Schrade Cutlery Collectors Society

If the 1985 (75th anniversary) boy scout knives were made in the Camillus buildings and said New York Knife on the tang, it is still a legitimate Schrade, in my view. How about the knives in the '80s and '90s that Schrade tang marked with "Walden." You might say they are 'replicas' as well (?). Paranthetically (love that word; just learned it; the kids say "btw"), it would seem that the Boy Scouts are almost as dead as Schrade, a faint shadow of what they were when I was a kid and before. In Britain, they took their scout knives away from them a couple years ago, and they are discouraged at the national level in the U.S. nowadays. I made some inquiries about volunteering as a scout leader and the local participants refused to answer me.
 
I agree with Larry. Anything Taylor or SMKW puts effort into must be sales driven. Praising Imperial Schrade Corp and shunning imports will do nothing for their sales.

I agree with Calvin too: the BSA Scout knife is still a legitimate Schrade to me. I ditched mine because I didn't like the handles. Interesting that it was out-sourced to Camillus.

Why would they outsource? Would this have been a tooling issue? Camillus was all set up to make them already? Just wondering...
 
Albert Baer owned Schrade. Then he bought out the shares of Camillus that he did not already own since prior to WWII (circa 1963). He also bought out the shares of Imperial that he did not already own (circa 1983). He made and sold knives. He wasn't especially picky as to which company he had make them since he owned them all. He used the production capabilities of each as he saw fit. There were Schrades made by Camillus. There were Schrades made by Imperial. There were Imperials made by Camillus. Were any of these really "outsourced"?
 
.....and in 2010 China produced 11 <eleven> times more steel than the U.S.........buying U.S. made products makes economic sense notwithstanding the invariably higher quality and quality control consistancy when it comes to knives...........they also smoke 50,000 cigarettes a second in China so they cant be all that smart.......!! Hoo Roo
 
Codger_64 said:
Albert Baer owned Schrade. Then he bought out the shares of Camillus that he did not already own since prior to WWII (circa 1963). He also bought out the shares of Imperial that he did not already own (circa 1983). He made and sold knives. He wasn't especially picky as to which company he had make them since he owned them all. He used the production capabilities of each as he saw fit. There were Schrades made by Camillus. There were Schrades made by Imperial. There were Imperials made by Camillus. Were any of these really "outsourced"?
Click to expand...

I hear what you are saying. Perhaps "outsourced" was the wrong word. I was just wondering what sort of reasoning would go in to making the decision to manufacture at one facility over another.

Perhaps one factory was less busy than the other at that point in time? Perhaps one factory would need less set-up for the pattern? Did Albert Baer just toss a coin? If no one has these answers it's no biggie. Just wondering aloud.
 
Likely a combination of your suggested reasons, less the one about the coin toss. If the Schrade plant was commited to running full bore to meet current promises to Walmart and other big clients, and Camillus had the machinery and capacity, he would turn projects over to them, still expecting to make money either way. In this business model, the other two factories were defacto remote assembly lines for the parent company (owner).

This is an echo of his operations during WWII when he had knives made by several other manufacturers then shipped to Ulster, finished, then sent on to the government to fulfill contracts that Ulster alone did not have the capacity to fill, yet by using the combined capacities of several cutleries (subcontractors) he was able to land and fill contracts too large for any one cutlery to fill. The subcontractors were thrilled to get the extra work and Baer was (not too begrudgingly) raking in the money.
 
I've seen some runs of knives, especially SFO's, where it appears surplus parts, with blades being easy to spot, being used at multiple companies. It might be surprising to see how many patterns could share springs, pins, rivets, etc being used that way too.
 
In the instances of Camillus assembling knives for Schrade, often components were sent from Ellenville to Camillus when the parts/dies/covers/blades preexisted. It saved shipping blanking dies, etc.
 
I'd love to read a biography about Albert Baer. Do any exist and if so, any recommendations of a certain title would be appreciated.
 
A very good site too!! Ran by Larry Vickery who posts here, his forum name is LRV although some call him Irv for reason.

Russell
 
I'm still curious as to the status of the Schrade Collectors Society. An inquiry to Tennesseeknifeman hasn't been answered. I did pose the question in Bernard Levine's forum today. But so far it has only attracted a former member who was banned. And he only picked up where he left off with the insults four years ago. Still no answer to the questions about the club though. Secret Squirrel stuff I suppose. Hopefully at least one person who reads Bernard's forum knows something.
 
But we who know and love him call him irving. Only in private though. Shhhhh! :barbershop_quartet_
 
Just dont call me late for diner :-)
On my 22" screen the lower case L is readable at high magnification.. I am getting older.
When I signed up moons ago at BF I used lrv and not LRV.
I use LRV on other sights or just plain Larry.
In internet message protocol using capitals was deemed yelling..

Whatever you are calling me its all the same to me irv lrv and LRV all come to my attention.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
You really should work less and play more, Larry! I'll bet it has been a month or more since you bought yourself a new Schrade. "We" aren't getting any younger you know. Well, I'm not at least.

By the way, that "lrv, LRV, Irving" web crawler you wrote is awsome! How it filters out mentions of Irving Berlin and Irving, Texas is amazing!

Michael
 
I see that the question about the collector's club is also asked in the BRL forum, but it seems the only interest in an answer comes from the regulars in this forum. Just glancing thru my newest issue of the only knife magazine worth reading-- KNIFE WORLD-- and there is an ad for said club. There is a phone number listed in the ad. Why not, if emails are not being answered, just call this number and ask a real person?
 
Well, speaking for myself, I am deaf and use a telephone as little as possible. And real people who have and use email, particulary for business can and usually do answer them just like they do a telephone. My inquirys are continuing and I may be making some progress in finding the answers to my questions. The Vice President of Taylor Brands responded and forwarded my inquiry to an acquaintence who should know. And other people in the industry have made contact suggestions.

A few of the regulars in this forum may know the answers, but for whatever reason they choose not to say. Same for some of the regulars in the Levine forum. More than one industry mover and shaker regularly visits and reads that forum. Perhaps they are avoiding the subject because of that troll post or fear of the same here. I really don't know. I am willing to wait until I hear the status from someone reliable.

It is interesting that a new ad appeared in the latest issue of that magazine. Has it appeared regularly before this latest issue? Perhaps I can find an email address for the editor, Mark Zalesky and ask him. Somebody knows. I just wish I knew.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top