/mfgInde ... e+Catalogs

The catalogs themselves didn't answer the question as to which company actually made the knife - but they did confirm model years, Sears verses Craftsman, and other info that may be helpful to you. It's a lot of looking, but I found value in them for what I was looking for. It will also take some detective work. One example is when comparing a knife model from one year to the next - one can see the obvious change in who manufactured it. In my case, it was when a model went from Camillus to being contracted out from China. Easy to spot. Or more specifically - Sears model 95752. A dead ringer for the Ka-Bar model 1189. But it's not not...it's from a China OEM.

These catalogs may not answer your initial question, but it just might fill in some other blanks or lead you to some Ah-Ha! moments.

I hope it helps. If nothing else - you're not alone and not the only one asking these questions!