15 OT question

[tongueriver]

I have 15 OT Old Timer marked thus: right side: SCHRADE-WALDEN, N.Y. U.S.A., left side 15OT PAT PEND 62887. One source says 1964 to 1997. My question is in regard to the PAT PEND stamp. Does this suggest that knife was made in 1964 or soon after? I am assuming that there had not been "more than 62 thousand" of these already made, as suggested by number on tang. Serial numbers are usually obscure internal factory markings which tell little about what you want to know. This is a great old club of a knife, which would be right at home in a fight with a grizzly, but maybe a little awkward at a party of some of our more elegant dilletantes in the knife world. haha. Any comments?

 

[Codger_64]

Earliest production was marked with a "PAT. PEND." blade etch briefly, then added to the lefthand tangstamp. Perhaps this led to some complications with production and stocking the 15OT's. The early Walden 15OT's were serialialized on the left tang perpendicular to the blade beginning sometime before the patent issued in Nov. of '65. The first tangstamps were applied to both sides of the tang perpendicular to the blade, with SCHRADE-WALDEN over NY USA on the right, and 15OT PAT. over PEND. on the left. The serial numbers were sequential.

 

[Upstream]

That's interesting, so when would a Schrade Walden / Pat Pend, with no serial number have been made?

 

[tobyrogers]

Yes,I've seen several.They came in the laced foldover sheath with no rivets.I think I have a picture of one in my collection at Larrys site.I think 1964.Arnold

 

[Upstream]

Thanks Arnold.. I also thought that they were always called the Deerslayer, but the paper that came with this one calls it the Old Timer Hunter.

 

[Codger_64]

In the 1965 catalog it was referred to as simply "HUNTER", and sold for $14.95. In 1974, the previously unnamed 15OT pattern was given the name "DEER SLAYER", later changed to a single word, "DEERSLAYER". It sold for $46.95 in 1997 before being discontinued.