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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
L'il Finger Steel
- Thread starter ASBOB
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2009
- Messages
- 13,414
If there's no '+' after the 'SCHRADE' stamp (as in 'SCHRADE +'), it's likely 1095 steel. Assuming so, that's a very good thing. Knives marked with a '+' were stainless; most likely 440A. Some stainless blades actually spelled it out on the tang ('STAINLESS'). Apparently later in Schrade's history, there may've been some stainless blades not so marked for stainless, but they were stainless anyway. Does the steel show any patina or pitting?
(Pics would help, too
)
BTW, it's easy to tell if you have a 1095 blade, by cutting some acidic fruit (grapes, citrus, tomato, some apples). If it's 1095, you'll be able to smell the acid-steel reaction (metallic smell), and the fruit will likely discolor a bit (blue/black) and it'll also take on a very metallic taste. Stainless won't do that.
David
(Pics would help, too
)BTW, it's easy to tell if you have a 1095 blade, by cutting some acidic fruit (grapes, citrus, tomato, some apples). If it's 1095, you'll be able to smell the acid-steel reaction (metallic smell), and the fruit will likely discolor a bit (blue/black) and it'll also take on a very metallic taste. Stainless won't do that.
David
Last edited:
Codger_64
Moderator
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2004
- Messages
- 62,324
The 156OT Little Finger was only made for a few years, 1979-1985 so they are relatively uncommon today. To my knowledge, they were all 1095HC steel and there was no Uncle Henry stainless variant. However the pattern was later used for a few limited editions with both staglon and genuine stag handles and stainless blades, so marked. Also, this was before the time when they began to make running changes of the steel in the Old Timer lines to stainless, without changing the stamps, packaging or catalogs to indicate that it was a stainless blade.
Generally speaking, if a blade after circa 1973-76 has a "+" mark, it is stainless. Absence of that mark does not mean that it is not stainless. Also, while Schrade+ steel was historicly 440A, in the later years it was changed to 420HC.
You can test your Little Finger steel as mentioned, but if it is a as-new example that you are keeping to collect and not use, you may not wish to cut acidic fruit. You can perform the test on an obscure spot of the exposed tang instead where it will be easier to polish back off if done quickly. In my experience, on pristine carbon steel Old Timers the first place any patina/handling marks show up is on the exposed full tang, not the blade.
Generally speaking, if a blade after circa 1973-76 has a "+" mark, it is stainless. Absence of that mark does not mean that it is not stainless. Also, while Schrade+ steel was historicly 440A, in the later years it was changed to 420HC.
You can test your Little Finger steel as mentioned, but if it is a as-new example that you are keeping to collect and not use, you may not wish to cut acidic fruit. You can perform the test on an obscure spot of the exposed tang instead where it will be easier to polish back off if done quickly. In my experience, on pristine carbon steel Old Timers the first place any patina/handling marks show up is on the exposed full tang, not the blade.
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2009
- Messages
- 13,414
^^Thanks very much, Codger. Good to hear your input, as I have a lot of respect for it (bookmarked many of your posts on the topic of all things SCHRADE). :thumbup:
David
David