uncle Henry /old timer

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Bushcraft419

Joined
Jan 4, 2016
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i was wondering if anyone has experience with the new china made uncle Henry and old timer knives and how well put together they are and if the blade steel is good or not also if overall the knives are a good value
 
I have an Uncle Henry bowie I purchased at a gun show years ago. You can get them dirt cheap. For the price paid, not bad overall. I did some pretty hard camp use out of it before it started falling apart. It is full tang, which is rare for cheap knives. They are good disposable type blades you can use and abuse without worry about damaging a $200 blade.
 
I would recommend looking at Mora if you wanted a less expensive fixed blade.
 
I would pass and get a Mora. The Scrade skinning knives are pretty popular as they are available at most local outdoors stores.

I have tried to sharpen a few of them for friends over the years and was not impressed with the steel used.

For the money I think you get a better knife in the Mora. I can confirm the Mora Companion makes a fine field dressing knife.
 
I recently bought two Uncle Henry 834UH Ranchers
One by Schrade-US
One by Taylor Schrade.

I found the fit and finish to be roughly equivalent. The designs are actually slightly different, with the Taylor Schade using more offset in their blades, while Schrade-US just used crinking.

I found the edge retention of the blades to be roughly equivalent, with a possible slight advantage going to the Taylor Schrade.

The Taylor Schrade Uncle Henry and Old Timer knives with Delrin handles are said to be 7Cr17. This alloy is pretty close in composition to 440A, which is what Schade used in knives marked "Schrade +" for many years. (I understand they switched to 420HC sometime in the late 90's.)

My assessment was that the Taylor-Schrade knife was reasonably close in quality and performance to the US-Schrade. That being said, I also understand that some of the early Taylor Schrade efforts were not as successful. I've also heard that some folks have been unhappy with the Taylor-Schrade bone handled knives, which have 9Cr17 (Chinese 440C).
 
After reading a lot of bad stuff (mostly by people who had never owned one) about the Chinese Schrades, I decided to check them out for myself. The prices being pretty cheap, I ordered several of the Old Timer models. Other than being stiff to open, they were not bad at all. They needed sharpening--one more than the others--but they took pretty good edges. Finish was good and the handle materials seemed good as well. I never used them for cutting anything other than paper while checking sharpness since I planned to give them away so I defer to knarfeng. Overall I consider them very usable and capable traditional knives. Nothing fancy, just knives for working people--like the original Old Timers.
 
I've no experience with the new Taylor Schrade Old Timer fixed blades, but have the stockman in bone and barlow in delrin and IMHO they are as good as the old US made ones.
Rich
 
there a lot of them out there taylor cutlery is here in kingsport where i live their warranty is really good . as far as the originals vs the new no comparison,the originals are better blades better finish i suggest keep looking there are members of the forum who have them and may part with them. the golden spike is the one every one around here tries to get. hope this helps
 
i decided to get my brother a 294ot for his birthday in couple weeks it came this week i checked it out, it dont cont super sharp. but its a liner lock that surprisingly locks up well and feels almost same quality as my usa made old timer. really surprised me for being chinese designed and made t was better than i thought
 
Bushcraft419 said:
i was wondering if anyone has experience with the new china made uncle Henry and old timer knives and how well put together they are and if the blade steel is good or not also if overall the knives are a good value
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IMO, they aren't as good as the originals. Value is in the eye of the consumer, your entry level price point may be another person's max.
 
I got a Taylor version of the Old Timer OT8 off eBay. I used USA OT for 4 decades. I got a box of them. This one got equal fit and finish and it's Stainless steel takes and edge and keeps it as good as the old uncle Henry shrade + SS.

Now when Taylor first took over the Brand the first few years they were horrible but the Quality is back.
 
