Picked up an Uncle Henry at a garage sale today, any info?

muphasta

muphasta

Joined
Jun 30, 2013
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I know nothing about traditionals, but thought this one was pretty nice. Can anyone tell me anything about it? Age is what I'd really like to know.

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None of my UH's have tang stamps like that. I'm curious to see what others more knowledgable than me on Schrades have to say about it.
 
I'll take a stab at this. Schrade would use the S.C.C. tang stamp for contract knives. I had and 80T with serrated Sheepfoot that was stamped S.C.C.M.M.....for Schrade Cut Co Master Mechanics.
 
Paul, I'm not real clear on the contract knives thing. Do you mean that Schrade would use the SCC stamp for knives that some other manufacturer had made for Schrade? FWIW, that's what makes sense to me in this context. All that old history of who made knives for whom is pretty much over my head!

- GT
 
paulhilborn said:
I'll take a stab at this. Schrade would use the S.C.C. tang stamp for contract knives. I had and 80T with serrated Sheepfoot that was stamped S.C.C.M.M.....for Schrade Cut Co Master Mechanics.
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So, these were made by a factory other than an "in-house" Schrade factory, or, were they made for another company? Seems like the first scenario makes more sense.
 
Well, the fact that in a couple of the photos that were provided, it is easy to see the pivot pin, makes it obvious that the knife was not made by Schrade, since all of the Schrade made Uncle Henry Pocket knives that I am aware of were made using the Swinden Key construction (gag!).

I suppose that it is possible that someone remade this knife and put pivot pins right through the bolsters - I have done this myself to a few Uncle Henrys.

I absolutely love the old Uncle Henry pocket knives, but HATE Swinden Key construction. I have one, that is the third knife that I got from them. I returned the first two, when they loosened up, as Swinden Key knives always will in my experience, if used for more than cutting apples and oranges. Finally when this one loosened up, I just took it all apart, drilled the bolsters all the way through, and put pins in. This knife is now in fairly rigorous use quite often, by students in my whittlin' classes, and has not loosened up. Should it ever do so it is childishly easy to give it a couple of taps and snug everything up.

I really would like to know why Schrade ever used Swinden Key construction. It seems to me to be more complicated than the way everyone else used and continues to use. Also why did they continue to use it even after it was shown to be a problem. Buck's discontinuation of using Schrade and switching to Camillus really proved that
 
Gary, as far as I know the S.C.C. I owned were Schrade made knives. The 80T I mentioned (I had two) one with an "Old Timer" shield and the other shield read "Master Mechanic" and the tangs were stamped S.S.C.M.M.

I also had a "Jim Bowie" 80T with the S.C.C. tang stamp.

I honestly have never seen the tang stamp like that with ""Uncle Henry" on it.
 
Two questions for the experts . Didn't the " + " on the tang mean stainless steel blades?
And number 2: Didn't all pre-2004 Uncle Henry knives have stainless blades, and all Old Timer knives have high carbon steel blades? It was my understanding that was the difference between them.

Judging by the patena, the blades on that knife are not stainless.
 
Not all stainless blades were marked with "+"; but if it was marked with "+", it was stainless.

Uncle Henry's were stainless.
Not all Old Timers were stainless, especially toward the end.
 
Good point. I have never seen a carbon steel Schrade with the "+" mark, though.

Somebody PM Codger64.
 
paulhilborn said:
Gary, as far as I know the S.C.C. I owned were Schrade made knives. The 80T I mentioned (I had two) one with an "Old Timer" shield and the other shield read "Master Mechanic" and the tangs were stamped S.S.C.M.M.

I also had a "Jim Bowie" 80T with the S.C.C. tang stamp.

I honestly have never seen the tang stamp like that with ""Uncle Henry" on it.
Click to expand...

Thanks to Paul and others for trying to explain what's going on here. But I have to admit that the more you guys try to clarify some of this old contract knife history, the more my head hurts! :eek::confused::(:o:(:confused::eek:

- GT
 
Somewhere I have a group of Camillus S Cards sent to me by Tom Williams on the cusp of Camillus' closing and shortly thereafter. As I recall this knife was made for Schrade at the Camillus plant (both essentially Baer owned at that point). And they were made for a SFO customer but I don't remember which one. Yes it is likely stainless as the blade blanks are common with it's parent pattern the 897UH, the first Uncle Henry stockman circa 1966-67. I agree I am seeing surface debris, not patina and rust.

All Uncle Henry knives, folding and fixed, were not always stainless. A few of the fixed were originally carbon steel and, if they remained in the lineup such as the 153UH, switched to stainless at a later date.

Not all stainless blades are marked with the "+". All blades marked with the "+" are stainless.

Most Old Timers were 1095 Carbon steel but not all. Only a few that were stainless were so marked, usually in full text or by "SS". After circa 2002, several Old Timer patterns, folding and fixed, were changed over to stainless without being so marked or noted in ads, catalogs or packaging, or on the tangs.

As for the Swinden Key, it was for efficiency in manufacturing. And owning hundreds, having handled thousands, people's bad experiences with wobble and loose blades is overblown. By and large the key system works well. And did from 1958 through 2004 or the company would have ceased to use it. We are talking many millions of knives covered by a very liberal warranty policy. I have three dozen of this pattern under the parent tang stamp (897UH) and have used it as my EDC for many, many years and have hardly ever seen a problem develop. I do have dozens of traditional pinned knives which have some blade play from worn pins. But if you have one with Swinden construction and know what you are doing, you can disassemble it for blade replacement and put it back together.

Hope this helps.
Michael
 
I am always amazed, yet at the same time not surprised at the level of knowledge here!

Can anyone tell me how old this thing is or did I miss it in a post above?
 
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