American Eagle Collection anomaly (revised)

scotl

Gold Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2019
Messages
36
I need an opinion on a American Eagle Collection "Sportsman" knife that I own. I have several Sportsman knives by Craftsman and several 41ot's by Schrade and although they are basically the same knife they do have individual characteristics that are exclusive to each model. I have one knife though, that looks like a Sportsman but also has a couple of the 41ot characteristics.
By my observation, there are four major differences between these two knives:

............ The 41ot ............................................................ The Sportsman
1. has a flat grind edge. .........................................................1. has a compound bevel grind

2. has single-eared single plate guard .............................. 2. has 'two-eared 2 plate with red spacer' guard

3.Blade clip on LEFT w/ name-side up ................................ 3. Clip on RIGHT w/ name- up

4. Large SS on reverse of ricasso ....................................... 4. Small ss on reverse of ricasso

The knife in question has the compound grind, and the two-eared guard as a Sportsman should. But...it has the clip on the LEFT w/ name plate up and the large SS on the reverse like the 41ot.
The CRAFTSMAN USA stamp on the front of the ricasso is also facing away from the guard instead of towards it.
My question is what is it? Could it be like a pre-production pattern or a prototype of some sort? Dr. Frankenstein's failed experiment?
What do you guys think?

The top knife is the Sportsman, the bottom knife is the 41ot, and the middle one is their weird cousin.

Sportsman error.jpg Sportsman error ss jpg.jpg
 
Last edited:
Could be a knife made for Craftsman either before or after the american eagle collection run. Schrade made knifes for craftsman for many years. OR, I'm not sure how many years the american eagle collection ran for but there could have been variation in the sportsman and other knives Within the collection run. The differences you are finding are pretty small and typical of the small changes that occur within knife models over time.

sounds like you have a nice collection though :) :)
 
Thank you Flint77.
I'm kind of leaning towards your first idea that it could have been an early trial piece made in the development phase previous to Sears final acceptance of the design.
I'm sorry, I'm new here and don't know many members, do you also collect Schrade/Craftsman fixed blades? If so I'd love to see some pics.
 
Last edited:
I collect or used to collect Schrades. started with fixed blades and then moved to folders. I don't have a huge collection but have a few. I think the only schrade/craftsman knife I have is an older fixed blade craftsman version of the Schrade H15. The rest all all Scrade branded knives.
 
Nonetheless sir, I appreciate your input and the benefit of your experience in trying to identify how and why this knife may have been produced in this configuration.
 
Back
Top