Opinions Please on this closed eBay auction

wow! never saw that one,and im always looking,I guess it's just what your willing to pay for it.I have noticed a big increase in prices on usa made schrades in the past month. take care
 
The "Signed by both Presidents" is the Presidents of Smoky MT Knife Works, and another company, which doesn't do much for me, since it is after the fact, so to speak.
I would only pay for the knife value, which is whatever a person thinks it is worth.
 
I believe that knife may have been a true sample, albeit one for the odd marbleized translucent handle material. It's value? As has been said, whatever someone is willing to pay. The $100 would have been stretching it for me personally, but obviously the buyer thought it was worth that to add it to his/her collection. I have a couple of those certificates myself. I bought the knives though, not the certificates. This cert like most of them is just wrong.

The blade used on this knife is an older "Schrade+ U.S.A." blade with the original style plain grind, not the later hollow grind. It has the common longitudinal crocus finish, not a high polish. There was no shielding cavity or sign of the production sawcut handle texture, so these covers were likely molded in the same low volume production mold used for the Scrimshaw line, or quite possibly hand cast in a one-off sampling mold. I've seen a variety of different handle colors come across eBay over the past two years. A few of them I later wished I had bought. I did watch this auction with some interest. I lost interest right around $75.00.

Michael

PS- Think about the difference between a sample and a prototype.
 
I had this knife on my watch list but lost interest when it went over my limit.You have to watch these 1 of a kinds.One seller a while back had a yellow handled 152 1 of a kind,prototype when we know of two on the forum and someone said there were 2500 made for Smokey.Arnold
 
Why is it that everyone with a 000 serialized knife calls it a prototype? Doesn't that number signify a salesman's sample?
Eric
 
I guess "PROTOTYPE" has become a catch-all buzz word for everything that wasn't production in every detail. As a manufacturing process engineer, having taken products through all phases from inception, design, mold setup and modification, material selection trials, hand building mockups, pre-prototypes, prototypes, samples, preproduction samples, production ramp up and run to rate for production, I know the differences. I might take a production molded part and add a special cutom pain and hardware for a show vehicle, and it would be a one-off item, a sfo sample. The parts I made by hand from the first crude moldings, hand painted after clipping and sanding the gates and parting lines, drilled holes and hand fitted attachment hardware were prototypes that were sent to be fit-matched in Detroit to the prototype vehicle. This vehicle was usually scrapped at the end of the development cycle, the parts all sent to a chopper under escort lest they show up on the market somewhere. The second year's paint schemes and accent colors were sent out as customer approval samples, they were not protos.

Michael

PS- 000 was usually a number assigned to a photo sample.
 
Schrade serial numbers have always been a real issue to me in my Schrade buying addiction. I have two photo samples which has been mentioned and have the P. S. or 0000. Some of the photo samples have either of these marks. I have noticed on some of the Prototypes that the makers have hand electro etched on the blade and usually on the back side of the blade, the numbers are not significant to me as they are to the maker. The Salesman Sample knives usually start with the SS letters followed by the salesman's number, which I would like to have more information on who some of these individuals were and what their SS## were. The knife mentioned to start the thread maybe a Special Factory Order (SFO) and there may only be a hand full of these, Schrade may not have been able to order enough of the material from there suppliers to make these production.

I know that one ebay seller has been selling Irv Trachtenbergs collection and his salesman number was SS20. Now as far as the serial numbers go, I really don't know how Schrade did this, did they have a criteria and a standard which started with 0000 and continue for the production run or did they start with the Photo Sample then the Salesman Samples and then the production numbers. I'm not sure if the factory workers would move a lot of finished production knives in a separated containers to inspection, once inspected then sent to the serializing department and serialized in a not sequenced manor as far as when or the order the knife was made?

From what I am seeing on ebay, many of the serialized 0000 knives have and are being sold by a handful of sellers, some of which I cannot even bid on any more. Most of these 0000 knives were taken right off of the Schrade factory wall boards from the factory collection or museum. As far as what your willing to pay is just that, you have to consider that this is a piece of knife history, a piece of U.S.A. Schrade knife History and that this might be your only chance to own a piece of this history. I heard it said in an email read on a news show, What is collectable in America and the writer answered his or her own question, Anything that Was Made in America. My best to all,

Scott
 
Codger and Sam,
Thanks for clearing that up, I'd never heard of a photo sample before.
Eric
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top