All About Pocket Knives

Here's a pretty nice survivor. Improved muskrat in name only but it has pretty red wavy bone.

Knice find KnifeSlinger! I've been on the hunt for an unused 787 myself (with the original view pack)... you have yourself a dandy there...

Thanks KAW, and good luck on your hunt. I was not looking for a 787 in particular but I am always looking for nice older schrades so it worked out.

KnifeSlinger#81 wrote:Here's a pretty nice survivor. Improved muskrat in name only but it has pretty red wavy bone.

Great find!! I'm really partial to that kind of bone. I don't see many with that kind of bone. Patterns that I have seen are, 219, 233, 895, 825RB, 880 and now a 787. They are real eye catchers. Especially yours!

Picked up a nice old Schrade Walden this weekend Model 881 Bone Handle Stockman

Mustanger wrote:

KnifeSlinger#81 wrote:Here's a pretty nice survivor. Improved muskrat in name only but it has pretty red wavy bone.

Great find!! I'm really partial to that kind of bone. I don't see many with that kind of bone. Patterns that I have seen are, 219, 233, 895, 825RB, 880 and now a 787. They are real eye catchers. Especially yours!

Thanks. I have seen this bone on 881's, 225's, 856's and 834's as well. They probably used it on everything in the line up until they switched to delrin or discontinued the pattern, like the 856 that ceased production around 1961-62 and was not made in delrin/swinden.


Kennedy knives nice peachseed 881.

Very nice 881, Mr Kennedy! Looks uncarried.

tongueriver wrote:Very nice 881, Mr Kennedy! Looks uncarried.

Blades look full with patina Thanks Tongueriver & Paul

KnifeSlinger#81 wrote:

Mustanger wrote:

KnifeSlinger#81 wrote:Here's a pretty nice survivor. Improved muskrat in name only but it has pretty red wavy bone.

Great find!! I'm really partial to that kind of bone. I don't see many with that kind of bone. Patterns that I have seen are, 219, 233, 895, 825RB, 880 and now a 787. They are real eye catchers. Especially yours!

Thanks. I have seen this bone on 881's, 225's, 856's and 834's as well. They probably used it on everything in the line up until they switched to delrin or discontinued the pattern, like the 856 that ceased production around 1961-62 and was not made in delrin/swinden.

Now that you mention it, I have seen two or three of the 225s and just earlier today I was rummaging thru my photo files and found a picture of three 834s with that bone on them that I forgot about. I only have the 219. I just assumed that this kind of bone wasn't used for long because I see a lot more peachseed and other styles of jigging and coloring than this kind. Yours looks like limited edition quality with those mirror polished blades.

Mustanger wrote:

KnifeSlinger#81 wrote:

Mustanger wrote:
Great find!! I'm really partial to that kind of bone. I don't see many with that kind of bone. Patterns that I have seen are, 219, 233, 895, 825RB, 880 and now a 787. They are real eye catchers. Especially yours!

Thanks. I have seen this bone on 881's, 225's, 856's and 834's as well. They probably used it on everything in the line up until they switched to delrin or discontinued the pattern, like the 856 that ceased production around 1961-62 and was not made in delrin/swinden.

Now that you mention it, I have seen two or three of the 225s and just earlier today I was rummaging thru my photo files and found a picture of three 834s with that bone on them that I forgot about. I only have the 219. I just assumed that this kind of bone wasn't used for long because I see a lot more peachseed and other styles of jigging and coloring than this kind. Yours looks like limited edition quality with those mirror polished blades.

It's assumed that this type of bone was used in the late 1950's to early 60's, so it had a short lifespan compared to the decades that peachseed was around.

These pictures are a Schrade Cut Co 3 3/8" closed equal end cattle knife. I couldn't find an exact match in the catalog I have. My best guess is pattern S8583, but it has a pen blade instead of a punch and smooth bolsters vs lined bolsters. It also looks to nickel silver liners instead of brass which is different than what the S8583 catalog description says. Anybody have a more definitive pattern number they could supply? Thanks for looking.

Edit: Added the catalog image for the correct 8563 pattern number.

It is the 8563, page 23 in the reprint of catalog E. It is a variant of the 8566, so one has to scroll down below that knife's description

tongueriver wrote:It is the 8563, page 23 in the reprint of catalog E. It is a variant of the 8566, so one has to scroll down below that knife's description

Cal, thank you! My teachable moment is that I need to do more than look at the pictures in the catalog I initially saw the 8566 and kept looking for the bone picture which, of course, is nowhere to be found in the catalog.

