Taylor-Schrade Traditionals: Your Opinions, Reviews and Overviews

supratentorial said:
....In terms of performance, there's not much difference between my Schrade USA 8OT and my GEC 81. And in terms of quality of construction...Neither has gaps or wobbly blades. Both have good grinds, good steel, and take good edges. The GEC has nicer handle material....
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Some photos of a Schrade USA 8OT and GEC 81 for comparison.






 
I bought two of the Taylor Old Timers - 93OT in the brown sawcut Delrin pattern with the 440A equivalent steel, and 34OTB in the sawcut bone with 440C equivalent steel.

The Delrin model was decent, sharp out of the box, fit and finish acceptable for a user knife. Price was acceptable for what you get.

The higher priced bone-handled model had significant fit/finish issues and needs some work before I would consider carrying it. My Rough Riders at half the price were of considerably better overall quality, both in looks and fit/finish.

So, 50% success ratio.
 
How is the quality of these knives?I would like American made Schrades, but some of these designs are cool.How is the quality,fit,finish,blade steel and performance?Some seem pretty good value for price.How does their 7cr17 perform?
 
Just find the american ones. The steel and blade geometries are different enough in the chinese copies to ruin them IMO. The only thing I think could be seen as an improvement is the pinned thru bolsters. Makes them easy to fix, and you will need to fix them at some point.

OTOH, the new schrades make it affordable to grab the rarer frames. A man should carry a 61 at least some if he likes stockman patterns, and the ol 51 is an eternal favorite of mine.
The USA schrades are cheap unless you want one MIB, then they get pretty crazy sometimes.
 
i have the tiny 12OT, its amusingly small but came razor sharp. its so small I use it to pick splinters out. only one bolster catches the finger. its blade is off center. it sits at home, and the size is too small for me to use it in edc
 
I saw that today browsing a site. I'd have to pass on them. That steel is comparable to 440A. I may be wrong, but I think it's China's version of 440A.
 
For the price they are a decent knife. The rough riders are probably a bit nicer though.

The originals can be had for near bargain prices if you are patient though.
 
By all means buy as much of them Scharades as suits your fancy.

Leave the USA's alone no need to spend that much money on quality cutlery.;)
 
r8shell very kindly sent me a couple of these a while back, the two bottom knives in the pic above, a Barlow, and what Schrade call their Landshark (close to a Lambsfoot). Both very decent knives I think :)



I also have a small Sodbuster, and it's a very decent work knife, which punches above its weight :thumbup:
 
I've a new Schrade stockman in saw cut bone and a barlow in saw cut delrin. Excellent knives; IMHO as good as the old ones. Also have several Schrade linerlocks which I also love.
Rich
 
I got the China-Schrade 51OT because the USA-Schrade ones were way too pricey. So far (modest usage), it has worked fine and I'm satisfied with it.

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I also got a China-Schrade 5OT and a 3OT. These were somewhat rougher in finish. The 5OT had a pronounced kink in the spine intead of the smooth curve a drop-point should have. I fixed it with a file. It opens, locks, and closes properly, but with a little roughness on the tang or spring (or both) I could feel compared to a USA-Schrade model (which to be fair is older and has had more wear).

The 3OT opens and closes like the 5OT — a wee bit rough, but acceptable. Smooth curve in the blade spine.

Overall, I'd recommend getting a used USA-Schrade. But if the budget doesn't go that far, the China-Schrade will work, at least if you're prepared to do a little tweaking.
 
I have been using these for the last couple of years for whittling, and with my whittling students.

I like them better than the Swinden Key US made Schrades (I have had/have several of those - and in EVERY case, the Swinden key construction has been a problem).

The blade steel is every bit as good as Schrade +, fit and finish is usually quite good, especially on the Old Timer branded ones, and a little tap on the pivot pin takes care of any loosening up.

