...As I separate boxs' from knives...
This is a key. As collectors, we like to compare and display our knives. In so doing, we seperate them from their boxes and paperwork, polybags and blade sleeves. We are removing them from a part of their context which tells us a lot about when they were made.
Boxes and the insert papers can be roughly dated by not only the overall design, but by the individual logos and slogans used. "First use" is the ticket. The cutler logo. When was it first used? Before or after the Baer purchase of the Imperial stock from the stockholders? When did they add the slogan "Built to last a lifetime"?
If you don't have a collection of catalogs, look at the flyers and price sheets on the Collectors-Of-Schrades-r.us site. Select a logo, trade name, slogan and follow it from first use to last. Compare it to your own packaging while looking for copyright dates. A prime indicator of the time period of production is the changes in the corporate logo and trade names. I first see the cutler logo appearing circa 1984.
http://www.collectors-of-schrades-r.us/FLYERS/1980s/pages/SC84-C-3.htm
This particular LB-7 is, if the serial number is correct, indeed an early one. 10399. Few of this vintage have survived unused. Fewer with their original box and papers. The first year of production, 1977, 17,693 of them were produced and shipped. It is possible (though not probable) that a number of the first ones were not serialized. In 1978 268,071 of the LB-7's were produced and shipped. So this knife is most likely 1977 production, early 1978 at the latest.
"Built to last a Lifetime" slogan I find to first appear circa 1990. I may possibly have missed an earlier use. Now look at the insert paper.
In 1977, Walter Gardiner joined Imperial Schrade Corporation as Manager of New York Metro area sales. He was subsequently named Product Manager of Pocket and Sporting Knives, and in 1983 appointed General Sales Manager. In September of 1986, Imperial Schrade President Martin F. Zorn died. Walter Gardiner was named President and Chief Operating Officer of Imperial Schrade Corp. He was but 35 at the time. The earliest you will see his name on a box insert is late 1986, but more probably early 1987. I believe the box and insert are contemporary, but not with the knife.
Now, having bored you with all this, let me say again. The knife is very early. You got a deal for real even if it came in a greasy brown paper bag. The box and associated papers are a bonus because they all seem to match and just need a knife to fit the timeline. I, personally, would not bother the seller with this. I'd grab it and run. The box appears new, the knife appears new. They just don't match and not one person in a thousand would know (or care).
That said, if you don't want it...e-mail me!
Michael
