Well, I purchased four of the bear made schrade waldens though smkw. They were the muskrat pattern in amber bone.
I had heard that the blades were 440, the handles were amber bone. Theses things proved to be true.
However, and sadly enough, the quality, or I should say "lack there of" was astounding!
The scales were ill-fitted (one was even too small for the handle!). The backsprings were not ground even, some even portruded well about the liners (one just over 1/32). Some of the bolsters were crooked, not symetric. The blades were sharp on three of the knives. On one, the blade edge was quite dull. One knife did not have the "easy open" groove for the back rear blade ground into it. I also noticed that the scales on a couple were not cerrectly glued on. And had large gaps between the liners and scales. On a couple of the scales, the bone was burned badly, reminiscent of letting the bone sit too long on one part when it was being polished (which causes it to overheat and burn, making it turn uneven colors, discolor, etc.).
After careful consideration of these knives, they were quite dissappointing. There were only two highlights to them. One was the box they came in. A blue two part with a nice black and white photo of the original factory. The box was reminiscent of the boxes that queen uses with their knives these days. The other was the amber bone used, that was bought from the schrade factory closing. It was beautiful! The same bone used on the schrade cigar box knives, and the tennessee trapper (by schrade before they closed). Sad to see such nice bone waisted in "inferior" craftsmanship.
The knives were just plain "poor" quality. They had a great potential to be good knives, especially with the materials chosen, all proven, and could have been well used. Unfortunately, whoever put these together, were either not skilled, or just did'nt care. I would opt for the last. Personally they struck me as knives that were only made to make money, I did not see anything that looked like the people who made them really cared about their reputation. I could see that there was a "slight" hint that someone knew how to do it right as some, but very little, of the polished lines looked decent.
Overall, "four out of four", being poor, is awful!
Really sad to think this happened, ...but then they were commissioned by smoky, licensed by taylor and made by bear and sons
All in all, they are a "slap" in the reputation, and memory of Schrade :thumbdn:
I had heard that the blades were 440, the handles were amber bone. Theses things proved to be true.
However, and sadly enough, the quality, or I should say "lack there of" was astounding!
The scales were ill-fitted (one was even too small for the handle!). The backsprings were not ground even, some even portruded well about the liners (one just over 1/32). Some of the bolsters were crooked, not symetric. The blades were sharp on three of the knives. On one, the blade edge was quite dull. One knife did not have the "easy open" groove for the back rear blade ground into it. I also noticed that the scales on a couple were not cerrectly glued on. And had large gaps between the liners and scales. On a couple of the scales, the bone was burned badly, reminiscent of letting the bone sit too long on one part when it was being polished (which causes it to overheat and burn, making it turn uneven colors, discolor, etc.).
After careful consideration of these knives, they were quite dissappointing. There were only two highlights to them. One was the box they came in. A blue two part with a nice black and white photo of the original factory. The box was reminiscent of the boxes that queen uses with their knives these days. The other was the amber bone used, that was bought from the schrade factory closing. It was beautiful! The same bone used on the schrade cigar box knives, and the tennessee trapper (by schrade before they closed). Sad to see such nice bone waisted in "inferior" craftsmanship.
The knives were just plain "poor" quality. They had a great potential to be good knives, especially with the materials chosen, all proven, and could have been well used. Unfortunately, whoever put these together, were either not skilled, or just did'nt care. I would opt for the last. Personally they struck me as knives that were only made to make money, I did not see anything that looked like the people who made them really cared about their reputation. I could see that there was a "slight" hint that someone knew how to do it right as some, but very little, of the polished lines looked decent.
Overall, "four out of four", being poor, is awful!
Really sad to think this happened, ...but then they were commissioned by smoky, licensed by taylor and made by bear and sons

All in all, they are a "slap" in the reputation, and memory of Schrade :thumbdn: