Schrade Cutlery Company was founded in 1904 by George Schrade, and his brothers Jacob and William Schrade. In 1946 Imperial Knife Associated Companies, (IKAC; an association of Ulster Knife Co and Imperial Knife Co) purchased controlling interest in Schrade Cut Co and changed the name to Schrade Walden Cutlery. In 1973 the name was changed to Schrade Cutlery. In 2004 Schrade closed due to bankruptcy.
This forum is dedicated to the knives that are the legacy of this company. This forum is not the place to discuss the replica knives currently being imported using the Schrade name.
The production number is odd for sure , I have number 00300
, the inlays are supposed to be silver .
jxr1197 wrote:This is more of a one off oddball than a 'rare' knife. It's a BSA Jubilee knife and I'm going to go out on a limb and use the "P" word here (PROTOTYPE) along with a healthy dose of conjecture - cause that's usually a winning formula. The knife that was ultimately made in 1985 was a run of 12,000 pieces on a brushed lockback frame with engraved brass inserts and custom blade etch. Here's a picture of one from a popular auction site:
orig.jpg
Here's the one I have:
proto1.jpg
proto2.JPG
00000.Jpg
When I saw the 00000 serial number and those 'SS' letters engraved into both inserts my first thought was photo sample or salesman sample. But why would a SFO need that? Then there's the blade etch that reads '1 of 500' instead of 12000. Finally why aren't the inserts brass? They're stainless. So my theory is that the silver looking inserts are representative of sterling silver (which is why it got the 'SS' engraved) and the 1 of 500 means there was a plan to also have a limited 'silver edition' to go along with the standard edition of this knife. That plan fell through and this prototype is all that remains. Like I said - a healthy dose of conjecture.
Great knives and great thread! Thanks to all! I saw one of the gold ones on ebay (maybe last year?); the seller was MIGHTY proud of it. I have the much more common multi-blade scout knife package that is associated with that Boy Scout anniversary and it is nice, also. And available.
Thanks Cal and Glenn. I passed this one over at first to check the catalogs because I have never seen one before. Luckily at was still available the next day. The catalog says these have red handles so maybe this one's a sample. I'm guessing it belonged to an employee. It's unused and it never even made it out of the neighborhood. The package it came in was postmarked Walden, NY.
This less-than-perfect example of an SO8814NP just arrived. I don't believe I've seen one of these before - just the older oblique with parallel slanted bolsters. Aside from this and the 1966 Buck I don't think there are any other Schrades with this bolster style. Some Imperials much later on but no other Schrades.
Here is a Primble Stockman with slanted bolsters, marked "John Primble/Belknap Inc." on front tang and "371I" on the back. The last mark is a capital "i". Is this a Schrade-Walden knife ? or Camillus ?
kj
The Primble was made by Boker USA. The yellow 835Y knives came in celluloid first, and then Delrin. The yellow cell on those first knives was not very stable. Also, when they went to Swinden pins, The "bird eye" was moved out of the way a bit and was not actually the pin. This was in the 1960s era, of course. Any Schrade yellow celluloid should be quarantined.
Thanks Cal. I did not know that Boker USA made the Primbles. As my 835Y has birdseye rivets it must be pre ~1960 and therefore has celluloid handles ?
kj
Your knife looks like celluloid from here (through the smoke; come on rain). Not all Primbles were made by Boker; some were indeed made by Schrade (think 8OT) and possibly other makers (?). Those oblique bolster ones were Bokers.