Elusive Schrades

[waynorth]

They shoulda put a catfish shield on it!!
Where's McGreg when you need him??

With that Muskrat blade you could use the knife for trapping too!
An HFT (Hunter Fisher Trapper) if I ever saw one!

 

[malextwo]

3 3/8" closed. I have no idea of the age. Just took this off the 'bay and am using those pics.
It is nice and tight and clean. Contrast in color not as evident in person.

Mike

 

[waynorth]

Nice cattle knife MX2. I'll go out on a limb, and guess ca.1957, a good year for Schrades and Chevies!

 

[waynorth]

This elusive Schrade is in about the same condition as I am!
A little rough around the edges, and the shiny surfaces are worn and dinged.
No cracks though, and mighty snappy! (my wife argues this point!).

In the 1926 catalog, it is called a "Premium Stock Knife, Texas Pattern with Oblique Bolsters". The pattern number is 08883.
It is a shaving under 4" long, and feels great in the pocket, and in hand. All outer sharp edges have been pocket-worn nice and smooth, but the blade edges have been abused and neglected. Against my usual principal of maintaining all history, I am going to carefully put edges on this knife, keeping all else as it is, to give it a little self respect.
Then I'm going to put it in my EDC rotation. I find that it has a certain essence of antique knifery in it that just demands such treatment, and like myself, is not yet ready to retire despite the passage of more than 65 years!! My soul-mate for sure!!

 

[ken erickson]

"Premium Stock Knife, Texas Pattern with Oblique Bolsters"

This is an interesting one Charlie! :thumbup:

Also like the fact your going to EDC this one.

Do you think the pen blade is pretty close to being "full" ?

Ken

 

[waynorth]

It's pretty close, Ken. Schrade had a tendency to make thin(narrow?) pen blades, which confused me for a couple of years. I'd say the blades are evenly worn, the sheepfoot slightly more than the others.
The problem of course is, you lose a lot of blade taking the dings/nicks out, so I may leave them in, and slowly sharpen my way through them with use.

 

[black mamba]

It took me a minute to realize what didn't look right to me about your knife. Then it hit me that the two bolsters both slant in the same direction, instead of both slanting out at the top. Not that it isn't right, I just hadn't seen it before.

It IS a beautiful stockman, but aren't these bolsters unusual?

 

[ken erickson]

It took me a minute to realize what didn't look right to me about your knife. Then it hit me that the two bolsters both slant in the same direction, instead of both slanting out at the top. Not that it isn't right, I just hadn't seen it before.

It IS a beautiful stockman, but aren't these bolsters unusual?

Those were my first thoughts also!

Oblique; neither perpendicular nor parallel to a given line or surface; slanting; sloping.

Ken

 

[waynorth]

Slant bolsters are pretty rare. Quickly thumbing through old catalogs, you only find one or two in a couple hundred knife patterns. They seem to be equally split between "parallels" like mine, and "opposites".
Someone should start a thread, and see how many are out there.

 

[thawk]

Really nice one Charlie. In addition to the parallel slanted bolsters, you don't see too many 4" stockman with a pen blade either. Back then, did Texas pattern indicate a premium stock knife with squared bolsters?

 

[waynorth]

Page 288 of Levine's Guide, 4th Edition, discusses Premium stock knives.
He implies square or round bolsters can be on a Premium stockman. But it may have been Schrade that started the "Texas" terminology with this very knife pattern!!?? So maybe square bolsters is the key??
It'd be interesting to see if there is previous mention anywhere!!
While a clip master, and a spay as one of the secondaries is usual, I don't get the impression that the secondary has to be a spay. You see a sheepfoot, spay, pen, or a punch, in any combination as the secondaries, and it's still a Premium Stockman, in my opinion.

 

[cj65]

3 3/8" closed. I have no idea of the age. Just took this off the 'bay and am using those pics.
It is nice and tight and clean. Contrast in color not as evident in person.

Mike

Nice grab, I almost went after that one. I put alot of knives on my watch list. I then go back and see ones that sold for cheap and I do the shoulda woulda coulda boogie.

It is painful.

The hunt continues......

