I'm wondering, who made these for S&W? I know Taylor later started selling a lot of the same patterns, but these were tang stamped with both Taylor and Seki Japan. They also had a pocket clip. This one has no markings, other than the S&W etch on the blade and engraved Smith and Wesson emblem on the handle with "USA STAINLESS" on the top and bottom.
I want to say they were made in the 1970s, but I'm doubting that myself after seeing some patents. I'm also curious--who made these for S&W? I saw one NOS on eBay that had a sticker for "Vermont Knives" of West Rutland, VT and I found an SMKW listing for a fixed blade that mentioned this same "Vermont Knives" as being the manufacturer. I figured it was just a cutlery store who put the label on there. I found some patents from them and S&W combined that were dated in the 1990s.
PS: a word of caution. If you have one of these, use a knife pick or similar to get at the screwdriver. It is mounted very low on the frame (in fact, the nail nick is slightly below the edge of the scale) and has a strong spring. I just made a mess out of my left thumbnail.
