Any way to date this as a carbon steel 108OT before I open it?

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m1ckDELTA

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Jan 14, 2018
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This just arrived in the mail and I want to make sure it's carbon steel if its possible to tell from just the packaging. I understand that before Schrade went under they had started transitioning to SS with some of their blades without any marking that would indicate the change back then. Today, a couple of decades later, I'm hoping there is a way to tell. I'm not sure if this situation applied only their fixed blades or also the OT and UH blades.

The packaging indicates a Schrade website existed at the time the knife was marketed so it couldn't have been made prior 1989, and Mosaic, the first widely available web browser didn't come on the scene till '93. Most likely this was on the shelves in the very late nineties or early aughts. The wholesale commercialization of the WWW didn't really take off until after the turn of the century. This period is, as I understand, about the time Schrade started using SS in product lines that were traditionally carbon steel.

I only paid what I consider a reasonably low price but, nevertheless, there are some things that concern me with this knife in particular. The one that stands out the most is the brass liner. Through the plastic it almost looks eaten away. Here are some pix:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsksNUcwa
 
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I'm only guessing but I think the statement on the package "high carbon steel blades" might mean that the blades are carbon steel. I don't know but I would think that they would type "stainless" if they were going to bother mentioning the steel.
 
Railsplitter said:
I'm only guessing but I think the statement on the package "high carbon steel blades" might mean that the blades are carbon steel. I don't know but I would think that they would type "stainless" if they were going to bother mentioning the steel.
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Fair enough, but I read that things weren't always what they appeared to be toward the end of Schrade's life.
 
You understood what you read wrongly. The EOD knives were mixed up inasmuch as they may have a stainless UH blade in an Old Timer frame here and there. If the secondaries are stainless, there isnt any way to tell till you get some age on the knife, but the primary tang stamps will accurately reflect the correct steel. IE if you see a plus (+) anywhere, its a stainless blade. I saw some EndOfDays old timer trappers with Schrade+ Heritage clip blades in them somewhere before... It will use well, regardless. One poke into an apple will let you know right now: just sniff the blade while the juice is on it. If it's etching it, you can smell it strongly on schrade's carbon steel. Even more than some others it seem like. I have a little 108OT with a 3 line stamp that stinks terribly with good sour apples. Weird.
 
Well the collector side of me would not have opened it as there is only a finite amount of unused 108ot's, but it is also pretty common for a knife that's no longer made. It's certainly carbon steel.
 
First of all, stainless steel as used by Schrade was high carbon steel. Carbon is what makes it steel instead of iron (among other ingredients). A "plus" sign after SCHRADE on the tang always means stainless, but the absence of the "plus" sign does not necessarily mean that the steel is not stainless. All the steel used in blades in the very last years of Schrade (and, of course, I am only talking about the Ellenville company before the bankruptcy) was stainless. No non-stainless steel, even in the Old Timer line, which had always been non-stainless. This applies to their general catalog run. The buying public was not informed of the change. When the employees were instructed to make anything that would result in a knife, in July of 2004, the result could be a mash-up of almost anything that would fit together, and they had parts that went way back many years to draw from. Then, more parts knives went to SMKW and have been continuously cobbled together by dozens of entities in the ensuing 14 years since the bankruptcy. A given knife can be almost anything. The suggestion of creating a smell or a patina is valid. Birchwood Casey makes a blueing touch-up pen for firearms that will turn a non-stainless blade a color. Personally, (trying to be a wise guy here but serious nonetheless) I recommend Schrades made before 1947, or at least before 1973. Just me.
 
TheChunk91 said:
Well the collector side of me would not have opened it as there is only a finite amount of unused 108ot's, but it is also pretty common for a knife that's no longer made. It's certainly carbon steel.
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I feel you, brother. There was a moment of pause, there really was, and I almost didn't open it. However, I'm replacing my three Chinese SS EDC OT's with NOS/unused USA carbon steel versions and the only way to do that right is to open the "unopenable". As someone who owned a 1962 Mercury Comet in the 90s and believed that owning a rare classic car came with the responsibility of stewardship I do feel a pang of guilt about opening the unopenable then cavalierly putting the contents in my pocket; as if I had just walked out of a Walmart with a cheap pocket knife on some unremarkable Saturday afternoon during the final days of the previous century. ;)
 
