Who Still Carrys A (USA) Imperial-Schrade Family TRADITIONAL Knife?

Here's something a little different. We gave this Schrade USA Uncle Henry 167 fillet knife to my father over 20 years ago. After he passed away I received it back but never did anything with it. This thread inspired me to get it out and sharpen it up. It's very nice! I can tell it's going to be very good in the kitchen, and I've already used it to slice homemade sourdough bread. It has a few chips in the edge but no big deal, it's still a great slicer.

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Been a while since I pocketed the Schrade 34OT. In 2015, my wife and I lost almost all of our possessions in a fire. We lived in the apartment above a small business. Of the few things saved was this 34OT that was in my pocket at the time. At that time, I had owned and carried it for around 15 years.

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I have since stopped carrying it as my EDC, and moved to larger knives. Name the case 75 pattern Jumbo Stockman and the Case 65 Pattern Folding Hunter.

Case knives, with their pinned construction, hold up better to the use that I give them.
 
These are Schrade TRT-96 Tennessee River Trapper knives. I especially like them as there is no shield to distract from the jigged bone covers. I often carry one of tem.

Z Schrade TRT96 Trapper Knife 7 .jpg

And here's a blurb on them that I ran by Codger_64 when I edited it from an earlier write-up by him.

Per Codger_64 - "Imperial Schrade Cutlery had developed a deep vendor relationship with Wal-Mart resulting in several SFO knives not available except through Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores. One such special order knife was an upscale version of the 296 pattern, the TRT96 Tennessee River Trapper. Production specs included: 4 1/8" OA length, 2 Stainless Steel Blades (3 3/8" full turkish sabre style clip, 3 5/16 spey), Scotch brite double header finish, Acid Etched;Schrade Super Sharp; logo, Genuine jigged amber bone handle; Cat-tailed / threaded and polished bolster and cap, special design gift box. Tangstamp was;SCHRADE+; over; U.S.A. LTD.; The production schedule sent out in January of 2003 called for product rollout by April of 2003 with 5-7,000 pcs., and an additional 2,000 pcs due by the end of that month, for a total initial order of 7-9,000 knives, and a projected total order of 25,000 pieces. Actual production records have not surfaced (and perhaps never will), so the final number produced is not known."

Note: These knives were 100% made in house at the Schrade factory in the USA just before Schrade closed their doors in the USA. What's interesting is that the packaging/boxes for these Schrade TRT-96 Tennessee River Trapper knives was/were made in China.

Schrade TRT96 Trapper Knife 8 .jpg

Hope you guys/gals/youngsters found this iteresting.
 
Modoc ED Modoc ED
Not surprising (to me) the boxes were made in China.
I heard over a decade ago, that Imperial-Schrade was "late" entering the "modern" liner lock OHO/flipper market, and their offering in that style/type of knives were made in China, years before the company went belly up, and Taylor-Schrade moved production of all the Impeial Schrade brands and models to China.
 
I carry Schrades all the time. Here is one out of my pocket right now, a contract knife with/for Jim Parker back in 1978; they ran out a few in a couple colors of bone. My impression is that the latter day Schrades (1980s-2004) got their bone through a German connection, probably Argentina bone. I really like the 194OT liner lock knives and their variants for just carrying in the pocket.

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afishhunter said:
Modoc ED Modoc ED
Not surprising (to me) the boxes were made in China.
I heard over a decade ago, that Imperial-Schrade was "late" entering the "modern" liner lock OHO/flipper market, and their offering in that style/type of knives were made in China, years before the company went belly up, and Taylor-Schrade moved production of all the Impeial Schrade brands and models to China.
Click to expand...
They had one handed lockbacks that were made in the US, but for linerlocks and stuff that would not surprise me.
The packaging on that trapper being made in China really does surprise me as it makes no sense.
how could you possibly save money by having these boxes made in china when they've still gotta travel across the ocean.
I don't know the story on the knives or when exactly they were made though.
It would seem less odd if the knives were earlier post 2004 products made by Taylor with left over parts, but I believe all such knives had been assembled in China.
 
Aside from the tsunami of Chinese 'schrades', Stewart Taylor had a lot of 'schrades' made for him in the U.S. after the 2004 Schrade bankruptcy.
Trails of Tears fixed blade by GEC
switch blades by GEC (very rare and valuable!!)
trappers, muskrats, stockmans, razorthingie folders by Bear and Son
trappers, muskrats and stockmans by Camillus in 2005 only
trappers and stockmans by Utica
Now there is a whole generation of crap out of China that is gradually becoming the norm for what most newer folk understand as Schrade.
 
tongueriver tongueriver
I'll still give credit to Mr. Taylor though. He was wise/smart enough to drop the Swendon Key construction and returned the brand to the stronger, more reliable, and reparable pinned construction. 😁👍
I don't know if Schrade (USA) was still paying a royalty for every knife made with the keys at the end.
(Wasn't the last/final C.E.O. of Schrade (USA) David Swendon, the inventor of the Swendon Key construction, and patent holder?)
If they were, Mr. Taylor saved a bunch in royalties.
Mr. Taylor was never stupid enough to "guarantee" against losing the knife. I wonder how many saw that "guarantee" as a "buy one get one (or more*) free".
Sadly, "Human Nature" says "A lot of people." Since the replacement knife was also guaranteed against loss ... there is no question in my (so-called/alleged) "mind" several "people" got their knife "replaced" more than once. 😡
(one of first "rules" of business is: "TRUST NO ONE!" ☹️)
 
