1973 Name Change

black mamba · May 7, 2019

When the Schrade Walden era ended in 1973, did anything actually change with the making of the knives, or was it simply a name change? New ownership, new factory, change in manufacturing processes, etc.????

TheChunk91 · May 7, 2019

I know the knives themselves were not affected by the change as far as quality and manufacturing goes.

bladecollectorr · May 7, 2019

Here's a helpful link: http://collectors-of-schrades-r.us/articles/Schrade History.pdf

It's just a name change. Schrade Walden made sense when the factory was in Walden NY. They moved from Walden to Ellenville in 1958. After 15 years in Ellenville the name wasn't so appropriate anymore. That's my understanding.

black mamba · May 7, 2019

Thanks guys, I appreciate the info.

sac troop · May 7, 2019

Nice document, but it is 20 years old now. As I understand it the Baer Family maintained controlling shares of several knife companies until the early 21st century when different ones were being sold off.
Schrade was obtained by Taylor Brands in 2004.
I think most of the changes during the period from 1946 to 2004 were done for branding, marketing, and other business organizational reasons.

bladecollectorr · May 8, 2019

sac troop said:
Schrade was obtained by Taylor Brands in 2004.

A point of clarification for any new Schrade collectors: all Imperial Schrade Corp's intellectual property was purchased by Taylor Brands in 2004. Taylor Brands did not buy the remaining inventory, tools and equipment or the Ellenville factory itself.

sac troop · May 8, 2019

Yes bladecollectorr makes a very good point, (no pun intended). The stories of the history of American knife companies can get very complex, and we can sometimes give shorter answers to general questions than others would consider are really accurate.

Codger_64 · May 8, 2019

The name change actually occurred in late 1972, not January 1973. You will note two catalogs for 1973, published in the fall/winter of 1972. As for production, sheath knives continued to be made at the Walden factory for some time after most production had been moved to Ellenville.