Schrade - Taylor/China surprise

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kevins73cigars

Joined
Feb 24, 2006
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276
A few of you know that I have been collecting USA made Schrade knives exclusively for a few years and have recently branched out to include some other US manufacturers (Queen, Schatt & Morgan, Case, Canal Street, Camillus...). While collecting Schrade knives, I never got stuck with any China/Taylor crap.
Recently, I placed a very low bid on a Henckles red bone trapper and won. I didn't like the springs (no snap). The seller was very cool and agreed to exchange it. Turned out all his Henckles were like mine and after some back and forth he offered to send me a Schrade 887OT-B. I didn't want a China/Taylor Schrade (especially since I had recently sold off the excess of the USA made 897UHs from my collection), but this guy was so honorable and trying so hard to do right by me, that I agreed to take the China crap. Only, turns out it's not crap!

It's a good little 897UH substitute. The fit and finish is pretty damn good. It has half stops, carbon blades, nice "genuine buffalo horn" scales, etc... I like it. I wouldn't collect them, but I sure as hell will use them.

Has anyone else tried this model? If you liked Schrade's 897UHs, you should go to a hardware store and check out this model - 887OT-B. I think you will be surprised - I know I was... Don't get me wrong, it's not a collectable, it's a tool. Upon first inspection, it seems to be a fairly well made little pocket knife. I plan on useing it pretty hard and seeing just how well made it is...

Anyone else ever use one of these?
 
Are you 100% certain about it having "carbon blades" and not stainless?


I've got a few of the new Tayor Schrades, have been pleased with them, but accept for one that was a gift I got to hand pick them.

I've handled others that were not so good.
 
No, I do not know with any certainty that these 887OT-Bs have carbon steel blades. This is my only Taylor Schrade. I just figured that since it didn't say "Schrade+" that it wasn't stainless, but I gues I shouldn't make that assumption with the new manufacturor's product. Are they stainless steel blades?
 
Im not 100% against chinease knives but I realy liked shrades products while they were USA.I just can't make my self buy a chinease UH or Old Timer.

Glad you got a good one though.
 
kevins73cigars said:
No, I do not know with any certainty that these 887OT-Bs have carbon steel blades. This is my only Taylor Schrade. I just figured that since it didn't say "Schrade+" that it wasn't stainless, but I gues I shouldn't make that assumption with the new manufacturor's product. Are they stainless steel blades?
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Every Taylor/Schrade I have seen so far has been stainless, and to my knowledge Taylor is not using the "Schrade+" thing. to designate stainless, none of my Taylor/Schrades have it.

Schrade wasn't 100% about that themselves, I have Schrade Old-Timers from before the closing, that are USA made and do not have the "Schrade+" on them, but they are stainless.
 
The Taylor website says "High carbon stainless" is used in their Schrade knives. And they advertise the S&W line as being 440C, so I don't think they use any true carbon steel blades at all.

-Bob
 
Well, I wasn't in the market for a Chinese Schrade, I wasn't in the market for a knife with stainless steel blades, but no big deal one way or the other. It's a nice little $13 knife. I'm not saying that I will ever buy another Chinese made Schrade, but I will say that this little stockman has made me loose that "contempt prior to investigation" that I held for Taylor Schrade.
 
I have a Taylor S&W stockman that's a very nice knife.Taylor is capable of putting out a very nice product- what happened with some of their tacticool knives. Seems like they use higher quality manufacturing on their traditionals.
 
The earlier genuine USA Old Timer knives were made of carbon steel, I'm not sure what year it was Schrade started to introduce SS into the OT line, these knives were never marked any different than the original OT tang stamps.

Rusty1
 
The earlier genuine USA Old Timer knives were made of carbon steel, I'm not sure what year it was Schrade started to introduce SS into the OT line, these knives were never marked any different than the original OT tang stamps.
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In the beginning all of the Old Timers were carbon steel. Then stainless knives were released with their own model designations - for example, the 126OT is the stainless version of the 125OT. Then they started using the SCHRADE+ stamp on some models to advertise them as stainless. By the end, all or nearly all of the Old Timers were stainless steel, regardless of whether or not they had the "+".

I don't know exact dates for these changes; I think it varied by model. You can find out more by searching the Schrade Collectors forum for the model number you're interested in.

-Bob
 
I'd also like to point out that Schrade themselves were having knives made in China before going out of business. Since the Irish factory was closed months before, I suspect they planned to move all of the Imperial/Tradesman/Apex production to China.

-Bob
 
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