Come, let us reason together (25OT Sheaths)

[Codger_64]

Thanks for the pic, now I know what my 250OT folding hunter looked like new with the box. The sheath is different than on some other versions, not sure what that means. Anybody know the history of folding hunter sheaths?

I recently acquired a provenanced (misspelled but true) Walden 165OT, new in the box with all the paper, sheath, stone etc. You may ask "what does a fixed blade knife have to do with the 25OT sheath?", or you may not but I'm going to try to tell you anyway.

The original paper in this box, a tan quadfold, illustrates six then-current Schrade Walden knives besides the 165OT, all in the woodgrained slip top "A Knife Like Grandad's" box. The 165OT was first cataloged in 1967, but the others (108OT, 34OT, 8OT,25OT, and 15OT were all introduced earlier, 1964 and earlier. I have one older Walden 165 which dates to at least 1966. This one, by the tangstamp position and serial number, dates to 1970-71. Hey, I'm getting there! The 25OT illustrated is shown with the "waffle" tooled sheath. So by deductive reasoning, the "waffle" tooled sheath was made at least until 1966 (printing lead time for the 1967 165OT), and possibly as late as the circa 1970-71 dating of this 165OT. There is no printing date on the box insert paper, and the 15OT is also shown with the "waffle" tooled sheath. I know those were only used through circa 1966-67, if that long. I do know that the catalogs kept old illustrations after detail changes, and possibly so with the inserts.

Chip in here guys, anyone have more puzzle pieces?

Codger