My first MIB (MIC?)!

waynorth

waynorth

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Nov 19, 2005
Messages
32,711
Here's my first Schrade in a clampack:) ! I wonder if our resident experts would verify it for me, before I open it? I know, I know; a pristine clampack, but I HATE packaging! I've gotta get fingerprints on a knife, and feel it snap open and shut a few times. And it doesn't fit into my growing stockman collection with the plastic.
Besides, I've hated those +*&%+*@# clampacks all my life:grumpy: ! With scars to prove it:eek: !
So is it real? (I'm sure it is Kevin!) Or is it , ahem "offshore"?
Interestingly, it is way easier for me to verify old knives, because, I'm a newer knife newbie!
Thanks ahead to all of you who care to comment!
UHMIB.jpg
 
Yes, it's the real deal. Made in the last two years of Schrade's existance.

Slit the back layer open across the top, the knife can h=be slid out without damaging the card or the front of the clampack. Put it away with your other boxes (you have them, we all do!).

Nice knife to own and use. It is my own EDC.

Here is the next earlier clampack, circa 2002: And the next earlier, pre 2002 with a twist:

Made for export to Canada bilingual

Codger
 
Fr%$#ing Clampack! Anybody want to buy some genuine shredded plastic and blue/gray cardboard???
Nice knife though! I am always leery of springs that are under tension from partly open blades. There is enough snap left to call it good, but I'm sure there used to be more.
Thanks for the verification, Codger.
I wonder if I can recycle the plastic?
 
The contractor I work with lost his cheap folder last week and I handed over my 897UH to him as a present. I've worked the knife hard since I posted this in 2005:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=343968&highlight=897UH
but I've treated it right. Other than some blade and bolster scratches, it was nearly like new. I then came home and opened a new clampack (the blue one) and the blades walk and talk like they should. The knife had resided in the clampack in the position you see for about four years with no noticable weakening of the springs.

Codger
 
Codger, I remember reading the tale of your 897s! Nice to see they work well for you. I have so many EDCs, this one won't likely get used.
It's hard to say if the springs are affected, because you don't get to test it before it is packaged. As I said, mine is o.k. I just can't help but feel it could snap harder if it wasn't stressed for a few years. I've had .45 magazine springs, fully compressed for ten or more years function flawlessly, but Adrian Harris's Knife Repair book describes how to lessen the spring (shudder) on a knife by stressing (overstressing) it with a tool he illustrates. Reminds me of Medieval torture!
I guess it really boils down to how carefully the steel is formulated and heat treated.
 
IMHO, a lot of the lore about stressed springs dates back to earlier days of knifemaking when the steel quality and particularly the heat treat consistancy was a far cry from what we have today, or even since the fifties. I read a shocking story, related by an owner of yore, of walking through a stockroom hearing "ping...ping" of new knife springs breaking in the boxes. Metalurgy has advanced by leaps and bounds over the years. If my knives made after the fifties have weakened springs, I cannot tell it without using some sophisticated testing equipment. Weren't most of the Schrade "off the board" knives displayed open? How is the action on those? I have none.

Codger
 
Couple of comments:

I have one Shrade knife that was from a store case, displayed halfway open. The springs are noticable weaker than other similar knives I have. No idea how long it'd been in that case though. I also have several Schrades that were half-open in clam packs, and there was no noticable difference in the springs.

Also, I've seen posted on Bladeforums an instance where backsprings went totally dead after having the knife partially open for only a few minutes for a photo. It wasn't a Schrade though...

Clam packs suck. I throw away the plastic, but keep the cardboard. I have one knife that I've tried to keep mint in the clampack, but it's not working out.

Best Wishes,
-Bob
 
I can't imagine anyone would like clampacks. I hate any product that is packed in them. The boxes have some nostalgic value for me. I'm with Waynorth, if you can't handle a knife, even if it's in a collection,it's no fun to have it. You notice on Ebay that clampacks don't even sell for as much as ones with no packaging at all. The 8OT is a real good example. You can pick up a Blue Clampack for under $24.00, but the "like news" with a good story might go for around $30.00. I got one of the USA 167UH Steelheads for $23.00, and it was packaged the same as the one Waynorth showed. I thought it might have been a Taylor since many of the boxes with that same packaging motif are Taylors. I won't post a picture, it would take up too much space. I've cussed clampacks for years along with other types of toy packaging. It reeks of China. I've thought some of those packaging designers should be put in charge of national security ;) .
 
Codger, I can't say I have any seriously weak backsprings on those early knives. But some could be snappier. I don't know if we'll ever resolve this debate. A.G. Russell apparently has had some negative experience, because he warned me against leaving springs under tension. A fully open blade is usually O.K. Or a half stopped blade, at the stop. The worst is two blades on one spring, both partly open so the spring is under max tension.
Larry sent me some of the snapshots of the factory boards, and there are some partly open blades there. It looks like the single spring Pen knives are fully open for the most part, relieving the tension.
Anyway, it's partly a theoretical debate, and I will definitely err on the side of caution. It takes too much sweat and blood to own a vintage collection. I hope you are right, and the springs are too good for human error!
 
Nice knife! ...looks familiar...:) I can tell you that it has been my recent experience that eBayers don't trust the blue clampacks. They think Schrade's in the blue clampacks are China/Taylor Schrade's and are leery of bidding on them. I sold a 167UH in a clampack that went for under $25! The next 167UH went for over $10 more - same knife!, same production year! It's understandable, but frustrating. What are we collecting, the knives or the packageing? I guess both.

I am almost done clearing out my collection, I took a little break for Thanksgiving... I have eight or nine more MIB 897UHs to list - not clampacks thank God! I'll get around to listing them, but I don't feel like it now. Hell, no hurry. I already bought my wife's Christmas present.

Also, I ended up with an extra box for a Schrade 285UH. Don't know how the hell that happened? I did get to kept some good stuff (about 15 knives.) From now on, I think I am going to be looking for older Schrade Walden stuff and Canal Street knives...
 
I wonder if you'd recognize it without its "clam"?
Indeed nice!
 
I don't know about Schrades, but I've a display-case set of Camillus Cartirdge knives from the mid-90s that I bought in '03. They were stored open for about 8 years or so, and still snap cleanly. I've no delusions of worth (except the Mauser might be a few bucks), but they're staying mint.
 
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