Taylor-Schrade Traditionals: Your Opinions, Reviews and Overviews

[Ballenxj]

Since 1965 anyway, U.S. trade law has required that products made in the U.S.A. be marked as such. So 1965 and later Schrade USA knives will have such a mark/stamp on them, as will domestically-produced knives from Case, Buck, etc. The absence of country of origin mark on the newer imports are a dead giveaway that they're not made here. Many other products NOT made in the U.S. may or may not have a country of origin marked on them; knives from Germany & Japan are usually marked as such, but many others from Asia/China might not be. Country of origin marks for imported products are not yet required by U.S. law, so far as I know.

^^ THIS! ^^ The Bolded and underlined section is the simplest way to tell.

 

[Will Power]

If this is the case, there is no traditional American anything (knives, literature, whatever) other than those produced by the Native American nations.

Nearly all American traditional patterns are products of immigration, which is entirely different from simple purchase of IP for the purpose of competing in the globalize do production world.

Baer's brown saw cut Delrin was certainly distinctive, the trapper and stockman patterns are clearly American derivations based on European predecessors but clearly American, as were many of Schrades iconic fixed blade including the Sharpfinger and Loveless drop point.

If Schrade didn't achieve the status of iconic American tradition knives, nobody did, IMO.

No, because there most clearly is American literature which is distinct & different from English literature despite being in the same language. Jazz, Blues are entirely American forms of music, the skyscraper is American architecture so the list goes on when you think of it....

I certainly agree with you about the Sharpfinger, this is a distinct type/pattern of knife originating in the US in the way in which a Grohmann is distinctly Canadian. With pocket-knives, I'd argue that the Stockman and Trapper are American patterns for the American market originally. Sheffield made Stock knives (I think they called them something different back in the c19th but they were for the American market) not sure if they or the Germans made Trappers till later and in response to American demand. The Muskrat almost certainly is originally an American pattern (the animal originates in N.America & does not exist naturally in Europe, its fur being prized at one time in the Americas) so too with the curved back Congress, the name is a giveaway. Yes German cutlers made them but I believe the genus came from Americans.

Schrade probably was iconic (or has become more so with its disappearance...) but CASE and Buck are probably even more 'iconic'

 

[cchu518]

I kinda like them all, old and new Schrade. I've gone so far as to pick up a Canal Street Cutlery (new company formed from the last remnants of Schrade out of part of the old factory in NY) to see how those compare as well. I would say for the money and it's not a lot the Taylor Schrades compare well to RR. The CSC that I had in bone linen micarta felt near custom.

But I had always thought of Schrade as the really cheap but very good knife historically. So in that sense the new Taylor Schrades are no different in legacy to the Schrades of old. From what I've experienced if you put a solid heat treat on 440A it makes for a really good regular everyday knife. It might not be 1085 with a good heat treat tough but it's still very serviceable.

 

[meako]

Since 1965 anyway, U.S. trade law has required that products made in the U.S.A. be marked as such. So 1965 and later Schrade USA knives will have such a mark/stamp on them, as will domestically-produced knives from Case, Buck, etc. The absence of country of origin mark on the newer imports are a dead giveaway that they're not made here. Many other products NOT made in the U.S. may or may not have a country of origin marked on them; knives from Germany & Japan are usually marked as such, but many others from Asia/China might not be. Country of origin marks for imported products are not yet required by U.S. law, so far as I know.


Not always- as we know from the slightly off topic debacle of German import/assembly/where the parts were made?/where was it put together?
Price is an indicator as well.

My tip is -if the vendor doesn't specifically state "made in USA" or equivalent then it is made in China.
The one I show here was vended as "original Schrade NIB" great knife but as the Romans said- Caveat emptor .

 

[Ballenxj]

If this is the case, there is no traditional American anything (knives, literature, whatever) other than those produced by the Native American nations.

Nearly all American traditional patterns are products of immigration, which is entirely different from simple purchase of IP for the purpose of competing in the globalize do production world.

You trying to tell me Charlie Daniels, Lynyrd Skynynyrd, Jonny Cash, Merl Haggard, Kid Rock, et al don't have their own style on music, and weren't American? How about BB King etc? Come on now. How about the Bowie Knife? I suppose that had European influence as well? So America doesn't have it's own culture and designs? I guess cruising and malt shops weren't an American thing either?

 

[Ice Tigre]

Thanks Gents. I always got it as being the other way around, imports required a mark of origin, domestics not. Interesting!

 

[brownshoe]

If this is the case, there is no traditional American anything (knives, literature, whatever) other than those produced by the Native American nations.

Nearly all American traditional patterns are products of immigration, which is entirely different from simple purchase of IP for the purpose of competing in the globalize do production world.

Baer's brown saw cut Delrin was certainly distinctive, the trapper and stockman patterns are clearly American derivations based on European predecessors but clearly American, as were many of Schrades iconic fixed blade including the Sharpfinger and Loveless drop point.

If Schrade didn't achieve the status of iconic American tradition knives, nobody did, IMO.

Well thinking about it a bit more, I'd agree with ya there are some Schrade icons. I'd say the Schrade switchblades (per this forum not traditional) and the Sharpfinger (not a folder) could be considered American cutlery icons unique to Schrade. So that makes the Chinese Sharpfinger a bastard I don't believe the current switchblades are made in China but they certainly are not the iconic 1950s patterns.

 

[pinnah]

No, because there most clearly is American literature which is distinct & different from English literature despite being in the same language. Jazz, Blues are entirely American forms of music, the skyscraper is American architecture so the list goes on when you think of it....

