Who made this one?

[tongueriver]

I know this one was made by Imperial, or Schrade, or Camillus, but which one, and when? It is a Sears contract.

[btrwtr]

Handle material says Schrade to me. Nice looking knife.

[kootenay joe]

Calvin, do you know how old it is ?
I do not recognize the blade profile as a Schrade USA knife. What is length of blade ?
kj

[KnifeSlinger#81]

Handle material says Schrade to me. Nice looking knife.

Schrade and camillus both used stag delrin that looked very similar. Can't say I know which one this is.

[tongueriver]

The blade is 4.75 inches long. As far as I know it has no first cousins, a real stand-alone. I think it is possible that the blade is Imperial and the molded Delrin maybe done at either Schrade or Camillus. I am thinking late 1960s or early 1970s but pure speculation on my part, a real mystery. I like it.

[KnifeSlinger#81]

Any idea if it's stainless or carbon?

[kootenay joe]

The Craftsman knives can be dated by finding them in old Sears catalogs. But that is not easy. Sears came out with at least 4 catalogs per year, so to cover a decade or so you need a lot of catalogs. Sears catalogs sold on ebay are rather expensive.
Collecting vintage Sears catalogs to create a reference library would be a big help to knife collectors as well as those who collect other tools, toasters, etc.
kj

[tongueriver]

It is definitely from the Carboniferous Era. Michael Little (Codger) has a lot of the Sears catalogs, but he doesn't come around here anymore.

[knifeaholic]

It is definitely from the Carboniferous Era. Michael Little (Codger) has a lot of the Sears catalogs, but he doesn't come around here anymore.

Codger was posting a bit over on BF in the BRL forum...maybe try there?

Very interesting knife. My first thought was, I have never seen either a Schrade or a Camillus knife in that pattern. Very odd since it seems that all Craftsman knives were based on the tooling for standard Schrade or Camillus patterns, at least from the 1950's on.

[tongueriver]

The sheath, although 'rough-out' is the same heavy stiff sheath with the same big rivets as in the Sears American Eagle collection, all of which (I think) were made by Schrade. I forget when that was but maybe just before the 1973 change? Btw, this is the fourth one of these knives I have seen, maybe a few more. I own two.