trying to obtain information on my fathers knife

[Mamiesue]

My father worked for Amour and Company from the 30's until he retired in the 50's. He died in 1961 with Leukemia from the chemicals he work with. I recently found in my mothers documents a knife. It is a single blade and the blade is marked: Schrade Walden N.Y. SS105 Stainless Steel. It is in a leather case and the handle is marked "Armour" a box around the word and a star on the right at the top of the box. My father was a mechanical engineer covering 9 southern states repairing their cooling systems. If you have any information about this knife and value i would love to hear from you. If it would be helpful i can attach a picture of the knife and case. I look forward to any response regarding my knife.
Thanks in advance
Mamiesue

 

[T. Erdelyi]

Pictures are always helpful but you won't get any value for it unless you're a gold member or higher. Also if you want to get a better idea of what pattern it is and possible age you can go to Bernard Levine's sub forum and there are folks there who live to ID knives. Hope that helps you out, I'd love to see a pic myself if you wouldn't mind posting one in this thread. You could always ask a mod to move it to the correct forum.

 

[zzyzzogeton]

There's a "Schrade Collectors" sub-forum in the Collectors forum.

A search on "ss105" brings up a few threads referring the 105, which is the long melon sampler. The 102 was a shorter version.

Since the knife was obviously made before 1961, the handle scales are most likely made of celluloid. Since the off-gassing bi-products of celluloid are detrimental to steel, the knife should be kept separate from other knives and not confined in a bag or plastic box, so the gases will dissipate.

If I read the info right in one of the threads, that stamp was first used in 1946 and used until 1973.

 

[brownshoe]

Melon samples are also called sausage samplers, when given out by meat packing companies. If the Armour he worked for is the meat packing firm, that's why they gave him that specific knife, it's related to his industry. If it is unused with original packaging, it has some value to collectors of Schrade knives and also those who collect melon testers/sausage knives.