Bought a couple in mid-year 2015. Not sure when they were made. 93OT in Delrin, 34OTB in bone. The 930T is a decent knife. Came sharp enough to use out of the box, even blade bevels, not overly coarse edge. Good fit, average finish. In short, a decent user knife that was neither under nor overpriced. The 34OTB was less well executed in a number of ways not worth going into. So 50% success ratio for me. I bought them out of curiosity, which has been satisfied, and don't plan to buy any more. I have a couple of Rough Rider knives which cost less and were better executed across the board. So if I want an inexpensive imported slipjoint, RR would be my choice.
 
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In general, I think the newer Uncle Henry and Old Timers are more than adequate, especially for the price, but you may not enjoy the same quality and craftsmanship as the Old Timers of old.
 
I have a couple of the Taylor Schrade Old Timer, Uncle Henry, Imperial, and Hammer Brand knives,
The Old Timers are the 7OT, Uncle Henry an LB7, Imperial is a 4 blade congress. The Hammer Brand is a 4 blade canoe.
I can't compare the Hammer to the USA knives, since I don't own one of those.
The Uncle Henry, Old Timer I have the USA made knives of the same model. My only USA Imperial is a Barlow, with carbon steel blades, so not a fair or relevant comparison to the Congress.
Between the LB7 and 7OT's I cannot see any difference. USA or China, fit and finish is excellent. No blade play, tight lockup, smooth operation.
The Congress has no blade play, came hair popping sharp out of the box (no box though, I bought it at a truck stop) no blade rub, and has even grinds.
In my opinion, the Taylor made are just as good as the USA made knives.
 
I have a couple of Old Timer stockmans, one U.S.-made, one Chinese. I also have a Chinese-made Uncle Henry in stainless.

I honestly can't discern any difference in quality, and with all due respect, I don't think anyone else could tell one from the other if they weren't marked.
 
knarfeng said:
I recently bought two Uncle Henry 834UH Ranchers
One by Schrade-US
One by Taylor Schrade.

I found the fit and finish to be roughly equivalent. The designs are actually slightly different, with the Taylor Schade using more offset in their blades, while Schrade-US just used crinking.

I found the edge retention of the blades to be roughly equivalent, with a possible slight advantage going to the Taylor Schrade.

The Taylor Schrade Uncle Henry and Old Timer knives with Delrin handles are said to be 7Cr17. This alloy is pretty close in composition to 440A, which is what Schade used in knives marked "Schrade +" for many years. (I understand they switched to 420HC sometime in the late 90's.)

My assessment was that the Taylor-Schrade knife was reasonably close in quality and performance to the US-Schrade. That being said, I also understand that some of the early Taylor Schrade efforts were not as successful. I've also heard that some folks have been unhappy with the Taylor-Schrade bone handled knives, which have 9Cr17 (Chinese 440C).
Click to expand...

Interesting. I tossed a Taylor-Schrade Sharp Finger into the garbage about two days ago. My wife liked it because it was a better hand fit for her with vegetables like carrots. But it would get dull irritatingly fast, so it got tossed and she uses a couple of stainless Moras now for some finer applications.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the original spirit of the old Schrade brand knives were affordable (read budget) , ok quality edc users?

I really like the Schrade brand I think I've said this in the past. But their golden days were before I got into knives. As bad as Taylor brand had been I feel like they've restored that spirit in the current UH and OT line.
 
I carried an Uncle Henry Stag handled trapper all the way through high school (yeah, a long time ago) and college. I kept that carbon steel blade razor sharp by stropping it on the back of my leather wallet. Dressed out a lot of small game and fish with it, and on Vo-Ag field trips made a lot of young pigs sing soprano. It was a great knife. My high school chemistry teacher often asked for it to cut things and then handed it back to me. Wish I still had it today.

Yeah, I know this post has nothing to do with the newer knives but us old farts have to wax nostalgic sometimes.
 
RevDevil said:
IMO, they aren't as good as the originals. Value is in the eye of the consumer, your entry level price point may be another person's max.
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I agree :thumbup: The irony for me is that I bought them when I was younger because I couldn't afford the "nicer" knives by Case and Buck.
 
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