Elusive Schrades

Sauconian said:
Interesting bone on the Hawbaker Charlie.

Not what I expect on a Schrade. Much lighter in color and more vigorously " fitted " at the bolsters.

Do you have other Schrades that look this way, or do you think this may have been specific for this pattern ?

Fran
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Rarely do you see the jigging "hafted" off at the bolsters, Fran. Maybe such a long knife required it, but usually they are jigged right up to the bolster.
I was looking for that Jack up above, and looked at about 60 - 70 Schrades today, and saw very few smoothed off ends. In post #54 you can see some stag that was beveled.

I am just going through and making sure I haven't missed anyone's questions.
 
Sauconian said:
Interesting bone on the Hawbaker Charlie.

Not what I expect on a Schrade. Much lighter in color and more vigorously " fitted " at the bolsters.

Do you have other Schrades that look this way, or do you think this may have been specific for this pattern ?

Fran
Click to expand...

I don't think this is specific to the pattern, Fran. It's an anomaly in my opinion. I guess if you get a bit of an "arch" in the bone or leave it too thick, it will finish out that way, but I'm just guessing.
 
Although the Schrade Cut. Co. catalogs offered Genuine Stag as a handle option, you don't see too many. The stag on this one is beautiful, and well chosen for a 3" knife. All blades are Crocus polished, and with the threaded (hand-filed I believe! Slight variation under magnification!) bolsters, it was meant to be a top-end knife!!
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The stag on that one really is nicely matched. If this quality stag was available to Schrade its a shame not more were scaled with it.

Ken
 
I often see wood handles on this Teardrop EO pattern, but much more rarely in Peachseed bone. In general, the Teardrop pattern is an old one. It takes a good eye for a cutlers to finish one off symmetrically AND keep the curves graceful.
Case hasn't done one for years. Don't know when Schrade stopped, but I don't think they've made one in Delrin, which started in the 1950s maybe.
Queen still makes one though. I love that old Queen factory - visiting it is like going back in time!
Anyway, old Teardrops don't get much nicer than this old EO!
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Dang Charlie, that's gorgeous!!

Here are a few more EO's, with the above mentioned wood handles (ebony and cocobola), a pocketworn bone model with their more common jigging pattern (kind of hard to tell at this point), and a brass handled model:

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Eric
 
Wow! Nice EO collection, Eric. Mostly full blades!!!!
I remember the first couple of teardrops I bought looked full-bladed to me, sort of like your Bone one; then I learned that they should have quite a wide, kind of leaf shaped blade in them. Your bone one, (an oldie with that jigging IMO!) looks real nice and nicely cared for, but when you compare it to the others, the truth comes out. :eek:
The curmudgeonly BRL says you have to look at lots of full, mint examples before you can legitimately say "down 10%" (if you can ever say that), and he's right! Thanks for the opportunity, Eric!
Chicken-eyeing knives is the best education. . . . along with coon-fingering, to quote an Old Dog!!!!:D

Thanks for the correction on the Delrin, and the link, Tongueriver! Where would old farts like me be, without our resident memory banks like you!!;)
 
After looking at all these Easy Opens I realize this one must have been made by Schrade. Judging from the jigging it's from the early days. It's 3 5/8" closed & stamped WESTER BROS WARRANTED NEW YORK on 3 lines. According to LG4 they were wholesalers circa 1906. When I first found this knife I thought the jigging was early New York Knife Co. What do you guys think? Barry
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The jigging isn't exactly the same, and the shape of the blade has a more acute "kink" in the curve where it is swedged. Otherwise it's a spitting image, Barry!!
Can you scan yours with a ruler? I will do the same.
Be nice to CE and CF them both at the same time!
 
Those knives seem to use the exact same handle pattern, and the blades are very close. Looks like they have the same origin.
Eric, please tell us about the bone jigging operation in Walden. I remember you mentioned it elsewhere in the forums. At that time I thought that NYK and Schrade may have used the same source for bone, with slight variations in the jig patterns.
 
Charlie, in the very early 1900's (pre-1915), Schrade, Walden Knife Co., and NY Knife Co. formed the Walden Cutlery Handle Co. as a joint venture to insure that they didn't run out of adequate bone for their handles. I think they called it The Stag Shop. You'll notice a striking similarity in the jigging patterns of knives from all three companies from around that time. It's a fairly rough jig. I'm not sure how long this "partnership" lasted, as I'm not really sure when it was formed. Eventually Schrade wound up buying the others out, I believe in 1915, and folded the building into it's operations. Schrade alone went through over a boxcar full of bone per month! The building eventually burned down, I think in the forties or fifties by, you guessed it, a celluloid induced fire. One single spark caused by a crooked tooth on a saw ignited a cloud of cell dust and the whole place was in flames in a matter of minutes.

Eric
 
Quite a tale of disaster, Eric!! Is that from a former employee??
Can you show an example or two of what is meant by a fairly rough jig??

To the faithful readers herein: This is a great little segue! I find stories like this as interesting as the knives, but don't worry - there are more knives coming!!
 
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What a great thread, what a collection. Thanks so much for this Charlie.

Best regards

Robin
 
BTW, thanks for the extra pics, Barry! I have seen that jigging of yours on another knife!
But where . . . . . .hmmmm . . . . . .???
 
While awaiting more bone info, let's veer off into other handle materials for a while.
I love the way french ivory looks! Even though it is comprised of the sometimes fickle Celluloid, lots of stuff in life is transient, so I'm willing to take a few chances, for the beauty it presents!
There still is a steady demand for budding/grafting/pruning/flower knives, and in their day, Schrade made some nice ones;
These are all well made, and function with satisfying feel and snap!
They came from a salesman's roll, as you can see.
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I think I know why the Schrades are illusive...YOU HAVE THEM ALL, CHARLIE!!! :p
 
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