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tongueriver said:
First of all, stainless steel as used by Schrade was high carbon steel. Carbon is what makes it steel instead of iron (among other ingredients). A "plus" sign after SCHRADE on the tang always means stainless, but the absence of the "plus" sign does not necessarily mean that the steel is not stainless. All the steel used in blades in the very last years of Schrade (and, of course, I am only talking about the Ellenville company before the bankruptcy) was stainless. No non-stainless steel, even in the Old Timer line, which had always been non-stainless. This applies to their general catalog run. The buying public was not informed of the change. When the employees were instructed to make anything that would result in a knife, in July of 2004, the result could be a mash-up of almost anything that would fit together, and they had parts that went way back many years to draw from. Then, more parts knives went to SMKW and have been continuously cobbled together by dozens of entities in the ensuing 14 years since the bankruptcy. A given knife can be almost anything. The suggestion of creating a smell or a patina is valid. Birchwood Casey makes a blueing touch-up pen for firearms that will turn a non-stainless blade a color. Personally, (trying to be a wise guy here but serious nonetheless) I recommend Schrades made before 1947, or at least before 1973. Just me.
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This is what I have read in the past. I'll give the Junior's blades a dip in some white vinegar and see what happens.
 
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If the vinegar test can be trusted then the main and sheepsfoot blade are carbon steel. I'm going to let the pen blade patina on it's own with the assumption that it too is carbon steel. I don't know what others would feel about it costing $15 but for me it was just fine.

The last four pix are after dipping in white vinegar and rubbing it into the blades.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsksNUcwa
 
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For a NOS schrade $15 is pretty good. Hard to pass up good ones around that price, which must be why I seem to keep accumulating OT's.
 
TheChunk91 said:
For a NOS schrade $15 is pretty good. Hard to pass up good ones around that price, which must be why I seem to keep accumulating OT's.
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Yeah, I already got sucked in with a NOS blister packed USA 34OT. The 34OT is the most carried so I don't have a problem with an extra unopened one. It also appears to be a pre-internet era example which will be nice.
 
I was gunna say if you hang on to it long enough the blister pack will miraculously self open by falling to bits. At least thays what happened to mine after 10 years of wondering should I or shouldn't I?
Its good to see that the delrin isnt all faded on one side like some Ive seen.
Good score either way.
 
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m1ckDELTA said:
After I read you reply I was inspired to do a search and found this:

http://www.collectors-of-schrades-r.us/Catalogs/index.htm

It was quite interesting to see how much they went for "back in the day", especially when I plugged the numbers into this:

https://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm

The year I graduated HS I would have paid $45 in today's money for an 8OT. Crazy.
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Pretty cool.
That new 34OT stockman I got I 2004 would only be $20 today.
It's funny how the earliest catalog listing for the 34OT was $5 and change, and they ended up with only a $16 catalog listing in their last year of production without making any real changes as far as I've heard.
I've never heard anyone say the earliest OT's were better or anything.
 
Hickory n steel said:
I've never heard anyone say the earliest OT's were better or anything.
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Well the first OT's (2ot and 8ot) were much better knives as they were a different era of schrade, not their finest era but still a very good one. Very different knives than the well known swinden/ delrin schrades. They were very well crafted knives with beautiful bone handles.

The swinden/delrin walden OT's usually have darker (nicer looking to me) delrin and a little more stout snap but as far as functionality or f&f there is no real difference between those and the rest of the OT's up to 2004. Basically the differences would be attributed to the individual knives rather than any other reasons. Some of the walden knives had match strike pulls on the main as did the same models in the early post walden period.
 
TheChunk91 said:
Well the first OT's (2ot and 8ot) were much better knives as they were a different era of schrade, not their finest era but still a very good one. Very different knives than the well known swinden/ delrin schrades. They were very well crafted knives with beautiful bone handles.

The swinden/delrin walden OT's usually have darker (nicer looking to me) delrin and a little more stout snap but as far as functionality or f&f there is no real difference between those and the rest of the OT's up to 2004. Basically the differences would be attributed to the individual knives rather than any other reasons. Some of the walden knives had match strike pulls on the main as did the same models in the early post walden period.
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I've heard that.
 
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I have a Schrade 'florist' sheeps foot sailor type somewhere. It has the smooth white del scales. Quite obviously been left on one side in the sun for some time. One side perfect the other very faded. Apart from that its a snappy little cutter with as new blade.
 
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