Schrade four pin LB8?

[Hedger]

I ran across a four pin stag LB8 with an LB7 blade. Is this an error? Were early stag LB8's using the LB7 Schrade + blades?

 

[delmas2nd]

i have never seen a 4 pin LB8. i had thought that the LB8 and LB7 shared the same blade and only the handle we different. it will be nice to see what answers we get from the high gurus of this forum.

 

[Codger_64]

As most of us know, the earliest LB-7 knives had four pins (three cover pins and one spring pivot pin). Later, Schrade changed the pins to three (two cover pins and one spring pivot pin). We see this on both the production LB-7 and it's sister, the SC502 Scrimshaw. Not long after the pin change, it was discovered that some of the smooth Delrin covers were warping and not being held flush near the bolsters with only two cover pins, so they went back to three cover pins on all smooth covered LB-7 patterns, except the LB-7 pattern itself. The Fibron impregnated wood covers were dimensionaly stable without the extra cover pin. Dated Scrim knives bracket these changes. Evidently, the LB-8's Staglon texture prevented the warping found with the smooth Delrin covers, and they stayed with the three pin (two cover pin) change.


One way to be certain we are looking at an early example of the LB-8 is to look at the first known issues in the Dixie Editions from 1978.

Here is a later three pin LB-8

You will note also that at some point in time, the spring pivot pin location also changed.

 

[Hedger]

Thanks for the information Codger. This is the first time I have seen an LB8 four pin. Are the ones pictured serialized?

 

[thawk]

The Tennessee Knife in the first picture shows a serial number on the fixed blade. I bet the LB8 has one that matches.

 

[Codger_64]

Yes, while I don't have one of these sets, the two knives in the sets were serialized with matching numbers.