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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
141lwe
- Thread starter ky40601
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Codger_64
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The various Schrade Walden pattern names changed from time to time with and without changes to the features such as blade grind, handle material and design.
Also Sears, one of Albert's best accounts and a test market for new designs, was allowed pretty much free rein to change names, borrow them from other Schrade Walden trademarked names, or make up their own.
Is it a "Tall Tale"? I don't know. But following Schrade Walden's pattern numbering system of that period, 1957-1965, it would be a 141LWE.
Was it made for Sears? Again, I don't know. Yet. I am still busy buying Sears catalogs from that period and surveying the patterns shown. I just got the 1960 and another from the mid-1960's is on it's way.
Sears did order some special featured knives of the 141 pattern, and possibly even before they appeared in the Schrade Walden catalog. As for the 141LWE not being in the SW catalogs (that I have seen), that isn't so unusual. I have a 137LWE which I have never seen listed. It is possible that Sears ordered a complete cross-section of Schrade Walden hunting knives with the Wonda Edge as a marketing trial, but not in quantities sufficient to offer them in the Big Book catalogs. Factory production records suggest that the Wonda-Edge was not a good seller in the hunting knife lines. When could these have been made?
The idea of adding scalloped serrations to one side of a knife blade was patented by Albert H. Baer, USPTO utility patent #2,825,968. The patent was filed in September of 1956, and issued in March of 1958, and assigned to Imperial Associated Companies, Inc. The name Wonda-Edge associated with Mr. Baers invention was trademarked as well, #72,023,627, in February 1958.
This Wonda-Edge feature was used for the next few decades on a variety of hunting knives, pocket knives, and horticultural and sampler knives. As the assignment of the patent indicates, knives of all three of the associated companies, Schrade Walden, Ulster, and Imperial at one time or another made use of this patent.
Serrated blades were not unheard of prior to the Wonda-Edge, but they more resembled saws in that they were toothed, with angular serrations, and usually symetrically groved evenly on both sides. Mr. Baers invention used rounded scallops to increase the length of the cutting surface, and placed the scallops all on one side of the blade to facilitate easy sharpening from the back, or plain side, rather than trying to sharpen the scallops themselves.
The very earliest mention I have found of the use of the Wonda-Edge feature is on the Schrade Walden 1957 price list, SW157JA. There I find listed 145WE, 147LWE,148LWE, all fixed blade hunting knives. Two pocket knives were also listed, both with stagged bone covers, 3 7/8" Serpentine Jack (we now call a two blade gunstock trapper pattern) 293WE, and the 4" Muskrat pattern 787WE with one blade serrated.
In the1959 price list, SW159J, the hunting knives listed were the H-15WE (Utility hunter), 147LWE, and 148LWE. No pocket knives with the Wonda-Edge were listed, nor in the catalog. The same hunting knives were listed in the 1960 catalog as well.
I see the Wonda-Edge illustrated on page 256 of the 1959 Imperial catalog. It is on the FF-220 fish fillet knife which may well be the one illustrated in the patent filing. I do not see the WE option listed for any other Imperial knives in either the catalog or price list for that year.
The first Wonda-Edge fruit and meat samplers I have found mention of were Schrade Walden SS700WE, SS102WE, and SS105WE in 1961. The WE was a no cost optional upgrade of the base sampler knives. The 1961 price list SW161J listed the H-15WE, 147LWE, 148LWE, and an SW19WE under the hunting knives and no pocket knives were listed with the WE designation. The fixed blade knives were named in the 1961 catalog, many for the first time. The 147LWE was named Bar Knife, H-15WE was Utility Hunter, 148LWE was Huntsman.
The Wonda-Edge feature was not listed after 1963 in the catalogs on any hunters but the 148LWE, and it too was dropped after the 1965 catalog, and they are not seen in jobber catalogs like Belknaps.
This survey of the catalogs and price lists is not conclusive, as I have seen several knives never mentioned, such as my 137WE. And the Imperial WE variants like the serrated Sportsman knife, and the Kameo Kut D400BHWE in my collection.
A look at the production reports from the period reveals that the WE blades did not sell well, and thus are uncommon today. The invention was not a dead end, but I doubt they made enough money to pay for the patent fees and serrators. Now days, many sporting, steak and bread knives use this.
Serrated knives did not come back into vogue with Schrade until the 89OT appeared in 1989. A version of the Old Timer 8OT, it featured a scalloped sheepfoot blade. Its production only lasted for ten years, discontinued after 1999. In keeping with the idea that what is old is new again, Schrade revived the serrated blades in 1990's Ireland produced Tradesman series, and the introduction of the SG7S Outback partially serrated knives, WR1 watersport knives, Cliphangers, Lightweight X Series, and the Beast, Pocket Beast knives added to the Safe-T-Grip series in the late 1990's. The ever increasing proliferation of Schrade serrated blades, unfortunately failed to bring in hoped for market shares, and Schrade closed in 2004.
