Codger_64
Moderator
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2004
- Messages
- 62,310
As most of you are aware, research is a neverending effort. From time to time, new details emerge that deserve to be added to our storehouse of knife knowledge. Some are minor, such as a previously unseen SFO or limited edition, and some are fairly major, such as the one which was recently brought to my attention. How this detail escaped my attention, I have no excuse, except that a former Schrade employee read my rant on this pattern and brought the omission to my attention.
In the last few years of production, the blade grind of the Sharpfinger was changed from the historic flat ("plain" in Schrade talk) grind to a hollow grind. Looking at both my own collection and my photo archives, this change is very noticable. The grind line at the ricasso became a pronounced arc with the hollow grind, evident in any decent photographs, and easily seen when the knives are held in the hand.
The reason I was given for the change was that it was less expensive to produce, required no dedicated tooling and, in the eyes of some, increased the perceived value of the knife.
As a manufacturing engineer, my experience and judgement tells me that it was also probably an easier operation to perform with automation, the earlier knives likely being individually hand ground (hand/eye operations are more costly and less exact). Some blanks I have seem to support this supposition by the fact that they appear to be "setup pieces", where operators were adjusting the vises that held the blanks to get the two sides evenly ground.
Again, my apologies for not noticing this glaring detail change earlier. Send me your Sharpfingers along with the boxes and inserts, and I promise to do better! Be sure to include notes to my wife informing her they are loaners. The last dozen arrived without the note and I got that "Yeah, sure, whatever" look! (I wonder if eBay sellers would send such notes for me? I'll have to ask!)
Codger
In the last few years of production, the blade grind of the Sharpfinger was changed from the historic flat ("plain" in Schrade talk) grind to a hollow grind. Looking at both my own collection and my photo archives, this change is very noticable. The grind line at the ricasso became a pronounced arc with the hollow grind, evident in any decent photographs, and easily seen when the knives are held in the hand.
The reason I was given for the change was that it was less expensive to produce, required no dedicated tooling and, in the eyes of some, increased the perceived value of the knife.
As a manufacturing engineer, my experience and judgement tells me that it was also probably an easier operation to perform with automation, the earlier knives likely being individually hand ground (hand/eye operations are more costly and less exact). Some blanks I have seem to support this supposition by the fact that they appear to be "setup pieces", where operators were adjusting the vises that held the blanks to get the two sides evenly ground.
Again, my apologies for not noticing this glaring detail change earlier. Send me your Sharpfingers along with the boxes and inserts, and I promise to do better! Be sure to include notes to my wife informing her they are loaners. The last dozen arrived without the note and I got that "Yeah, sure, whatever" look! (I wonder if eBay sellers would send such notes for me? I'll have to ask!)
Codger
