George Schrade was involved with numerous knife firms during his life. They included Press button knife, Schrade Knife, Flylock Knife, and Presto or the George Shrade Presto Knife company in Bridgeport CT. This was his last endeaver and was taken over by his son upon his death. Yes I remember the parrot and the weisbier in the big glasses. He was a big tough old SOB. ( LOUIE) However his main redeeming trait was that if any one brought a kid in the bar ( while most bar owners would offer the kid a coke and chips on the house he would start to yell NO DAMN KIDS at the bar and scare the hell out of them.) Any man who dislikes children cannot be all bad. You probably stopped at Whites, Hermans, and the cobblestone and a couple others that used to be around before they started putting people in jail and ruining there lifes if they have more than three beers. Spencers, Eddies, Freehills, Talk of the town, the Eagle. Any of that sound familiar Hell I could take you through memory lane with every bar from Newburgh to Liberty even further north. Callicoon, Kingston. I have sacrificed my liver and several knuckles for this free knowledge I am dispensing.
Schrade was always trying to lower the production costs of his knives by making new types of less expensive models. The pull ball knife repaced the small ( 2,7/8") double enders that the Schrade firm made for that size. Then he had the wirejack line ( skeleton handles ) often seen in sets with a leather pouch and a scouting emblems. other versions as well. He also made the metal and plastic hollow handles versions of automatics. These were sold on cards for under a dollar in every candy store around ( Now an original card full of these if you could find it would bring a couple of thousand dollars.) If it is the jigged metal sided version It is the model that started my fascination with these. My cousin who went on to become a doctor ( go figure ), would when he came up (from NYC to Newburgh) sometimes look after me ( my baby sitter, I was about 6 or seven years old. ) so that my parents could get away from my incessant babbling and go someplace where they could really fight ( they would hold back in front of me ) They broke up soon after that. However my cousin was tricky and he carried one of these and showed it to me and I have been hooked ever since. He also would sneak in a case or two of Rhiengold and pizza. Of course he also would have a couple of friends over some of them were of the opposite gender. Yup beer tasting was good the pizza was great, The knife he carried I found amazing. but the best part was sneaking in and trying to figure out why them boys and girls were wrestling with each other. I remember thinking I sure hope nobody gets hurt. Oh yes he also smoked and would often leave his cigarettes and loose change lieing around on purpose. He was my favorite cousin.
Let me know if you need some more info as you can see I still haven't stopped babbling. LT
