CH-9R Rescue (Cliphanger)

[cody6268]

On eBay, there are fully serrated, blunt tip "rescue" blades marked CH-9R being sold as Ellenville leftovers. The "CH" stamp would denote it as a member of the Cliphanger family. Our research page on the tactical Schrades doesn't mention a thing on the CH-9R.

Was this knife ever sold by ISC, or was it one that never made it? I also see dagger blanks sold as being "Schrade", so those might also be that Old Timer dagger that was nonexistent.

And a dumb question--will these fit in an existing Cliphanger frame? It looks as though they might fit in a CH-7. I'm thinking about putting it in a secondhand Cliphanger frame, as those aggressive serrations will slice through just about anything.

[Mustanger]

The only CH9 knife that I know of is the Ch9JB Joe Beaver knife. Also not mentioned in our reference list. It was a limited edition for the PRCA World Champion Calf Roper. The serrated blade being handy for cutting rope should the roper get into trouble. Many ropers carry such a knife. (mostly Spyderco) I, regrettably, had a chance to buy one in a western wear and tack store in 1998 and didn't. Now all you have to do is figure out what or who the 'R' stands for on that blade. Maybe rope or roper? Maybe someone's name? Or 'Rescue' as you suggested. Oh, and it was the larger size Cliphanger frame, as I remember. Dimensions of the blade in question should confirm or deny my foggy memory. I can't say if there is any modification to the frame to accommodate that blade shape. I have tried in the past to find pictures of the CH9JB and this was the best I could do. Don't know if any of this helps, but there it is.

Edit; And if you were wondering if the blade is a real Schrade just remember that Taylor did not get their hands on the "Schrade+" trademark. So if it says Schrade+, it's the real deal.

[orvet]

That does indeed appear to be an Imperial Schrade, U.S. made blade. It should slip into a Clip Hanger frame of the proper size.

If you can find the Ebay link to the auction selling the Schrade dagger blanks please post it. I have seen a prototype dagger blank that came out of the Ellenville factory, but it was over 10 years ago. I am familiar with it because I completed it with a handle for Rich Langston and he has it in his collection.

[cody6268]

That does indeed appear to be an Imperial Schrade, U.S. made blade. It should slip into a Clip Hanger frame of the proper size.

If you can find the Ebay link to the auction selling the Schrade dagger blanks please post it. I have seen a prototype dagger blank that came out of the Ellenville factory, but it was over 10 years ago. I am familiar with it because I completed it with a handle for Rich Langston and he has it in his collection.

Here they are.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-2-SCHRA ... 4605!US!-1

[orvet]

What the seller calls a dagger looks to me more like a bayonet blank that has not been ground. Furthermore I’m not even sure that it came from the Schrade factory, it could’ve come from the Camillus factory or even from the United factory (or another factory years later). United Cutlery went out of business shortly before Schrade did and then after Schrade Camillus went out of business three years later. There were a lot of blanks flooding the market during those years, I know because I bought a lot of them. The blades were often sold in lots of five or six, sometimes they were ground blades and sometimes they were unground blanks. I tried to buy blades that were ground since that saves a lot of time and labor. Now is the years have gone by most of the blanks that were ground have been purchased. Now mostly what you find for sale are unground blanks such as these here. If they have not been stamped like these it’s almost impossible to say what factory made them. Especially when you’re dealing with companies that are as closely linked as Schrade, Imperial and Camillus.

I notice this seller also has the guards available for the Imperial M-73 and I think I have seen the nail puller pommel for the M-73 also for sale on their site.

I believe the reason we still find unground blanks for sale is because of the expense and the difficulty of grinding the hardened blanks. Most of blanks went through the blanking process and were then heat-treated before they were ground. The reason for that is very simple, the thicker the blade the less tendency to warp in the heat treating. The manufacturers used machinery that ground the knives to shape after they were hardened by circulating a lubricating/cooling mixture over the blank while it was being ground. It was much cheaper in the long run to harden the blades and then grind them than to do it in reverse. The number of warped blades is too high when you grind them before he treating them, in a manufacturing setting. This information came from one of the fellows who worked at Camillus.

It’s very difficult with just a belt sander to grind a hardened blank and not overheated. It can be done, but it requires a higher skill level than most people I have, certainly a higher level of skill that I have! So consequently people snapped up all of the blades that had been ground and left the unground blanks, and now you’re seeing those being sold around the web.

In this picture below I have shown some of the M-3 bayonet blades I have and a complete M-3 bayonet.

At the bottom of the picture is the Imperial M-73, just the blade, guard and the pommel without handle.
My M-3 blades are slightly different on the end than the blades this seller has for sale. I don’t remember whether my blades were supposed to be from Camillus or from Schrade. After they’ve set around for a few years you kind of forget unless you have them labeled, which I didn’t. I think sometimes the unground blanks, especially when they haven’t been stamped, set around warehouses and get moved around a few times and what may have been mostly from Schrade, partly from Camillus and partly from somewhere else all get labeled as Schrade when they are put on the market for sale. At that is my theory that it's the best explanation I have to explain why blades that were not made by a certain factory are suddenly attributed to having come from said factory.

As regards the CH9R,I think the seller miss-read the tang stamp, I think it’s a CH8R. Their photo isn’t high resolution but I was able to Photoshop it a little bit and see the little more detail. It’s hard to be 100% certain from such a low resolution photo, but I think it’s an CH8R.

This my CH8, Joe Beaver, and in the tang stamp picture you can see it is difficult to tell for sure whether it is an 8 or a 9.

I don’t know that Schrade made a Clip Hanger rescue blade, though I would be surprised if they had not made a rescue blade considering how popular they were starting to be at the time Schrade went out of business in 2004. It’s possible that they made some prototype blades or that the pattern was made in such low numbers they never put them in the catalog. The blades you see may even have been for an SFO. They may have planned a test marketing to see what kind of response they got to the Clip Hanger rescue knife.

[rampant22]

'On eBay, there are fully serrated, blunt tip "rescue" blades marked CH-9R being sold as Ellenville leftovers...Was this knife ever sold by ISC, or was it one that never made it?'

Yes, Schrade did make and sell the CH9R, as I bought two in the 1990s for use in whitewater canoeing, and gave one to a friend. I still have the other. It has a 3in. fully serrated, blunt tip 'rescue' blade.

[LRV]

The Joe Beaver order was for 5000 knives in 1996. The blade was to be tang stamped CH9R.
The handle was from the CH7
The CH9 was also produced in 1996 although I dont have a pict.