What happened here?

[thawk]

A nice Schrade Walden with smooth bone handles. It has a double stamp. One clear stamp, and a smaller one with the black filled stamp. Both say Schrade Walden NY USA

 

[waynorth]

I have seen a couple of Case knives with double stamps, but the stamps were from the same die. This one is wierd, with two different stamps. Can you do a bigger blow-up? Can you tell which was struck first?

 

[thawk]

I have seen a couple of Case knives with double stamps, but the stamps were from the same die. This one is wierd, with two different stamps. Can you do a bigger blow-up? Can you tell which was struck first?

The black stamp is smaller and was stamped over the clear stamp. I think it just got stamped twice.

 

[Codger_64]

This may have been a reject used as a set-up piece for a new tang stamp die. But the blade was assembled instead of being trashed.

 

[waynorth]

Usually the black comes from the heat treat. The oxidation stays in the grooves through the polishing process. Beats me how the big stamp is clean, unless it was cold-stamped AFTER the heat treat.
A mystery for sure. Are you 100% sure on the order of the stampings, Hal?? I can't tell from your blow-up.

 

[Codger_64]

And how many hands has it been through? I'd wager someone along the line blacked the one to make it show in photos for a sale. They should both be black, or neither.

 

[thawk]

Usually the black comes from the heat treat. The oxidation stays in the grooves through the polishing process. Beats me how the big stamp is clean, unless it was cold-stamped AFTER the heat treat.
A mystery for sure. Are you 100% sure on the order of the stampings, Hal?? I can't tell from your blow-up.

Pretty darn sure of the order. The black stamp is a different size than the clean stamp.

And how many hands has it been through? I'd wager someone along the line blacked the one to make it show in photos for a sale. They should both be black, or neither.

The black stamp overlays some of the clean stamp, so it would have been damn hard to fill in the smaller one, but I wouldn't rule out anything. The pictures I am showing were provided by the seller, blown up, so he wasn't trying to hide anything.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSAA:US:11&Item=160146283830

The description said it came from a hardware store, but you know how that goes. I bought it because I felt like it was smooth bone, and not Wonda Wood. He has almost 1000 sales and 99.7% positive. He sells a few knives and a lot of fishing gear. His knives always have close ups of the stamp.

I use the addage, It's a tatoo, not a scar (to justify my purchase). It's a nice conversation piece.