very early 8OT

tongueriver

tongueriver

Gold Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2007
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I took a chance on this one, thinking it might be the elusive early 8 OT with factory bone handles, but it is even more peculiar. I only have these bad pictures, and I don't think I could catch the peculiarity with a camera anyway. It has smooth brown Delrin handles, not sawcut. They have significant gaps at the bolsters, but I am reasonably certain they are factory original. The Delrin has imbedded throughout, undoubtedly in the liquid phase, extremely fine gold dust, or something that looks like gold dust. The box is made of an extremely light and soft (balsa?) wood, covered with a woodgrain paper. The cutout for the knife is ordinary corrugated cardboard. I think this knife was probably from the first year (1961?), and was an experimental. I would love to get some input on this. Thanks!
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I saw that one myself Tongueriver, would have bid on it too if I weren't tapped out as usual! I was thinking at the time it may be the same handle material as on the 906 utility knife, but if there's shrinkage I'm beginning to doubt it. Perhaps it's the same material that the swirl mahogany handles were made of. Those were found for a while on the Ulster TL-29's, and there was a LOT of shrinkage on those, same with the black handled pre-delrin Schrade Waldens.. VERY cool find, you might be right about the experimental part, or maybe it was a very short temporary run. Definitely has one of the earliest boxes.

Eric
 
Cant help with any info but Very cool knife thanks for sharing. I too cannot wait to hear some more info on this one!!!!-- Joel
 
Calvin, I have seen other early production or pre-production OTs handled in smooth bone. In fact I think someone here (maybe Larry) had a 8OT in smooth bone. If you haven't already, you might double check and see if it isn't bone.

This is exactly the reason that boxes are so important to a collector.
This box tells the story. We know that there are not many of those around and that it is early. If there were doubts about the knife, this helps to date it.

Great find! Congrats! :thumbup::thumbup:

Dale
 
Here's a bone 8OT for comparison, with the box. I believe the paper covered box came out right after this one. I wonder what the reason was for the cover, splinters?

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Eric
 
I love the rudimentary (maybe high-tech then lol) cardboard cut-outs the knives are held in! The "gold-dust" handles sound cool and bizarre. Looking forward to hearing more.
 
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