Need help with a Schrade tang stamp

knifeaholic · Post by **knifeaholic** » Thu Jun 22, 2023 4:32 pm

I have this Uncle Henry trapper - I have never seen this exact tang stamp before. Would this be an early one?

The knife has the serial number 78795 inside the liner.

Mustanger · Post by **Mustanger** » Fri Jun 23, 2023 5:21 pm

I count at least 4 different tang stamps for the 285UH. Not counting the limited editions with LTD or HERTAGE stamped on the tang. Or Craftsman knives. Of coarse they start with a small number of SCHRADE WALDEN stamps. Then in 1973 when the name changed, they went with just SCHRADE and variations thereof.

Because your knife is stamped SCHRADE STAINLESS, that tells me that it is from '73 and forward, and because it is before they started stamping SCHRADE+ on their stainless blades, my best guess is your knife is from '73 - '74 or possibly '75. I can't remember exactly when they went with the SCHRADE+ stamp. And I don't know when they started stamping them, SCHRADE, NY USA either. Or when they stopped putting serial numbers on the liners.

The reason that some of these photo file names say 'Transition' is because in comparing the 285UH and times when they were made, one has to consider the different scales on the handles too. I count 3 different scale moldings, I think....