Question On Open Stock Knives

[winchester73]

Codger may be you or someone else knows this one. I think the open stock knives with jigged delrin look better than the sawcut brown and tan handled knives. Two questions. One, why were they called open stock. Seems a strange name. Two, why were there so many more of the sawcut handled knives than the jigged delrin open stock knives. From the time my dad sold Old Timers in his store when I was a little boy until fairly recently, all I ever saw was the standard sawcut delrin. I didn't see any of the open stock until I started collecting Scrades and saw them on the auction site and I have seen them on members stores on the other knife forum. I have never seen one at a knife or gun show in TN. Are the numbers of manufacture pretty low for open stock slip joints

 

[Codger_64]

Open stock knives are mostly patern which carried over from the days before the OldTimer and Uncle Henry lines were launched. Piecemeal over the ensuing years, they were discontinued. Most were actualy patterns picked up from the original Ulster and Schrade inventory c. 1940-1946.

 

[tongueriver]

When companies have sold sets of pots and pans, and sets of china, and flatware, they then have offered single pieces of saucepan lids or forks or teacup saucers to augment the sets, and these offerings were/are called 'open stock.' I have no idea how this translated to the knives sold by Schrade which were offered concurrently with the Old Timer/Uncle Henry knives. It is a disconnect. The earlier bone-handled patterns morphed into the 'jigged' Delrin-handled patterns, which morphed into the more recent and familiar sawcut and 'Staglon' patterns, many of which go back to 1904. I like the faux jigged bone Delrin better myself, along with your preference. And it just so happens that the first few years of these handles go along nicely with more attractive grinds and more hand work than later product. By the time that the company folded, the blades were downright ugly (ymmv). As far as numbers go, I think most of the 'open stock' production was lower than the OT and UH knives. There were quite a few 225H, 825RB, and 787s, however.
T