Codger_64
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- Oct 8, 2004
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A recent post in another thread by Roland brought up an old and mostly forgotten (by me anyway) pattern, the 172S. We still have little solid information on this knife with which to trace it's history. Over the years several people have speculated on it, but no authoratative answers have come out. The dirth of examples (that I know of) suggests a small production both in timespan and quantity. Was it a marketing flop? A production headache? A stopgap pattern between more successful hunting knife designs or to use up surplus components from another production item? Maybe it was a special factory order for Sears, Belknap, Kresge, Norm Thompson or someone else? Idle speculations for sure. But an interesting mystery nonetheless.
I'll begin by reposting the stolen... err... borrowed posts from the other thread.
The earliest archive mention I found with a search was this one from 2004:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=315670&highlight=172S
An interesting earlier post from LT. I edited out the references to pictures which are no longer there, and also for brevity. The entire unedited thread can be viewed still by clicking the link.
He makes some useful observations about the pattern, some of which we have repeated in our own observations above.
PS-There are a few errors made in this last referenced post such as the meaning of "S" on the tang, but we are reading this post six years later with the benefit of years of research in the interim. And I am still very prone to make mitakes miself!
I'll begin by reposting the stolen... err... borrowed posts from the other thread.
Here's another rare one: Schrade/U.S.A. 172S
the blade is similar to the 148 series from the 1960s. the 172UH was first produced '71-'73. where exactly the 172S came in i'm not sure, but the plastic handle is not Staglon. it's got a very "plastic" look to it (i.e. el cheapo) and it's light weight, adding a cheap feel. i think Schrade was trying out different plastics for a stag like look before settling on Delrin which became the material for both "Saw-Cut" and "Staglon".
it actually looks better in the pic than in person.
the above 'facts' may not be much more than my imagination as i cobbled this together from bits of old posts. but: Codger knows ! maybe he'll get some accuracy here.
roland
The earliest archive mention I found with a search was this one from 2004:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=315670&highlight=172S
An interesting earlier post from LT. I edited out the references to pictures which are no longer there, and also for brevity. The entire unedited thread can be viewed still by clicking the link.
He makes some useful observations about the pattern, some of which we have repeated in our own observations above.
PS-There are a few errors made in this last referenced post such as the meaning of "S" on the tang, but we are reading this post six years later with the benefit of years of research in the interim. And I am still very prone to make mitakes miself!