I certainly agree with you about the Sharpfinger, this is a distinct type/pattern of knife originating in the US in the way in which a Grohmann is distinctly Canadian. With pocket-knives, I'd argue that the Stockman and Trapper are American patterns for the American market originally. Sheffield made Stock knives (I think they called them something different back in the c19th but they were for the American market) not sure if they or the Germans made Trappers till later and in response to American demand. The Muskrat almost certainly is originally an American pattern (the animal originates in N.America & does not exist naturally in Europe, its fur being prized at one time in the Americas) so too with the curved back Congress, the name is a giveaway. Yes German cutlers made them but I believe the genus came from Americans.

Schrade probably was iconic (or has become more so with its disappearance...) but CASE and Buck are probably even more 'iconic'

Will,

Interesting discussion. More interesting that I would have anticipated. I'll try to expand and defend my analogy a bit, even if strained.

IMO, one can't consider early American literature without considering them as transplanted English/European and western form. Moby Dick and Last of the Mohicans are novels and have to be considered in the light of Tristan Shandy or Beowulf. American plays can't be read without considering Shakespeare or the Greeks. It's not until we get to the short story that I think we can talk about a thoroughly American literary form, in same way that we would say that Jazz is a thoroughly American music or that the Sharpfinger or Stockman are thoroughly American knife patterns. Never-the-less, Moby Dick and The Last of the Mohicans are American novels, just as the Russell Barlow is an American knife. Yes, the history of the Barlow goes back to England, no doubt. But the Russel Barlow is very American, imo, as were the knives produced by Schrade.

An interesting contrast to consider would be the Bowie knives made in bulk in Sheffield for import to America? Are they traditional? They certainly are traditional British blades, even though they were made there. Are they traditional American knives, since it's a traditional American pattern, even if made "off shore". IMO, the Sheffield Bowies are less traditional than a Sheffield pocket knife and less traditional than an American made Bowie. They were mass produced knives made to be exported to some other country based on that other country's traditions and expectations.

That is a very different thing than knives produced by immigrants in a new land, which is the story of America and certainly the story of the New England and New York knife makers. Schrade stands in the middle of that first wave of immigration story in ways that Case, Marbles, Buck and Western do not. Those were knives of the frontier which moved from Pennsylvania to Michigan to Kansas to Colorado to California. Perhaps we can say that Moby Dick is to Schrade as The Last of the Mohicans is to Case, Marbles, Buck and Western in that one is an east coast thing and the other has to do with the turn to the frontier (arguably the most important theme in both American literature and American knives). But this doesn't render Schrade less American any more than making Moby Dick less American.

I just took my dog for a walk. I wore my Wrangler jean jacket. Can't be more traditionally American than that, right? Except it's made in Bangladesh. It's a commodity and to my way of thinking, it's less traditional than, say, a Johnson Woolen Mills jacket made in Vermont. That's the difference to my mind with the Taylor Schrades and the US Schrades. One is a commodity. The other is traditional.

 

[afishhunter]

quick review of a Taylor-Schrade/Imperial IMP15CON 4 blade Congress

(Mods, if this pelongs in the Rough Rider and related thread, please move it)

First impression: Not too bad. Only one minor gap between the pile side liner and spring, which does not affect the operation of the knife.
The blades are two master sheepsfoot, with the mark side etched (on two lines) "IMPERIAL SCHRADE"
The mark side secondary blade is a coping blade, the pile side secondary is a Wharncliff.
The blades are sharp enough to shave arm hair without pulling. No blade wobble. I believe the blades are the 440A equivalent stainless steel. Plain nail nicks, two on each side. No blade rub, amazingly, I understand that blade rub is fairly common on this pattern. The blades are thin. The pile side sheepsfoot is a little thinner than the mark side sheepsfoot. As this is my first and only example if this pattern, I do not know if that is "normal" or not.
All the blades have good walk and talk. The pull for all four blades is about the same as that on my Buck 371 Chinese made stockman.

Overall, I think it is a good knife. I'm not worried about the covers, even though they are celluloid. I know they will gas someday, but it is probably not going to happen in my lifetime. (I'm a vintage antique, according to one of my nieces)

If you want to try the pattern out, this would be a good knife to consider.

 

[leghog]

IMO, one can't consider early American literature without considering them as transplanted English/European and western form. Moby Dick and Last of the Mohicans...

And other American Literature like the works of Twain, Faulkner, Poe, etc. and poets like Emerson and Dickinson?

Regarding knives, the two blade Trapper pattern immediately comes to mind --- the two spring single pivot folder with equal length clip and spey blades. Is that pattern not distinctly American?

 

[Ramrodmb]

quick review of a Taylor-Schrade/Imperial IMP15CON 4 blade Congress

(Mods, if this pelongs in the Rough Rider and related thread, please move it)

First impression: Not too bad. Only one minor gap between the pile side liner and spring, which does not affect the operation of the knife.
The blades are two master sheepsfoot, with the mark side etched (on two lines) "IMPERIAL SCHRADE"
The mark side secondary blade is a coping blade, the pile side secondary is a Wharncliff.
The blades are sharp enough to shave arm hair without pulling. No blade wobble. I believe the blades are the 440A equivalent stainless steel. Plain nail nicks, two on each side. No blade rub, amazingly, I understand that blade rub is fairly common on this pattern. The blades are thin. The pile side sheepsfoot is a little thinner than the mark side sheepsfoot. As this is my first and only example if this pattern, I do not know if that is "normal" or not.
All the blades have good walk and talk. The pull for all four blades is about the same as that on my Buck 371 Chinese made stockman.

Overall, I think it is a good knife. I'm not worried about the covers, even though they are celluloid. I know they will gas someday, but it is probably not going to happen in my lifetime. (I'm a vintage antique, according to one of my nieces)

If you want to try the pattern out, this would be a good knife to consider.

What makes you think they are celluloid?

 

[afishhunter]

"Black Swirl Celluloid handles" according to the Taylor Brands Imperial knives website.