Albert Baer and (Uncle) Henry Baer were always adamant that Schrade made tools not weapons. Tool making was the purpose of their company, of course during World War II when the United States was in an all out fight for our very existence they did make a number of military knives. However, their philosophy became so ingrained in the American Imperial Schrade Corporation, that they declined to manufacture the 162OT. The 162OT was a double-edged dagger and the primary application of such a knife is as a weapon not a tool.
Even after the death of the Baer brothers this philosophy was so strong in Imperial Schrade Corporation that they declined to make the 162OT despite the fact they had initial orders for 100,000 units just from the prototypes of the 162OT. This one pattern alone would probably have put ISC back in the black. Instead they went bankrupt shortly thereafter.
Captain O wrote:The entire idea behind this knife would be one that is expendable or "disposable" in nature. (If you left it in someone's ribs and it wound up in a police evidence locker, it wouldn't be a "heartbreaking" loss).
Thanks to all for your responses.
Statements presenting knives in a dangerous, illegal fashion are not helpful to the hobby of knife collecting even when said in jest.
It is analogous to someone in a handgun forum talking about buying a throw away gun to avoid prosecution after shooting someone.
As members of AAPK we represent over 12,000 members of the knife collecting/knife using community. When people hear one of our members talking like this it’s pretty easy for them to assume that that is the attitude of all “knife people.” We enjoy a great deal of freedom in America as regards the hobby of knife collecting. We need to be aware that we are living in a day and age that is very politically charged and statements we make can be taken out of context and twisted and used against us and other members of the knife collecting community.
Speak to some of our members who live in Australia and have difficulty getting their knife purchases through customs because of their stringent laws. Speak to one of our members who live in the UK and see how restrictive their knife laws are. They have even had buyback programs in the UK for knives, similar to the gun buyback programs in some cities here in the US.
I am not trying to pick on you for your post, though I do think it was in poor taste; I want all AAPK members to be aware of the fact that we really should watch what we say in an open forum. In today’s politically charged climate anything you say, tweet, blog, post or express in any other form can be removed from context and twisted to be used against you or in this case AAPK or knife collectors in general.
Something for us all think about…
