Schrade Walden yellow muskrat from SMKW

R

rev_jch

Joined
Jul 29, 2002
Messages
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Well, it may not be the old ones, but it seems to be a decent knife. Smoky has some Scharde Walden yellow delrin handle mukrats that, from I hear, are decent quality and 100% made in the USA. I spoke to someone there in the showroom the other day and I was told they were comparable quality with the way the Schrades use to be. They are made in the USA, not china. The Schrade Walden name has been used with permission given by taylor. I was told that the knive may be made by bear, but personally, they look like camillus' work. The knife even resembles camillus' yellow jacket muskrat, even is the same size, the pins, bolsters line up, etc. Im not sure what, if any warrantly will be supplied with these, but they seem to be decent knives. They come in some of the old clear plastic tubing that Schrade Walden use to use. In fact it says in the ad these packages were found in the old factory (very possible).

This seems to be a knife worth buying. Personally I would not give a penny for the new chinese made Schrades, but these USA made ones seem worth it. I do not like the way taylor does business, and I am not happy with the direction they have taken Schrade in (it was very predicatble, especially on past behavior, actions, etc.)

Anyway, here are two links, one to the knife, and the other to the camillus yellow jacket muskrat for reference:


http://www.eknifeworks.com/webapp/e...Text=walden&Search.x=7&Search.y=7&SKU=SWA787Y

http://www.eknifeworks.com/webapp/eCommerce/product.jsp?Mode=Text&SearchText=Muskrat&A=&SKU=CM714Y
 
Rev_jch,

I looked through a bunch of catalogs and cannot find that specific pattern with the long spey blade on the bolster by itself used by Schrade. The spey was usually paired with a large main blade. The 1924 reprint talks about the muskrat having a Spey blade but I have not found a picture. The knife pattern number would be in the 7 series if it existed at all.
Both the Buck 313 and Remington make the muskrat with a spey and clip blade.
I'll keep looking for this SMKW's Schrade ancestor but believe you are correct with the Camillus line. It wouldnt be the 1st time Camillus did for Schrade as Schrade did for Camillus.

I wonder if they (SMKW) are selling the tubes? Schrade used to sell them as a seperate item.

TTYL
Larry
 
This configuration of muskrat was never in the Schrade Walden line. The knives are improving due to the overwhelming rejection of the original (TAYLOR) offerings. Hey listen Taylor bought it,apparently the original eastern (oriental) offerings were rejected by the buying public. that should say something. They are using old plastic Schrade packaging found in the factory which is helping sell them, perhapes they can completely end there selling problems if they can just find an unending supply of the old original Schrade Walden knives themselves. LT
 
The knife is made by camillus, and it is "junk".

I bought four examples and all four were of poor quality.

The tube packgaging was indeed old schrade walden, but the carboard insert of course was new and printed for taylor, it also acknowledges camillus' manufacture of these knives.

Now, on to the knives.

The spey blade when open, causes the backspring to be sitting much too high, almost 2/32's above the blade and other backspring. The bolsters are not ground well (crooked) and they do not line up with the liners (ill-fitted, shaped, etc.). The shields do not fit too well and have spaces between where they are inserted (and the handles, this varied some). This was on all four. The backsprings had spaces between each other, the liners, bolsters, etc. This varied though on all. On one of them the handles did not fit at all and there was a large space between one handle and the bolster on the pile side. All in all they are poor quality, they are very reminiscent of camillus' latest venture on the remington bullet knife repros with delrin handles (with new madison, nc etch) sold at smoky, except the quality is even worse.

All four of these will be making a trip back to smoky. It is disappointing, but typical taylor quality (even if camillus did make them).

oh by the way, true (if Im not mistaken) schrade walden never made a knife like this, but they (taylor, smoky) do not claim they ever did.
 
rev_jch said:
The knife is made by camillus, and it is "junk".

I bought four examples and all four were of poor quality.
Click to expand...

Cool. I assumed it would be decent, possibly equal to the yellow knives Camillus makes (they aren't super great, but the ones I have seen were OK). Therefore, I was tempted to buy one even though I didn't want to give any more money to Taylor. Now I don't have any desire to buy it! Thanks!

The eknifeworks description says the schrade name was used with permission though, making it sound like Camillus licensed the name to make a knife THEY wanted to sell. Or maybe it was just a poor choice of words.
 