Try them and see
 
Check the Mity Mite thread for a report on how the steel is.
There are SOME who refuse to accecpt that Taylor Brands makes the Old Timer, Uncle Henry, and Imperial knives just as good if not better than the "originals" and that the Taylor Schrade knives are not "fake" after Taylor bought the brand. Using THAT reasoning, ALL Schrade knives from the late 1800's or early 1900's from the time Imperial bought Schrade, to 1985 when Imperial shut their doors, are "fake" since the Schrade name was owned by Imperial.
 
Jack Black said:
...and what Schrade call their Landshark....
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:)

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afishhunter said:
...There are SOME who refuse to accecpt that Taylor Brands makes the Old Timer, Uncle Henry, and Imperial knives just as good if not better than the "originals" and that the Taylor Schrade knives are not "fake" after Taylor bought the brand. Using THAT reasoning, ALL Schrade knives from the late 1800's or early 1900's from the time Imperial bought Schrade, to 1985 when Imperial shut their doors, are "fake" since the Schrade name was owned by Imperial.
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To the best of my knowledge nobody, no machines, and no factory that made the original Old Tmer knives is owned by or working for Taylor Brands. This is very different than what happened when the Baers bought Schrade in 1946. If Anheuser-Busch bought the name "Guinness" and started putting Guinness labels on Busch beer bottles... then would that be real Guinness?
 
afishhunter said:
Check the Mity Mite thread for a report on how the steel is.
There are SOME who refuse to accecpt that Taylor Brands makes the Old Timer, Uncle Henry, and Imperial knives just as good if not better than the "originals" and that the Taylor Schrade knives are not "fake" after Taylor bought the brand. Using THAT reasoning, ALL Schrade knives from the late 1800's or early 1900's from the time Imperial bought Schrade, to 1985 when Imperial shut their doors, are "fake" since the Schrade name was owned by Imperial.
Click to expand...

You are right about one thing. There are those who refuse to accept that . Many of them.
 
lonestar1979 said:
How is the quality of these knives?I would like American made Schrades, but some of these designs are cool.How is the quality,fit,finish,blade steel and performance?Some seem pretty good value for price.How does their 7cr17 perform?
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I got curious about that, myself, just recently. Since you really can't give a valid opinion without comparing side by side, I bought two knives:
►An Uncle Henry 834UH made by Schrade-US (lightly used. Didn't look like it had ever been sharpened.)
►An Uncle Henry 834UH made by Taylor-Schrade.

My full comments are here:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...Reviews-and-Overviews?p=15449786#post15449786

Summary:
►The steel is at least as good on the Taylor Schrade as on the US-Schrade, and holds an edge noticeably better than Case Tru-Sharp. 7Cr17 is very close to 440A (the alloy used by US-Schrade) in composition and the heat treats appear to give equivalent hardness.
►The fit was equal. A bit of unevenness to the springs on each. No gaps on either one.
►The finish on the US Schrade was a bit better with the corners of the springs nicely rounded.

Conclusion:
I found the Taylor-Schrade knife to be a decent knife, and pretty equivalent to the US-made Schrade.
 
Got a 3 OT lockback in delrin last week. Completely satisfied with it, good strong construction, tight lock-up no play at all. It arrived sharp. As I live in Europe, access to the original US made OTs is difficult and some eye watering prices are being asked for mint ones. Seems odd to me as these were inexpensive, no frills work-knives often with quite rough finish, I hear from American friends.

I also have this Buffalo handled 3 OT which I got 5 years back. It too is well made and rather posher having costly handle slabs, it has developed no blade play at all. Worth looking into if you don't want to spend much but need a reliable knife, I think.:thumbup:

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A local hardware store stocks the new Taylor Schrades, and I was rather surprised by how the workmanship seems to have improved since they've taken over. They certainly didn't seem any worse than the Old Timers I saw from the 90's, and in some aspects, they were quite a bit better.

Now, if they would start using some carbon steel..
 
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