So... the most likely production date for the 141LWE was from 1958-1965. Averaged out, that says circa 1961.
Also Sears, one of Albert's best accounts and a test market for new designs, was allowed pretty much free rein to change names, borrow them from other Schrade Walden trademarked names, or make up their own.
Is it a "Tall Tale"? I don't know. But following Schrade Walden's pattern numbering system of that period, 1957-1965, it would be a 141LWE.
Was it made for Sears? Again, I don't know. Yet. I am still busy buying Sears catalogs from that period and surveying the patterns shown. I just got the 1960 and another from the mid-1960's is on it's way.
Sears did order some special featured knives of the 141 pattern, and possibly even before they appeared in the Schrade Walden catalog. As for the 141LWE not being in the SW catalogs (that I have seen), that isn't so unusual. I have a 137LWE which I have never seen listed. It is possible that Sears ordered a complete cross-section of Schrade Walden hunting knives with the Wonda Edge as a marketing trial, but not in quantities sufficient to offer them in the Big Book catalogs. Factory production records suggest that the Wonda-Edge was not a good seller in the hunting knife lines. When could these have been made?
The idea of adding scalloped serrations to one side of a knife blade was patented by Albert H. Baer, USPTO utility patent #2,825,968. The patent was filed in September of 1956, and issued in March of 1958, and assigned to Imperial Associated Companies, Inc. The name Wonda-Edge associated with Mr. Baers invention was trademarked as well, #72,023,627, in February 1958.
This Wonda-Edge feature was used for the next few decades on a variety of hunting knives, pocket knives, and horticultural and sampler knives. As the assignment of the patent indicates, knives of all three of the associated companies, Schrade Walden, Ulster, and Imperial at one time or another made use of this patent.
Serrated blades were not unheard of prior to the Wonda-Edge, but they more resembled saws in that they were toothed, with angular serrations, and usually symetrically groved evenly on both sides. Mr. Baers invention used rounded scallops to increase the length of the cutting surface, and placed the scallops all on one side of the blade to facilitate easy sharpening from the back, or plain side, rather than trying to sharpen the scallops themselves.
The very earliest mention I have found of the use of the Wonda-Edge feature is on the Schrade Walden 1957 price list, SW157JA. There I find listed 145WE, 147LWE,148LWE, all fixed blade hunting knives. Two pocket knives were also listed, both with stagged bone covers, 3 7/8" Serpentine Jack (we now call a two blade gunstock trapper pattern) 293WE, and the 4" Muskrat pattern 787WE with one blade serrated.
In the1959 price list, SW159J, the hunting knives listed were the H-15WE (Utility hunter), 147LWE, and 148LWE. No pocket knives with the Wonda-Edge were listed, nor in the catalog. The same hunting knives were listed in the 1960 catalog as well.
I see the Wonda-Edge illustrated on page 256 of the 1959 Imperial catalog. It is on the FF-220 fish fillet knife which may well be the one illustrated in the patent filing. I do not see the WE option listed for any other Imperial knives in either the catalog or price list for that year.
The first Wonda-Edge fruit and meat samplers I have found mention of were Schrade Walden SS700WE, SS102WE, and SS105WE in 1961. The WE was a no cost optional upgrade of the base sampler knives. The 1961 price list SW161J listed the H-15WE, 147LWE, 148LWE, and an SW19WE under the hunting knives and no pocket knives were listed with the WE designation. The fixed blade knives were named in the 1961 catalog, many for the first time. The 147LWE was named Bar Knife, H-15WE was Utility Hunter, 148LWE was Huntsman.
The Wonda-Edge feature was not listed after 1963 in the catalogs on any hunters but the 148LWE, and it too was dropped after the 1965 catalog, and they are not seen in jobber catalogs like Belknaps.
This survey of the catalogs and price lists is not conclusive, as I have seen several knives never mentioned, such as my 137WE. And the Imperial WE variants like the serrated Sportsman knife, and the Kameo Kut D400BHWE in my collection.
A look at the production reports from the period reveals that the WE blades did not sell well, and thus are uncommon today. The invention was not a dead end, but I doubt they made enough money to pay for the patent fees and serrators. Now days, many sporting, steak and bread knives use this.
Serrated knives did not come back into vogue with Schrade until the 89OT appeared in 1989. A version of the Old Timer 8OT, it featured a scalloped sheepfoot blade. Its production only lasted for ten years, discontinued after 1999. In keeping with the idea that what is old is new again, Schrade revived the serrated blades in 1990's Ireland produced Tradesman series, and the introduction of the SG7S Outback partially serrated knives, WR1 watersport knives, Cliphangers, Lightweight X Series, and the Beast, Pocket Beast knives added to the Safe-T-Grip series in the late 1990's. The ever increasing proliferation of Schrade serrated blades, unfortunately failed to bring in hoped for market shares, and Schrade closed in 2004.
So... the most likely production date for the 141LWE was from 1958-1965. Averaged out, that says circa 1961.
