What steel did Schrade use for their knives?

Hairlesstwinkie

Hairlesstwinkie

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Feb 4, 2013
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My grandfather gave me two older Schrades. One is an Old Timer 194OT and the other one is a Scrimshaw SC503. I'm guessing they're probably late 80s-90s? I'm just really curious about the blade steel.

Here's a picture of them. After staring at tactical knives all day and night, these traditionals are quite refreshing.

Untitled by Draco_00, on Flickr
 
1095 Carbon for blades not marked with the + at the end of SCHRADE, and a stainless 420HC? with the + at the end of the SCHRADE tang stamp.

Smarter fellas will correct me if I'm wrong.

Paul
 
Paul's got it, at least as I understand it.

Only things to add are

a) I think Schrade+ was 440A until close the end, when it changed to 420HC. Around 1990 iirc, which I probably don't.

b) Schrade had the reputation of being pretty inconsistent with their tang stamps. Stainless usually gets the Schrade+ stamp, but not always. Patina is a sign of 1095.
 
Ditto to the above. ^^

MOST of USA Schrade's older blades were either 1095 (Old Timer series) or 440A stainless in the Uncle Henry line and some of the Old Timers. The stainless versions should be marked with the '+' after the Schrade stamp. Later stainless knives were transitioned to 420HC, as mentioned above. The OT 1095 blades are among the best I've ever used. Easy sharpening, and takes phenomenally-sharp edges (and holds them well). It was great stuff. :thumbsup:

The 1095 patinates very easily and that's likely the best indicator of the steel if in doubt, or when looking at online pics of older knives for sale.


David
 
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The only Schrade I have left is a 895 stockman with delrin (I believe) scales, and a + marking. I have read that they were made by Camillus around the time the Schrade plant closed?

Why can't these companies stick to making knives in house :eek: :D ;) ?
 
silenthunterstudios said:
The only Schrade I have left is a 895 stockman with delrin (I believe) scales, and a + marking. I have read that they were made by Camillus around the time the Schrade plant closed?

Why can't these companies stick to making knives in house :eek: :D ;) ?
Click to expand...

The upside is, Camillus made some great knives as well. I'd find no reason to complain if they made a few for Schrade (they also made some great ones for Buck, in the older 300-series in their line). I'm also betting the Cami-made knives probably used the normal, pinned pivots, as opposed to the Swinden-key pivots found in many older Schrades (very hard/impossible to repair, or to adjust or tighten for lateral play). That's a whole other topic...


David
 
Don't get me wrong, I really like this 895. You're right though, it wouldn't be half as fun tracking the information down if everyone stuck to making their own.
 
paulhilborn said:
Thanks for that link Dave 👍 Great and very interesting to read---it's got me running to my Schrade's to check tang stamps.

Paul
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Very welcome Paul. I bookmarked that one a long time ago; it's a great reference. Codger_64 is pretty much the Schrade Guru, based on everything he's posted about them. He put a lot of time and effort into researching them, and his posts always reflect that. :thumbsup:


David
 
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I have an Uncle Henry 885 that is marked "Stainless", I bought it from Randall knives in late 1970 or early 1971 (serial number 07069), figured if Randall was selling it, it must be a good knife. I also have a recollection of reading an add by Schrade talking about how all stainless steel blades had to be marked "Stainless" but their (Schrade's) steel was so good or special that the government allowed them to mark their blades "Schrade +". Does anyone else remember this?
John
 
Awesome link!

I didn't have good experience with 440A... Hopefully it's the properly heat treated steel not the cheap flea market 440A...
 
Hairlesstwinkie said:
Awesome link!

I didn't have good experience with 440A... Hopefully it's the properly heat treated steel not the cheap flea market 440A...
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Look at post #26 in that referenced thread. It shows the blade steels and Rockwell numbers that Schrade heat treated them to. Notice that they ran the 440A at about a 59HRC. (Phil Gibbs, who used to be a designer for Camillus, told me that Camillus also used to run their 440A in that range.) That's a high enough Rockwell to get darn good performance from 440A.
 
knarfeng said:
Look at post #26 in that referenced thread. It shows the blade steels and Rockwell numbers that Schrade heat treated them to. Notice that they ran the 440A at about a 59HRC. (Phil Gibbs, who used to be a designer for Camillus, told me that Camillus also used to run their 440A in that range.) That's a high enough Rockwell to get darn good performance from 440A.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:
I haven't used a stainless Schrade enough to know, but it's reassuring to hear that they were treated to similar hardness as the Camillus 440A blades. My Cami-made Buck 307 is one of my favorites, and a lot of that has to do with a near-ideal combination of ease of sharpening and good edge retention. That knife is a breeze to sharpen and to maintain it in that condition.


David
 
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silenthunterstudios said:
The only Schrade I have left is a 895 stockman with delrin (I believe) scales, and a + marking. I have read that they were made by Camillus around the time the Schrade plant closed?

Why can't these companies stick to making knives in house :eek: :D ;) ?
Click to expand...

In a sense they were made in house. Schrade, or more precisely Albert Baer, actually owned Camillus. On paper it showed that his daughters owned it, but he definitely held the reigns. There were a lot of Schrades made there, not just the 895's.

Eric
 
Had no clue that Camillus ran their 440A that hard. I guess that would include the 300 series Bucks as well, I'd always wondered how the edge retention compared, from the Camillus made 300s to the in house Bucks. My experience with Schrade carbon has been stellar, it's still held in incredibly high regard in this part of the world. Schrade knives of all kind (mostly 340s) are pretty common, and still widely used.
 
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