All About Pocket Knives

Quote: "The switch to delrin really started when the Rogers bone factory burned down didn't it"
Answer: No.
The Rogers bone fire was in early-mid 1950's. I'm sure this put the pressure on the search for an alternative to bone which was already underway. In BF Schrade forum Codger64 posted an in depth history of Delrin. IIRC. Albert Baer had approached Dupont at some time in 1950's and explained what properties were needed in a plastic for knife handles(stable even at high temps, can be milled, not slippery when wet, etc.). It took Dupont a number of years and a few million dollars to come up with Delrin. In 1960 Schrade received their first supply of Delrin and began using it for knife handles, the first usage worldwide.
Thanks tr & th for posts above with dates concerning switch from bone to plastics.
kj

The material later trademarked as Delrin® was first studied in the 1920s. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
"Polyoxymethylene was discovered by Hermann Staudinger, a German chemist who received the 1953 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[4] He had studied the polymerization and structure of POM in the 1920s while researching macromolecules, which he characterized as polymers. Due to problems with thermal stability, POM was not commercialized at that time.
Around 1952, research chemists at DuPont synthesized a version of POM,[5] and in 1956 the company filed for patent protection of the homopolymer.[6] DuPont credits R. N. MacDonald as the inventor of high-molecular-weight POM.[7] Patents by MacDonald and coworkers describe the preparation of high-molecular-weight hemiacetal-terminated (~O−CH2OH) POM,[8] but these lack sufficient thermal stability to be commercially viable. The inventor of a heat-stable (and therefore useful) POM homopolymer was Dal Nagore,[9] who discovered that reacting the hemiacetal ends with acetic anhydride converts the readily depolymerizable hemiacetal into a thermally stable, melt-processable plastic.
In 1960, DuPont completed construction of a plant to produce its own version of acetal resin, named Delrin, at Parkersburg, West Virginia.[10] Also in 1960, Celanese completed its own research. Shortly thereafter, in a limited partnership with the Frankfurt firm Hoechst AG, a factory was built in Kelsterbach, Hessen; from there, Celcon was produced starting in 1962,[11] with Hostaform joining it a year later. Both remain in production under the auspices of Celanese and are sold as parts of a product group now called Hostaform/Celcon POM."

Great study of Delrin, boys and girls! A must-read for Schrade lovers everywhere.
Here is a knife that is reputed to have been in the Schrade Cut collection many years ago, but seemed to have strayed away decades before Schrade closed!!! - hmmmm??? Stories abound, but who knows the truth???
Found at the Oregon knife show, hiding under a rock! (NOT)

I think I have only seen one other English Jack with a Lock Back!

Charlie! Why didn't you show me that in Eugene? Were you afraid I would drool on it?

You know durn well I would be foaming at the mouth!

Dale, If he'd shown that at the dinner there would have been a full blown battle royal. What a beautiful knife you have there Charlie. If I thought you'd take my first born for that lockback, I'd darn near consider getting married.

My apologies, Dale! I stashed it away, and didn't bring it back to the show.
Wish I had brought it back. I've never seen you drool!!

Thanks for the nice comments, guys!

Outstanding EJ Forest Champion Charlie! The stuff knife collecting dreams are made of I saw it and you let me handle it briefly and it was all I could do to keep from drooling on it Happy you found it before I did Congratulations on adding that prize to your collection. I know you found some other absolutely gorgeous condition specimens also. Lloyd

You have outed me, Lloyd!

JK, JK

Here are the rest of the Schrades I found (below). It was a good show for Schrades!!

Those are nice Charlie, everyone is a 10!

So this is where Charlie is hiding out. Snatching up all the fantastic old peachseed bone, too.

A man of many talents, including an eye for cutlery.

This Prince Albert offer tin and knife set have been with me for some time, and i thought i would show them before we parted company. All three knives are in extremely good condition, which is unusual for these old stagers. They have always been in the tin and i never see them, so i am passing them on the a friend in South Australia who has an extremely nice growing collection(don't we all).
I am at the stage now if i can't display a knife i will pass it on to someone who will. Getting fussy in my old age.
I know a bloke in Texas that would sell this set for $400~500.LOL.
Tony.

Thanks Dale and Tony!
I can't seem to go to Oregon without bringing a few home!!

Nice set Schradenut!

Charlie I must say those are ALL stunning Schrades Very nice PA tin set Schradenut Nice to have had them and nice to pass them on to another admirer of this set! I think that certain gentlexxx in TX would try to get more $$ than that and MAYBE settle for $400-$500 in a year or so

I did manage to snag one Schrade Cut before Charlie LOL! Here is a Schrade Cut Co. swell center Whittler pattern 863. It is 3 & 5/8 inches closed. This example is in near new condition and has never been sharpened post production. Lloyd

That's a great find Lloyd!

Thanks Dale much appreciated. Great seeing you and the Mrs. at the show and the dinner you arranged on Saturday night Thanks for making the reservation and doing all the leg work! Lloyd

No problem Lloyd, my pleasure!

Paladin
That is one sweet, extremely rare Typesetter you have there, in exceptional condition. I have been after one of those for many years, but they just never show their faces, in any condition.
Well done,
Tony.

That is a fine whittler, Lloyd! I am fortunate to have CE'd and CF'd it while we were at the show, and you are right! If I'd seen it first . . . . . . . . . . .

Duffer wrote: Here is a Schrade Cut Co. swell center Whittler pattern 863. It is 3 & 5/8 inches closed. This example is in near new condition and has never been sharpened post production. Lloyd

Superlative, Lloyd! Many thanks for showing that one!

Thanks Charlie and Cal for your nice comments on this Schrade Whittler I got--much appreciated Lloyd

Some of you have all the nicest toys.

Been wanting to go to that Oregon knife show for many years now just being a few hours south in NorCal. Life, family, work blah blah blah always seem to get in the way.

Lloyd, you had me scared there for a minute with your 863. I saw the shield and thought I had missed a Camillus 72 clone (it was the 863 that threw me). I breathed a deep sigh of relief when I saw it's not, it's a true whittler (thank goodness).

Gorgeous knife and in such great condition.

Thanks FC67 for you kind comment on my Whittler! You should really try to make the OKCA show. It is like shopping for knives in a museum. It is complete visual sensory overload looking at billions and billions of vintage collectible knives under one roof

Thanks Jerry for the nice comments! I know what it is like to be thrown as it has happened to me many times

I love vintage Schrade Whittlers as they are some of the finest ever made IMHO Lloyd

Slowly but surely I'm building a pile of peachseed 881/8813's

That is a not-Delrin Darlin'! I guess that it is true- Great minds think alike. . One bonus of the old pre-1960 knives, other than the obvious, is standard tried-and-true through-pin construction @ the blade pivots. Swinden construction is hard to work on and (possibly) is weaker. Your 881 is as good as it gets, so how are you going to do an encore?
edit: The absence of the U.S.A. and the non-matchstrike pull mark this beauty as having been manufactured closer to 1950 than to 1960.