Schrade Imperial (China made) Quality?

J

jamesbeat

Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
314
This Scrade Imperial congress caught my eye:



I don't know why, but I really want one.
I know a lot of people have a low opinion of the Chinese Schrades, but I'd like to know what the quality is like in comparison to the other Chinese knives such as Rough Rider, Steel Warrior et al?
 
I've owned 1 or 2 of the newer imported shrades and they were decent but I think I'll stick with Rough Rider when it comes to Chinese slipjoints I dunno they just seem to be better in overall quality and I feel that RR's blade steel holds a better edge.
 
I bought a a chinese single bade peanut and I absolutly hate the thing. Mine came so dull that it wouldnt even begin to cut paper and the grind was so steep I couldnt reprofile it my self. When the blade is open I noticed it is bent very badly. This make me sick because they used to make such great knives (my first knife was a well used small stockman my dad gave me when I was 7 years old)
 
There's also the matter of taking a venerable old American name with a fine reputation built on many decades of high quality work and using that name to sell products of dubious quality!
 
Stay away from Schrade-Taylor!
I bought a Middleman Jack, POS, asked the same question over at the Schrade Collector's Forum and they nearly bit my head off.
 
Yes, I read a few posts over there when I was looking for info on this knife.
I definitely understand their anger, at least rough rider and steel warrior use their own name rather than one they bought.

Having said that, I am not thinking of buying this knife for the name, I really like the cracked ice celluloid and the congress pattern, and I would like such a knife in my collection, but not enough to spend a lot of money on one.

To the guys who say that it's poor quality, would you mind elaborating?
Fit and finish? Quality of materials? Is the edge holding really terrible, or just a notch below RR?

I know it's a very cheap knife, but I still don't want to spend money on it if it's gonna be really terrible.
For the price, I'm prepared to settle for mediocre just to have an example in my collection, but I don't want to buy utter crap.
 
Do the Chinese Schrade's say "Made in China" on the knife anywhere? I bought a CRKT Razel folding stubby which turned out to be Chinese. But so far I have been pretty impressed with it. I've only sharpened it a couple times so far. The main edge was very sharp but the front edge was quite dull. Fixed that!
 
I've had one. Not terrible. But yeah, a notch down from RR. Gaps. Weak snap.
 
I have a great many Rough Rider knives and all are very good knives. Thought I'd try a "schrade" whittler (888OT) in buffalo horn. Scales are lifting badly Fand F is poor at best, blades will not take an edge worth a damn, master spear blade has tons of wobble. The price of the schrade was over $20.00 where as most RR knives are much less than $20.00.
Taylor does not care about the good name of Schrade at all as is obvious in the lack of quality they decide on when great quality is available for less than 1/2 the price from China.

Regards

Robin
 
I am very happy with mine, especially for the $6-$7 (can't remember, might have been $5) I paid for it.

In all honesty it is fitted better than any Queen or Case I have, except for the Case Sway Back Jack. The blades are sharp enough to shave the hair off your arm right out of the box. It has weak halfstops (you can see the raised spring when half opened in a couple of those scans), but overall the spring tension is pretty good. The blades sit between the liners and don't wobble when opened.

Maybe I got an exceptionally nice one, but it's worth every penny I paid for it.

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I bought three of them after I lost one of my good Schrade's and then found it a week later. It was a single blade liner lock Trapper I had used for 20 years to field dress and even process deer. I even used it to clean a few fish over the years. I desided to retire it after I found it and I bought three patterns from Taylor so I could retire two others and "still use them".

Of the three I purchased the large two blade hunter was very good, the the liner lock Trapper was almost perfect, and the regular trapper pretty poor. The first two I had to compare side by side to be able to tell they were slightly lower quality. The later was not good at all. The blades opened weak, they rubbed the liners, one blade had a nice from closing and hitting the spring, and it had gaps. I think I had less than $40 in all three knives including the Uncle Henry Large two blade Hunter.

Based on the Case I just purchased I would say even my old Uncle Henry and Old Timers don't compare...and I have a bunch of them. Time will tell which holds up best, but I doubt I'll know the answer because even the poor quality Taylor will likely out last me.
 
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