I'm rapidly losing interest in USA Schrade collecting.

I believe that all of the newly finished blanks can be sourced back to Blue Ridge Knives and/or Smoky Mountain Knife Works (someone might ask a seller their source). They got the work in process at the auction. I can't remember now exactly but it was something like eighteen semi trailer loads. We've watched (and bought) the largest portion of the Schrade finished knives being sold for the past seven years and that well had to run low eventually.

I was recently asked about the Frankenfingers in another hunting/skinning/fishing thread on the forum (yes, I been pimpin genuine Sharpfingers again). My response to their suitability as a user was... I have serious concerns as to the heat treat and quench they received, if any. Anyone with the least knowledge of 400 series knife steel will tell you that it is a good steel if given the correct treatment. That is what made the "+" in Schrade+ steel. I personally don't want one and they are easy enough to avoid if you know what the real knives look like.

Will these aftermarket finished knives muck up the new collectors' market? Sure. Worse than the Chinese copies already have? Hard to say. I have to believe that there will always be a core of knowledgable collectors of genuine Schrades that the n00bs will have as sources to find the truth if they look for it. If they don't care, should we?
 
i know the imitators are everywhere now but that has added a new wrinkle to collecting. learning all you can listening to you and to all the knowledgeable people here to make an educated guess on when buying something. makes one be more sharp and more discerning about buying. always a good thing for us more age advanced persons. we need to use our brains as much as possible to stay off decay.
 
Well, if you hide in a corner of Levine's forum for a while and observe, you will see quite a few knowledgable and respected collectors fooled by fakes, reworks and Bretted knives. You will also see how Bernard (and others) suggest that one can tell the differences. So IMHO, with Schrade knives increasing value/collectability, we are seeing them enter into the market for fakes, replicas and reworks. Most often we fool ourselves by not doing our homework and our greed. It hasn't been that long ago that Schrades were not worth the troulble for P.T. Barnum to fool with. That is beginning to change, first with the nostalgia branding, then the reworks and now with the overseas finishing of leftover blade blanks. This is where serious collectors can help each other. If you aren't sure, ask someone before you buy.
 
Larry303: Why don't you tackle a new challenge in knife collecting? I specialize in, among a few other areas of knives, those from what I call the golden age of American cutlery 1880s to 1930. Big patterns; clasp knives, folding hunters, swell centers, large trappers. You have to learn to recognize fakes and counterfeits, but that is part of the collecting of those things. You wouldn't believe the thrill of finding an excellent condition, big Napanoch or Winchester, or even, perhaps if you are dedicated and willing to the spend the time and money finding one, a Remington Bullet.
 
Larry303, My solution is to collect American made Frontiers. With my latest 4221 the total is 71. Most Frontiers were made by Camillus for Imperial. I don't collect Frontiers made in Ireland.
 
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