Schrade LB7 S/N information

[Chris.Noyes]

Hi Folks,
I recently came across my dad's fishing knife in an old tackle box I inherited. It had been in the box for at least 30 years. The knife has the "Schrade+" and "U.S.A. LB7" stamped on the blade, it has four pins, and after a thorough cleaning of decades old fish slime, I noticed that the serial number is 0009. I wondered what the year of manufacture was, and my curiosity about it led me to this forum and the wealth of information within. I read through the posts about dating knives and I understand the difficulties in getting an exact date. Now, I am mostly curious about any significance of the very low serial number. Is this the 9th LB7 ever made?
Also, interestingly, there is a last name and a Social Security Number engraved on the brass that is not my dad's, and I assume is the original owner. I suppose it is a long shot, but is there any way to reunite this blade with the original owner? For obvious reasons, I won't disclose the name or serial number here, but if anybody here can tell me them, I will get this knife in the mail asap. It would be worth giving up this knife for a cool story to tell!
Thanks for your help,
Chris

 

[Codger_64]

If the serial is not preceded with an alpha (A00009,B,C etc.) and is not a limited edition, then it is likely the 9th one made and as such began life as a salesman's sample. Typically the first dozen or few dozen of a new pattern were handed out to the sales force to gather preorders as production ramped up. As to the name and SS#, the first digits are assigned by state. There are online utilities which can give the issuing state and year I believe. But then not everyone remains in the state where they lived when they were first assigned a SS#. Sorry, best I can do.