All About Pocket Knives

black mamba wrote:Here is a picture of some of mine.

UHcollection.jpg

Were ALL Uncle Henry knives made with stainless steel? Some of the early ones don't have the Schrade+ stamp, but does that mean they are NOT stainless? Since that photo I added another one, a mint in box 127UH.

127UHopen.jpg

Very nice group of UH’s there. The 127 rounds it off nicely.

Thank you, James, I have a couple of 897s coming in next week to add, a mid 1970s NY USA and a late '60s Schrade Walden. Pics in a couple of days.

Looking forward to seeing some pics! I have an SW 897 in the original hinged box. It’s a fairly low serial #. Shoot me a PM I f your interested. They don’t come around to often and I already have one in my collection. Thanks for reviving the thread. These UH’s are great knives!

James, the one I just received today is a mid-'70s NY USA with the belt finished edges. My understanding is these were from about 1975-'78, but any help narrowing this down even further would be greatly appreciated. The serial number on this one is S16617, and the tang stamp is:
SCHRADE
N.Y. U.S.A.
STAINLESS
897UH

Wish I could be more helpful with the serial numbers. Turns out you have a 897 mark I do not. Thanks a lot. Lol now I have to shop for a knife. Funny thing is I have one of the actual tang stamps. Did your knife come with the original packaging? Sometimes it help dial in on these things. The knives pictured here are both Schrade Walden marks the one on the left is in the 21000’s the one on the right has an “A” prefix. Both have jimpping on the liners. That is a cool UH you have there. My understanding is that was only used for a short time before the SCHRADE mark without the plus sign. There were some SCHRADE knives that still carried serial numbers

James, it seems like my 897UH would be a very early tang stamp after the Walden era, and the belt finished edges started in 1974 or '75, so maybe only a 1-2 year window for that stamp.

black mamba wrote: ...the belt finished edges started in 1974 or '75...

Mine is a Schrade Walden, serial #53xxx, milled liners, hinged box, belt-finished edge. ?

It just occurred to me as well, that with the serial numbers rolling over to a new letter prefix every 99,999 knives, that an A prefix on a Walden means that between 1967 and 1973 they made over 100,000 897s. That's about 17,000 per year, so your 21xxx should be from 1968-'69.

black mamba wrote:It just occurred to me as well, that with the serial numbers rolling over to a new letter prefix every 99,999 knives, that an A prefix on a Walden means that between 1967 and 1973 they made over 100,000 897s. That's about 17,000 per year, so your 21xxx should be from 1968-'69.

But why would it have the belt finished edge?

Cal, I can't answer that. Maybe it's a different sharpened edge than the A.C.A. Edge that both Schrade and Camillus used starting in about 1974. Somewhere else, either in another thread here or on BladeForums, Eric (ea42) stated the patent started in December of 1973???

In the 1964 Schrade Walden catalog, I see the Razor Blade Stainless marketing ploy featured for the first time (on open stock knives). As far as I know, this is the exact same edge stropping that we have been talking about here on the 897UH knives.
http://www.collectors-of-schrades-r.us/ ... W-CATS.pdf

That does make sense, as Eric also said the A.C.A. Edge was used mostly on larger blades, as it was a fairly rough grit followed by polishing. I stand corrected!

black mamba wrote:That does make sense, as Eric also said the A.C.A. Edge was used mostly on larger blades, as it was a fairly rough grit followed by polishing. I stand corrected!

And that is good info to me; I did not know. I will have to dig around for a Sears ACA and have a look.

re A.C.A. Edge. Extremely rare 165 variation for Sears with hidden tang, brass pommel and elephant hide sheath.

Whoaaa, Cal, that is a fabulous knife! When did you pick that one up?

Well well well. Very nice Cal!

JAMESC41001 wrote:Well well well. Very nice Cal!

Thanks for the kind words. I have a special place for the 165s. I just think it is a great knife, if a little heavier than necessary.

I agree Cal, I can take a165 and a 127 and get by just fine.

I am not sure whether I posted this before, but the earliest UH folding hunters and the earliest scrimshaw folding hunters had covers or handles MUCH thicker than the ones we are most used to seeing. I have a 127UH with this feature and it is serial #45xx, so there should be a few out there. I have four of them with this feature. It is really quite a striking difference.

It’s true Cal. I have at least one “FAt Stag” 127. I’ll have to look at the serial #’s. Maybe we can narrow it down a bit. I have 2 sw127 that were in displays. These Schrade displays some clues as to where they were at as far as serial #’s since we can tell when the displays showed up in the catalogs. But it is still tricky for a number of reasons.

This knife is serial #04208 it has the fat handles. I have a skinny handle SW #09496. I also have a SW127 that came from a Schrade display:sw69uh this display is listed in the 1969 catalog and the serial # is in the 18000’s. The 127 was the second uncle Henry pattern introduced. It first appeared in 1968. I’m not sure it was initially a big seller as it was replaced by the 227 for 1970 and 1971. After that it is in every catalog up until 1988 where it did not make it back into the line up. The 124 which is a kinder gentler version of the 127 made a brief appearance 85-88 and then that disappeared also. Unused 124uh’s only occasionally come around. I do not think many were made relative to other patterns. I will check serial numbers on my other sw127uh’s. I’d love to dial in on this. Thanks for posting your knife. It is a beauty.
Jay

The Schrade Walden 127UH 'fat boy' knives are one of my all time favorite knives. The serial # on the top one is 09532. It is listed in the 1973 catalog as a "King Ranch". But I can't say if it had the larger girth at that time. The catalog snapshot is from the 1968 catalog and is a holy grail set if I could find one. This has been discussed before here and a member said that he didn't believe that these sets were ever sold. But at any rate, no one that I know of has ever seen one. Hinged box, gaucho sheath and hone stone....for a whopping $15.00.

Mustanger wrote:The Schrade Walden 127UH 'fat boy' knives are one of my all time favorite knives. The serial # on the top one is 09532. It is listed in the 1973 catalog as a "King Ranch". But I can't say if it had the larger girth at that time. The catalog snapshot is from the 1968 catalog and is a holy grail set if I could find one. This has been discussed before here and a member said that he didn't believe that these sets were ever sold. But at any rate, no one that I know of has ever seen one. Hinged box, gaucho sheath and hone stone....for a whopping $15.00.

Is the 09532 fat handles?? Let me know if you find one in the box as shown in the cat pic. At this point I don’t believe they went with that packaging. That one must be with the photographer.

JAMESC41001 wrote: Is the 09532 fat handles??

Yes, and the other one too. I don't know the serial number on it though since I don't have that one anymore.

I recently found this 885UH in a local antique store. It appears to have never been carried or used, though the red foam is basically dust, and there is some tarnish on the shield and top bolsters. .