A 15OT update for 2006?

[Codger_64]

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=352899&highlight=15OT

..... Several sheath designs have been found so far and, as usual, not really enough of a sampling to establish an accurate chronology. One used in 1964-65 was a basketweave tooled tubular sheath with long belt hanger, and laced with leather laces. This was the fanciest sheath, but it had a problem. The long sweeping knife blade tended to cut the leather laces. Factory engineers solved this temporarily by adding an aluminum rimmed fiber sheath insert. This was too expensive to continue and the sheath was redesigned with the tooling deleted and six eyelets added to protect the laces. The most common, naturally is the later sewn tubular with five rivets protecting the stitches. This style continued pretty much through the remainder of production.

This excerpt is from my 15OT research rant posted in June of '05. It was fairly complete at the time of the posting, but like all research on Schrade patterns, is still ongoing as new details come to light. One such detail is another sheath design which I had seen rarely, but not often enough to state my conviction that it was a production variant. I did, in fact, think it may have been an aftermarket sheath, or at best, a production sheath for a similar pattern fixed blade from another company. I have now changed my mind on this, having seen this pattern on several occasions since then. I now believe it is indeed a production sheath, however an uncommon one.

I have yet to acquire one of these for close examination (and inclusion in the collection if my conjecture appears to be correct), but hope to soon.

Most often, I see these with the also uncommon "SCHRADE" over "U.S.A. 15OT" stamp in front of the thumbrest parallel with the blade (blade right). While I really have no proof of it, it is my theory of stamp chronology that this stamp briefly preceeded the more familiar last stamp on blade right, parallel to the thumb rest and angled to the blade reading SCHRADE over USA 15OT, and came immediately after the first Schrade stamps on blade right parallel with the angled handle face post 1973 1/2.



As with the original 15OT rant, this update is only my opinion based upon my own research, since factory resources are quite sparse, and only the surviving knives and sheaths (NIB mint examples being the best provenance), a few catalog illustrations (these have not been a real reliable resource but do offer clues) exist for examination and comparison. I do hope that anyone with information, conflicting or supporting, will take the time to post it here. Schrade pattern history is still a jigsaw puzzle, and I've only filled in the border and a few fragments of the picture on the 15OT Deerslayer.

Codger