Chasing patterns - Schrade Sharpfinger

Wow Michael. Those are nice. Never did that much "skinning" when you really get down to looking at my knife uses over the years. Sure I did that, but not that much. As a result, I never acquired knives that I would associate their primary design being "skinning" to any large degree. But I am impressed with your collection. You sure you aren't related to Henry Baer? :)
 
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Now for something special. You all know that I really, really like this pattern. And a favorite production pattern just begs for a custom rendering, n'est-ce pas?
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A great old pattern, Michael. Thanks for the peek at your collection. I dug around my knife drawers and found my old Sharp Finger. I bought it for $13.90 in 1978. I'll edit and post a picture here, if it's ok. I didn't want to derail your thread with my pic. Thanks again!
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Peregrin said:
A great old pattern, Michael. Thanks for the peek at your collection. I dug around my knife drawers and found my old Sharp Finger. I bought it for $13.90 in 1978. I'll edit and post a picture here, if it's ok. I didn't want to derail your thread with my pic. Thanks again!
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Gary, everyone reading this... please do post pictures of your Sharpfingers! Not a derail at all. I intended this to be a forum exploration of the pattern, not a Codger-only thread! IMHO, some of the best Sharpfingers are the ones which have been heavily used, sharpened repeatedly, patina'd. By the way, MSRP in 1978 was $16.00! You got a deal!! :thumbup:

Here are my two users, the bottom my original and the top one I acquired cheap as a backup. Schrade made these knives to be used. I doubt they envisioned anyone keeping them 40 years new in the box excepting the commemoratives.

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Those customs are all beautiful, but I think my favorite of the 3 is the far right one.

Codger_64 you need to share the story of why you'll find some Sharpfingers with the Delrin melted around the lanyard hold.

On a different use, martial artist Fred Perrin has mentioned that the Sharpfinger made a nice concealable self-defense blade.
 
Halfneck said:
Those customs are all beautiful, but I think my favorite of the 3 is the far right one.

Codger_64 you need to share the story of why you'll find some Sharpfingers with the Delrin melted around the lanyard hold.

On a different use, martial artist Fred Perrin has mentioned that the Sharpfinger made a nice concealable self-defense blade.
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Ah yes. Identifying the makers of these customs.

1. Ryan Weeks SPK - 10,000 year old mammoth bark tusk ivory, 5,000 year old bog oak, 1880's Morgan silver dollar spacer, nice hamon on the blade.
2. Darrin Sanders handled commercial damascus sharpfinger blank.
3. Darrin Sanders design large Sharpfinger pattern handled in curly maple.
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Back in the day, people who smoked left-handed cigarettes used the thong hole as a "roach clip", so it isn't unusual these days to find a used Sharpfinger with scorch, burn or melt of the Delrin around that hole.

Fred Perin and Nemo did an article on the Sharpfinger which is somewhere online. I'll see if I can locate it.
 
Peregrin said:
A great old pattern, Michael. Thanks for the peek at your collection. I dug around my knife drawers and found my old Sharp Finger. I bought it for $13.90 in 1978. I'll edit and post a picture here, if it's ok. I didn't want to derail your thread with my pic. Thanks again!
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Sweet! That sheath is a first revision of the first sheath. They soon found that the first design with the pointed choil tab curled, wore and looked bad rather quickly. So they rounded the tab after two or three years. The beigh sheath is a less common color to find. There was no rhyme or reason to sheath colors and they varied from light tan like yours t omedium brown to dark russet. Some were even exotic textured.
 
Yessir, that's the original sheath. Thanks for dating it (couldn't remember when I got it).
 
deskil said:
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Here's what's left of mine, after many a deer and hog.
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I love the sheath on that one. Both the sheath and the knife look a whole lot better than mine.
 
deskil said:
Yessir, that's the original sheath. Thanks for dating it (couldn't remember when I got it).
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Well, even if bought new it could have been later, but certainly not earlier. That style sheath first appeared circa 1981 and was phased out around 1986, replced with the more familiar handle retaining strap sheath. A dealer who got one in stock in 1986 could have it for several years before selling it. Both of those early sheath styles resulted in complaints to the factory about knives lost, the handle strap seemed to cure that as much as possible.
 
A new Sharpfinger Scrimshaw 205SC (1983) knife arrived at the post office today. See if you can guess where it flew in from? At first I had trouble getting it right for the camera. It wanted to hang upside down. I finally got it right though.

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This is a closeup of the art. The original drawing was done by Schrade artist Frank Giorgianni in 1983.

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It was a special factory order produced only for K-Mart.

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A special thankyou for the gent who sent this to me from around the world.
 
Very nice. We've got some really good people hanging off the other side of the world don't we Michael?
 
Dad had an imported imitation that I used for deer early in my hunting career. Great design (obviously from copying the sharpfinger), terrible steel. Never did get around to get a "real" one.
 
Currently I only own one Sharpfinger, part of a gift set that is still unused. I had another, but gave it to a deer hunting buddy. I have skinned a lot of deer, but I've never used a Schrade Sharpfinger to skin one - I'll have to change that next fall. OH

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Michael, I have a question for you - have you bought or tried one of the Bear & Son copies of the Sharpfinger? I see them in the display cases of my local Ace Hardware stores - wonder what you think in terms of steel quality. I get regular discount coupons from Ace - if the Bear & Son steel is good I may give one a try this fall. Thanks, OH
 
No, I've not yet bought a Bear MGC version. Some day I may find one at a good price and pick it up. Do you know if they are made in 1095?
 
Here is a Sharpfinger which I forgot I had. I sent it several years ago to a friend who was liquidating some knives for me and he still has it, so I've requested it's return. It was an "Event Enhancement" knife made to support the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Shooting Team. Not really inspireing artwise, it really most resembles commercial advertising art like we have seen for many years on florists and sampler knives. Still, not a lot of them were made and they were serialized.

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