Codger_64
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redshanks said:
O.K., but there is not a wealth of information available on them.
Factory wood handled samples
The Imperial Schrade Ellenville New York factory closed in July of 2004, and Schrade went through bankruptcy dissolution by the bank and the court. At the three day bankruptcy sale in October of 2004, machinery went one direction, intellectual property another, and the finished knives another.
Stewart Taylor owner of Taylor Cutlery (soon renamed Taylor Brands LLC.) Located in Kingsport Tennessee, bought the intellectual property (Names, trademarks, copyrights, patents), and began licensing the names, and commissioning copies of Schrade knives from manufacturers in China. The machinery went to several different companies, including the manufacturing division of David Halls United Cutlery, Arrowhead, located in Sevierville Tennessee. Most of the knives were purchased for pennies on the dollar by Kevin Pipes, owner of Smokey Mountain Knife Works in Sevierville, Tennessee, and Phillip Martin, owner of Blue Ridge Knives of Marion, Virginia.
The more than nine tractor trailer loads of knives removed from the Ellenville factory included everything that resembled a knife. The finished knives were standard production items awaiting shipment on outstanding orders, old stocks of production overruns, end of days knives which were mutts hastily assembled to use up material inventory and reduce the amount of work in progress on hand, knives accumulated in reject bins, knives from executive offices, the impressive Imperial Schrade knife collection, and knives from the sample & prototyping room.
The knives were sold in box lots to dealers across the country from November of 2004 through October of 2005, flooding the market and giving collectors (as well as speculators) a chance to participate in a buying frenzy that saw prices of some rather common knives escalate beyond their true value. And some valuable, low production knives sold for far below their value. As the box lots began to be sold down by late summer of 2005, rarer knives began to surface, providing an opportunity for small collectors to add nice pieces to their collections. Among these knives were individual pieces found in the sample room.
One such group from the sample room included a set of knives, individually sold on eBay, with laminated wood handles. One was the 15OT, which I lost the bidding on, even though it went at what I considered to be a very reasonable price for what may well have been a one of a kind. It still had the sample room tag on the sheath with the sample number and wood description. Another that was being sold by the same seller was a 152OT, and I plain missed the ending of the auction. The one I did get was a 165OT also with laminated wood handle. I only have pictures of the 15OT and the 165OT, and they are not very good. The wood on my example has a really brilliant chatoyance. For those not familiar with the term, it is the reflectivity of the grain. It shows a lot of depth and the color shifts as the viewing angle changes. Like tiger eye quartz. The fit and finish to the tang, guard, the perfectly flush brass rivets, all mark a knife carefully hand assembled and finished by someone who is a master at his craft.
My example has the SCHRADE+ over U.S.A. LTD. tangstamp, as did the other two. My other 165's ( 9 spanning the years 1966-1991) have a flat plane to the secondary (lower) grind of the sabre ground blade. This one has a concave secondary (hollow ground?), and a satin mirror polish (is that the right term?) instead of the usual crocus finish on 165OT's. I am not sure what the wood itself is. It does not look light like oak, nor dark like walnut, nor red like cocobolo. It takes a very close inspection of the top and bottom to even see that it is a lamination, the layers appearing to be about 3/32" thick and closely matched for grain. The wood on the two scales even matches in the dark upper grain. Bookmatched? If it were not a lamination, I would say they were.
So is it a sample, or a prototype, or a factory custom shop? Your guess is as good as mine. I do know that it is an excellent addition to my collection of 165OT Woodsman's. Wood handled factory knives were produced by the custom shop over the years, and many patterns have been spotted and authenticated.
Some people shun knives such as these like a red headed stepchild. I find they add a spice and uniqueness to my collection that would otherwise be a collection of hum-drum catalog correct knives. And these variants prove the beauty of the original design, rather than stand out as mutts. Just one man's opinion.
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