Taylor probably just had it contracted to camillus to make for them, could have been a smkw venture also. At any rate the knife manufacturers like camillus, the now (deceased) schrade, colonial, and others, etc. made knives for each others companies for years.
 
Once again the reason for the contract to camillus was to confuse the american made in USA and flag issue , which is correct legal and fine when using camillius, also as I have already quoted the price to contract them was 8 to 12 dollars depending on model. Now Taylor can get away for less with the Commy Gook er, excuse me ( politically incorrect phrase ) foreign models and he will just as soon as the modest original out cry is over and he brainwashes people to either ignor the USA label. or think these are made in the USA . The issue of making contract knives is not the point here, of course all of these companies make contracts in fact Schrade in particular made them for almost everyone Sears, Pennys, hell even other knife companies, Remington, buck, Kabar just as a few examples . The issue here is the reason to give an american company the contract when he can and will produce the same knife for less with his foreign connections. The reason as I said before is to confuse the average buyer ( who probably could care less anyway ) into thinking all his (Taylors) junk will be american made.Frankly who cares it is as dead an issue as Schrade is but dammit why not just come out and say to the public here is this chinese junk, either buy it or spend extra and get something made by americans. NAA that is not good advertising and certainly not the way the communist chinese do business. LT
 
I was hoping it was a sign of nobody buying the Chinese models and Taylor trying something else (which I hope fails as well). But the use of original Schrade boxes suggests Smoky Mountain started with a pile of these boxes and thought "hmm, what can we fill these with?"
 
I hate being right sometimes, especially in this case. I figured that when taylor bought them a year ago that this would happen, that they would be made overseas, and they are!!! The new stuff labeled "classic" makes me sad....
 
Don't get me wrong...I love the store, because I love to go in and browse, but I have learned a few things about them and actually had a very revealing conversation three months ago when I was up there with a young SMKW employee (who they probably need to get rid of before he blabs his opinion of his employers to enough people to actually hurt their business). It would not shock me for SMKW to box chiknives in old Schrade boxes and mislead the buying public. Their sales people are by and large poorly trained about the knives they sell, but are taught to say whatever is necessary to say to get the customer to purchase. That a sales person told someone the new Taylors were on par with the original Schrade knives when obviously they aren't only serves to uphold this point. They are, after all, a business. I don't suppose I have to like it. I am very wary of what I am told by any employee of the place now.

I don't mean to be offensive. I simply heard things I didn't like, and I keep having examples put before me that bear them out.
 
I know smoky only too well. My family has a home in wears valley right down the road.

I use to have friends there, one of them was one of the (now) "former" managers in customer service. Some of their business practices are a little "shady", if not questionable. They are a business, they are there to make money. You just have to "educate" yourself on what you are looking at.
 
rev_jch said:
I know smoky only too well. My family has a home in wears valley right down the road.

I use to have friends there, one of them was one of the (now) "former" managers in customer service. Some of their business practices are a little "shady", if not questionable. They are a business, they are there to make money. You just have to "educate" yourself on what you are looking at.
Click to expand...

I too have experienced the great smoky mountain. Nice people, but they tend to be sloppy with product descriptions and generous with condition/value/quality. I don't think they mind leaving out a detail or two.
 
Thanks for the post. I recently bought / traded for one of these knives at
a flea market. Did I read this right? These knives are made in China??
Or are they manufactured by Camillus in the U.S. and marketed for Schrade,
which currently is making the rest of their knives overseas?
I thought I was getting a factory find from the seventies... Should have
known better! It's one ugly color yellow, that much I'm sure of!!! Thanks..
 
If its the knife in question, yes it is made by camillus by license from taylor (who now owns the trademark). The new shrade knives are made overseas and etched on the blade "classic". There are some other parts from shrades factory that taylor has been using (or reproducting?) to make some of his Rigid brand knives. These "strongly" resemble old timers.
 
rev_jch said:
If its the knife in question, yes it is made by camillus by license from taylor (who now owns the trademark). The new shrade knives are made overseas and etched on the blade "classic". There are some other parts from shrades factory that taylor has been using (or reproducting?) to make some of his Rigid brand knives. These "strongly" resemble old timers.
Click to expand...

I think Rigid is a United brand.
 
carl your right. Either taylor helped put these together, or united bought some of the inventory of parts like smoky, and others.
 
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