All About Pocket Knives

Hi guys I just bought this I-XL Stockman and was wondering if someone could give me a rough guess on what year it was made? The main blade is etched SCHRADE 1787 1*XL WOSTENHOLM. The tang is stamped I-XL schrade, wostenholm in 2 lines and sheffield england on reverse side.
The bolsters are stamped with ser. # 01055 and other bolster has sw.co stamped on it.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks

In General Discussion, s_k suggested 1977-1982 were the years for the Schrade I*XLs. I don't know if yours can be narrowed down to an exact year!?!?

Tank, old buddy

You're making me burn some brain cells, with that big ole' stockman ! I sold about 5 of 'em, total, and I want to remember that I bought them after the "issue" was over. (Meaning, my wholesaler bought them as a close-out, from somebody else.)

I'm gonna narrow it down, to the 1985 - 1990 time frame, but I could easily be corrected. The only positive memory I have of them, was that one blade was lazy, on every knife I had.

That's the best I can do, I'm sure someone else has better information.

Take Care,
JR

Thanks Charlie and JR, I was just wanting a ballpark age . You guys are A O.K.! I loved the fact it had the leather box and coa

Hi. There looks to be a pic of that knife in Tweedale's book with the caption 'stock knife made in the late 1970s....' That would be 1977 onwards as that is when Imperial owned the Richards-Rodgers-Wostenholm group. This existed until 1983. I suppose an alternative was that the knife was subsequently produced with remaining parts. The number 1787 on the blade commemorates the year of the first appearance of the I*XL trademark. I don't know the relevance of 'sw.co' s-k

the knife has a hallmark on the bolster SW co is for schrade walden, it should have some other marks on it too that are hard to make out, maybe an anvil? the hallmark narrows down the date, don't know how much though.

79-81 LT PS Schrade bought this outfit but the marriage did not quite work out. After the purchase the big wig new owners from the USA went over to inspect the factory and were greeted with some what less pomp than they had expected. To show there contempt for there new Rebel yankee bosses. the workers had moved alot of machinery and were playing soccer in the middle of the factory strangely the game coincided with the exact time of the visit. They must have remembered that tea we threw in Boston harbor. However they did produce what I feel were some of the nicest knives ever produced by Schrade ( at least in recent times ).

Just thought I would add these pics. here are a few notes on these first unlike regular Schrade scrims the ones they made were all hand scrimmed on real bone. Not imprinted with a die on delrin. Also notice the large folding hunter in real stag ( approximate size of an LB-7 or buck knife). Notice no rivits. These never sold real well they were ( as was much of this line ) more expensive than Schrade models. The handles used an early epoxy which unfortunately often lead to the handles coming off. These were touted for special editions but due to price did not do well one exception was a bunch which were sold in Canada etched for the Calgary stampede. The one in the pic was a proto marked pat pending I have the one etched for Calgary but did not take a pic of it ( same knife different etch ). I never could get info on the knife until one day I was in Schrade talking to Dave Swinden and had brought it to ask him about it . I showed it to him and in 30 seconds gave me all the answers that I had spent a 100 hours researching to no avail. The stockman is the largest one ever made by Schrade about 1/8 or 1/4 inch larger than the 858. These sold for 100 or 125 back in 1980. I love this knife carry one and own a few backups. When I used to do shows I would wait until a small child would come up with his parents I would then take it out of its pouch on my side and give it to the child and would say alway remember the old fat man who gave you this knife and I will never die as long as you keep that memory alive. A small price for immortality. The best part was how the dad would beam and the mom would get pissed off ( the kid having this big knife in its hand.) In this case the father always prevailed but it was fun to watch I wish I could have heard what went on after they left. There is a pic of an IXL set as well. LT

Great info Steve and Kaleb, thanks so much!
Thanks LT! Great story there,<sips tea>

While putting the items away that I just put pics of on this fell out it was a copy of an article which Schrade passed out to some employees. I thought you might fine it interesting. I have a lot of adevertuisment on these but this and the pics should answer most of the questions if you want more I will try to find some other stuff but it is somewhat redundant and i would really have to dig around. No sense wasting time or boring anyone more than is necessary. LT

Holy Cow Bone LT those are dang nice! I may try to find all 4 of the other patterns.
Thanks so much for the ad, i have archived it
Wonderful stuff.

Boring........Boring....????
We are knife addicts, you just gave us a taste of the high grade "good stuff" & you say Boring?? ( I always wanted to use that little smiley).

How could you think we would be bored?
Insane maybe but not bored.

Dale

LT, you could post shots of the underside of your closed toilet, and I would be here ogling 'em!! But of course you are kinder to us than that.
Bored you say?? Not here!!!

boring= not interesting......hmmmmm does not compute. please regale us on any subject.

As always, great information LT. Very helpful indeed Thanks s-k

Heres a pic of my stockman. with luck I will win its brother the stag canoe tonight.

Camillus made an IXL knife for Imperial/Schrade around 25 or 30 years ago. I believe that it is the single blade lock back knife with white handles that is in one of LT's photos. Only the skeleton (no handles) was made at the Camillus factory. It was the same pattern as the Camillus LOK-BACK knife (#4????).
Phil Gibbs and his father were connected with Wostenholme and he will have considerable knowledgeable about this brand.

Tom Williams

Thanks Tom, these I*XL Schrades are well made knives.

Thanks for dropping in and contributing, Tom.
Phil

Camillus made all 3 lockbacks as skeletons (without handles) & shipped them to Sheffield for handles & finishing. If I remember it was 1980 or 1981

Like this one Phil?

Yes, that is based on the Camillus #3.

Thanks Phil! So its a Schrade/Camillus/I*XL
Reminds me of an AMC

Thanks for the interesting information s-k