 

[thawk]

Page 288 of Levine's Guide, 4th Edition, discusses Premium stock knives.
He implies square or round bolsters can be on a Premium stockman. But it may have been Schrade that started the "Texas" terminology with this very knife pattern!!?? So maybe square bolsters is the key??
It'd be interesting to see if there is previous mention anywhere!!
While a clip master, and a spay as one of the secondaries is usual, I don't get the impression that the secondary has to be a spay. You see a sheepfoot, spay, pen, or a punch, in any combination as the secondaries, and it's still a Premium Stockman, in my opinion.

In the 1926 Schrade Cut Co catalog, premium seems to apply to both bolster styles, in a three blade, four blade, or jack pattern. Texas only seems to apply to square bolsters. At that time, only a 4" stockman appeared to have the squared style.

They kind of dropped the Texas label as the years went on. Obviously the 4" pattern with square bolsters was one that became a best seller for them.

Looking around, found this one in a 1938 Supplement. Would like to come across this big knife:

 

[waynorth]

Keep an eye out for one, Hal. They are a pleasure to hold.
Here's a later Schrade Walden, dwarfing a 4" posted below it!

And by itself;

Those with this Year's Schrade Calendar get to ogle two on the cover!
They belong to a good friend of ours!

 

[waynorth]

Not many comments, but I see a lot of people reading this thread, so I will forge ahead! Besides, I like to talk about Schrades, even to myself!
Speaking of talking to myself, I went down to my P.O.Box today, and brought back a couple of interesting ones.
It's a nice drive, 30-40 minutes, of city then farmland, all surrounded by mountains, river and ocean. Beautiful B.C. say our license plates, and it's indeed true. Ask anyone who came up for the Olympics!

So I picked up these two, and I was stunned to say the least! I barely remember the trip,thinking about how blessed/lucky I am, even though a little impatient to do some more CFing and CEing!
I was thinking how this A.Field Progress Jack, although heavily patina-ed, is nearly 100% all there, and sings while it walks! Well, O.K, walks and talks - excuse me if I get lyrical here; it's a nice sunny day!
Anyway, I was wondering how it got dinged up; it's got some marks on the bolsters that look for all the world like someone was chewing on the darn thing!! Then I thought of my first dog, an Airedale terrier, who chewed everything he loved, and let me tell you, I chuckled for a mile or two, thinking of some strung-out knife collector, just loving that knife to bits!
Schrade contract knife, heartwarming Ebony handles, beautiful long-pull spear, satisfyingly noisy on open and close, and much-loved!!

Thanks Dimitri!
Don't mind me if I check your teeth, if we ever get to meet!!
I will use a second post for the other knife. It's got a story to tell also!

 

[6.0stroker]

:thumbup:Keepem comin Charlie!!!

 

[waynorth]

I've posted the 3-blade utility knife before - maybe even here. It was a 65th birthday present from my wife - I love that girl for much more than her good looks!
It came in a nice little red box, which didn't click too much with me, because it had no markings. But I have often wondered how individual knives were packaged way back when I was born. . . . or before!
Nice knife, and mint! Could the box be original??

Then, today, along came this guy!! Sometimes Ebay sucks! And sometimes it doesn't!!!

Not only is this knife near mint, it has a neat little bit of information, along with the red box!!

The year it may have been made!!??
And the implication is clear; maybe it's in a box Schrade used for marketing their beautiful knives. Certainly makes gift wrapping easy!
Now I wonder who Bob Borin was, and why 1945 was important to him??
Did he return from the War, hopefully intact? I was a year old, unaware of much except eating, laughing, and hopefully, done filling diapers!
So what event sparked the etch, and why did it endure all these years??
All I can do is thank Bob for my turn at caring for this bit of history!!:thumbup:

 

[ken erickson]

:thumbup:Keepem comin Charlie!!!

I second that!

The Progress Jack stands the test of time! Nice Ebony and that crisp, narrow long pull:thumbup:

Ken

PS, the Schrade calender greets me every morning when I go out to the shop,

 

[navihawk]

I prefer the Texas look on a stockman. Thanks for the history lesson guys. Charlie, I picture that ebony jack was owned by an auto mechanic and the bolsters got run over.The pitting? Scraping battery terminals of course:thumbup:
These older Shrades have be one of the most beautifully well made pocketknives I've ever seen. Thanks for sharing them.

 

[6.0stroker]

:thumbup::thumbup:Glad YOU got the Borin Charlie had it on my watch list but with a job now:grumpy: not enough time to snipe hunt:foot:!!!