The jigging on the Cattle knife handles is not 'peach seed' but not all SCC with jigged bone have p-s jigging. Are you sure those are the original handles ? Pins look N/S rather than brass and bolsters are not threaded. However i do know that not all SCC knives are exactly as shown in catalog. They also assembled a few 'odd' ones.
And to further 'stir the pot', on the S-W 881 above, with dye so dark how can you be certain it is bone ?
kj

RalphAlsip wrote:These pictures are a Schrade Cut Co 3 3/8" closed equal end cattle knife. I couldn't find an exact match in the catalog I have. My best guess is pattern S8583, but it has a pen blade instead of a punch and smooth bolsters vs lined bolsters. It also looks to nickel silver liners instead of brass which is different than what the S8583 catalog description says. Anybody have a more definitive pattern number they could supply? Thanks for looking.

Edit: Added the catalog image for the correct 8563 pattern number.

That's a dandy little 8563

kootenay joe wrote:And to further 'stir the pot', on the S-W 881 above, with dye so dark how can you be certain it is bone ?
kj

If you look at the area where the handles meet the bolsters you can see some faint reddish color and some texture, which the black peachseed synthetic wouldn't have. It is a very dark dye but looks bone to me. It also has some tooling marks that I have seen on quite a few bone SW's but don't recall ever seeing on the synthetic peachseed.

Nice knives guys, I cannot find enough old Schrade knives to curb my appetite for them and I'm afraid it may never go away.. Why do I want so many... ..picked this one up today, any ideas on the pattern? I thought it was the 8133 3/4, but this one has slanted bolsters..otherwise it's the same length and blade configuration..~Jon

I have a few knives in which even the small areas without jigging are too dark to see any spots if they are there. We need another non destructive way of telling jigged bone from jigged Delrin. An old time Schrade collector told me to rap the knife handle onto the edge of your front teeth (mouth open, blades closed) and that the sound and 'feel' imparted are different for bone and Delrin.
kj

kootenay joe wrote:The jigging on the Cattle knife handles is not 'peach seed' but not all SCC with jigged bone have p-s jigging. Are you sure those are the original handles ? Pins look N/S rather than brass and bolsters are not threaded. However i do know that not all SCC knives are exactly as shown in catalog. They also assembled a few 'odd' ones.
kj

It is difficult to be 100% certain what is replaced (or not) on these old knives that have probably passed through several hands of ownership (lol). However, my opinion is that the 8563 is all original. The few old Schrades that I have all have brass components (liners & pins) and this 8563 has nickel silver components. Upon reading through the Schrade catalog E that I have (from 1926?) it seems like all the descriptions mention brass components so this knife is a bit of an oddball in that regard with the upgraded nickel silver components. With regard to the jigging, my understanding is the peach seed pattern came along later in the Cut Co era. The jigging pattern on the 8563 knife resembles Rogers jigging to my eye.

Here is a comparison image with 2 other older Cut Co era knives that do not have peach seed jigging. The jigging is somewhat different on the 8563 than on the 7563 and the R7973. I don't have a clue if this is significant or not.

It is knives like this Cattle knife that make knife collecting so interesting and intriguing. Catalog images are amazingly accurate in times from before the printing of photographs and they are the authority on what a company's knives looked like.
It is known that all knife companies operated on a thin margin so nothing was discarded. A cutler might need a few more parts to complete all the knives in a run. Perhaps short of the usual jigged bone but has some in exact size jigged 20 years ago & slightly different but it fits so it gets used & a perfectly good knife is made. The customer who buys it in their local hardware likely does not notice the jigging is not exactly the same as other Schrade knives in the store. Or, if he does, so what if the knife is the size & pattern he wants. Same can be true for blades bolsters & shield.
There always have been legitimate factory knives that differed slightly from the others in a run.
For this 8563 a very experienced Schrade Cut Co collector is in the best position to pass judgement as to "factory" or "re-worked" as they will have seen many other 'variant' knives and can say it this one seems to 'fit' with those.
Maybe Charlie C. will see this knife and comment.
kj

Jporter1974 wrote:Nice knives guys, I cannot find enough old Schrade knives to curb my appetite for them and I'm afraid it may never go away.. Why do I want so many... ..picked this one up today, any ideas on the pattern? I thought it was the 8133 3/4, but this one has slanted bolsters..otherwise it's the same length and blade configuration..~Jon

You have true schrade rarity with that one, I know at least a couple of folks that were after that beauty. It likely had a different pattern than the straight bolster one in the catalog but there were many schrade cuts that were not catalogued. It's a pre peachseed knife as well, so probably around 1920's. If you ever get tired of it...

By the way the "schrade appetite" does not go away once you've got it. The old ones are just as good as any other top tier factory knife and the peachseed, blade grinds, and overall style of the cuts and early walden's are what make them the most appealing knives to me.

I've had this 890 for a little while but have yet to show it. A little more shiny than it ought to be but the edges are factory. I very much like this 3 1/2" stockman pattern. The spey is better shaped than most, more of a drop point really.

That's a great pattern, a great example, and a really nice photograph.

Thats an awfully nice knife Paul, great bone.

Thanks guys I appreciate it.

What a Beauty ! You 'guys' have all the good knives !
kj