Interesting Imperial

[glennbad]

Here is an interesting stockman. Not sure of the vintage, but what makes this Imperial interesting to me is that it is not a shell handle construction. It is solid scales and bolsters, and looks like jigged Delrin to me. It uses the same "Razor Blade Stainless" logo as the Schrade line. (Wow, this one is even "Super") So which came first?

It comes with this neat little paper...(sorry for the quality)

The knife is mint. The brown spots are dried oil.

Okay, Schrade gurus, what do you think?

Glenn

 

[knifeaholic]

I have seen those in older catalogs and I have owned a few - I believe that they were early 70's vintage but could have been earlier than that. The Schrade equivalents were introduced in 1965, so I would guess that that is the earliest vintage for this one. I would imagine that this one uses the "Swinden Rivet" construction typical of Schrade knives.

 

[glennbad]

Okay,

Seems you were in the zone, Knifeaholic!

after a little browsing through some PDFs that were sent my way a while back, I found the knife in question in the 1970 Belknap, on the last page. I'd post it, but I'm still learning...

I don't see a mention of it in the 1955 Belknap, so sometime in between 1955 and 1970 would be my guess.

It is pattern #697RB, 3 1/4" long, with solid nickel silver bolsters and Staglon handles.

Cool, the plot thickens...

Glenn

 

[knifeaholic]

Okay,

Seems you were in the zone, Knifeaholic!

after a little browsing through some PDFs that were sent my way a while back, I found the knife in question in the 1970 Belknap, on the last page. I'd post it, but I'm still learning...

I don't see a mention of it in the 1955 Belknap, so sometime in between 1955 and 1970 would be my guess.

It is pattern #697RB, 3 1/4" long, with solid nickel silver bolsters and Staglon handles.

Cool, the plot thickens...

Glenn

I used the have a Schrade/Ulster catalog from 1964....in this catalog the Schrade versions of the "Razor Blade Stainless" knives were pictured, with the words "Not Available Until 1965" rubber-stamped near the pictures. So I doubt that this Imperial version predates 1965.

The mid 60's was the time that a number of manufacturers (Case, Schrade, Camillus) broke with tradition by coming out with similar "razor blade stainless" type slipjoints with satin finished blades (rather than mirror finish) and blade edges that were finished by final honing on pumice-coated buffing wheels.