I have a few of the USA-made knives I can post. (I probably have more of the Chinese knives that use the old names, but I'm sure you don't want those in this thread.)
Here are some Imperial USA scout knives. The first three have 1956-1988 tang stamps, the last one has a 1936-1952 tang stamp.
A red BSA model (thanks, Paul):
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A white BSA model (thanks, Rachel):
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A Kamp-King I found at an antique store the weekend before COVID hit:
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A beat-up, probably post-WW2, model like that made for the Navy later in the war (note the pen blade instead of an awl):
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- GT
 
BuckShack said:
I carried this tiny 180OT for years. The locking blade made it feel bigger.
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How is your's to close & open ?
The one I plucked from the GAW box was quite hard to open and felt dangerous to close, so I through pin modified it and eliminated the lock tab liner.
 
5K Qs said:
(I probably have more of the Chinese knives that use the old names, but I'm sure you don't want those in this thread.)
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Personally, I don't mind the offshore Schrade knives ... I have at least 5 of the offshore Old Timers (2 of which is a 858OT and a 858 OTB, both of which get carried more than my vintage made in USA 858:
(a) It won't bankrupt my bank account to replace either of my offshore 858's, like it will to replace my onshore 858.

(b) The offshore 858's have more reliable/stronger pin construction. My onshore 858 has the weaker Swendon Keys.)

and (c) If the next to "worst case" happens ("worst case" is the knife goes A.W.O.L./is stolen) the offshore knives are under warrantee.

I also have one offshore Uncle Henry (a 885 stockman with a stiff to open ~8 pull Clip point 👎 despite the other 2 blades having a reasonable "5 pull), an offshore 7OT, Old Timer Scout/Camp Knife, and an Old Timer 2 blade slipjoint Folding Hunter.
To date, all my offshore Schrades except the Uncle Henry are users. (I "need" to see if I canget the UH's clip point to quit being a nail breaker. 🤨)

I did intend on excluding the offshore knives from this thread, because I wanted this thread to compare to/compete with the "Does Anyone Still Carry A Case Knife?" thread. 😇

(Besides, In My Humble Biased Opinion ("IMHBO") a "Does Anyone Carry A Offshore Schrade?" thread is better suited for an independent thread, since the subject and parameters are different ... I also suspect the offshore Schrade's don't have the following or popularity of the pre-Bankruptcy Schrades, thus a thread dedicated to them would die inside 1 or 2 pages, ☹️)
 
BobbyMinchew said:
Yessir. Old Timers almost every day. Guess I can’t post pics yet.
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As a registered user, you can post pictures using a picture hosting site. There are several free ones.
If you use imgur,
create a free account
Click <NEW POST>
Follow the directions to upload.
Once a picture has been uploated, go to the top right and mouse over the bubble with the first letter of your user name. That gives you a drop down.
Select "Posts"
That will show all your images. Click the image you want to post, then to the right at the top, copy "GRAB A LINK" address.
Then go to your post and click the "insert Image" tool on the tool bar. (It is located between the LINK tool and the SMILEY tool.)
Paste the picture address into the resulting popup, then click "Insert".

If you use another hosting site:
Once you have uploaded a picture to the hosting site, copy the web address of the picture. Note: picture web addresses must end in .jpg .png or .gif

Then go to your post and click the image tool on the toolbar next to the smiley tool. Click the link icon in the popup. (Looks like a chain.) Paste the picture address into the window. Then click the INSERT button.
 
I often wear a Buck 501 on my belt when "out and about," but lately I've switched to my Schrade LB5. It got a good workout a few days ago. We were at a nearby state natural area where we do a little volunteer work. My wife was cleaning out bluebird houses while I was taking a few pictures. One of the houses had some branches from a shrub that had grown out in front of the box. She asked me if I could cut them off so I pulled out my LB5 and did the necessary trimming. I'm very impressed by this handy little lockback!

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Here are 3 more Imperials made in the USA.

This 2-blade Imperial jack (IIRC 3 1/4" closed) is one that my wife found in one of her boxes of stuff in January 2014. She thinks it once belonged to her dad, who gave it to her when he got a new knife. She gave it to me when she found it, and after I cleaned it up a bit, I decided to start carrying a pocketknife again after 45 years of rarely carrying a knife. Tang stamp indicates manufacture in the 1956-1988 era.
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Here's another 2-blade Imperial jack (thanks, Dave). This one has lost its covers, however - it's naked as a jaybird. I think this is the only example I have with the Imperial 1946-1956 tang stamp.
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Here's a medium stockman (thanks, geologist Ralph) with the 1956-1988 tang stamp.
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- GT
 
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