Excalibur!

RaptureRaptor

RaptureRaptor

Joined
Jun 2, 2013
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306
I posted about my grandfather's old three bladed stockman, and then lo and behold in a surplus store I saw it.

Well not exactly, his was an old Schrade with stag handles, this one is made by an outfit called Excalibur and it's handles are plastic renditions of stag. When I saw it I thought I'd have a look, it was priced at $15 so i didn't expect much. Funnily enough it was brilliant, no blade play, sharp as anything, no gaps near the springs, fully peened brass pins. The blades were good, only one had a minor kink in it and though I'm not sure the steel will hold up over the long run the starting edge is better than fair.

So now it rests in a rather well-made real leather sheath that came in the box with it on my hip. Not bad for $15. It is going to be my nostalgia/beater blade, I'm not scared to scratch it or put it through serious hard duty like I might be a more expensive and well made knife.





 
I've seen Excalibur knives quite often here in Australia, (mostly one hand openers and cheap looking multitools) and always steered clear of them. I recently saw an Excalibur stockman with brown, sawcut delrin, but assumed it was probably junk. I'll have to check it out next time I see it!

Yours looks like an Uncle Henry, and the one I saw looked like an old timer, I wonder if they are rebranded Schrades? I think I remember hearing that the Chinese Schrades quality had recently risen somewhat.
 
Well I don't know about that but the few schrades I've handled of the new variety didn't match this one for quality. From where in Aus are you? I'm in Perth
 
I have a Chinese made Uncle Henry that looks exactly like your Excaliber. The fit and finish is excellent and it holds a great edge. The only problem I had was the shield fell out of the handle somewhere and it's gone, but that doesn't effect the function anyway.
 
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Your knife sort of intrigued me so I searched for more information but came up with little. On another forum from 2006, Excalibur was said to be a brand of upper level Chinese cutlery sold by Sheldon and Hammond in Australia. The Sheldon and Hammond site doesn't list Excalibur on its page currently but their website is pretty lacking in information. Here in the USA, Excalibur is a series of expensive automatic out-the-front (OTF) knives made by Piranha that have no relationship to your slipjoint model.

The shape and design of the knife pictured looks like one of the current Chinese Schrade Old Timers called Ramrod (98OT) with a different shape to the spey blade and the Old Timer has saw cut delrin panels instead of plastic stag.

It may be that the same factory in China that currently builds the Schrade models also built or builds the Excalibur and the Excalibur is limited in distribution to Australia only. While many people put down the Chinese Schrade Old Timers, I've found them to well worth the price for a working knife with fit and finish commensurate with some other brands costing more. If the Excalibur is a step up in quality and material from the current Schrades, you have a very good knife indeed. Enjoy it.
 
There are a lot of fakes of just about any knife brand in Au. There is a chain of outdoor shops that sells a lot of fakes in the actual shops, not online.
But the funnies thing is that the other day I have seen fake 'BG Gerbers' (I'm talking Rambo style! :eek:) in the Paddy's Markets in Sydney...
 
Hey, Rapture. Congrats on the new find. Looks like a great little knife. I don't really care where a knife is made or the name on the tang or shield. Any knife can be great knife if there are great memories associated with it. Expensive doesn't always equate to a treasure that's passed down through a family, it's the memories you make with it. Hope it serves you well.
 
RaptureRaptor said:
I posted about my grandfather's old three bladed stockman, and then lo and behold in a surplus store I saw it.

Well not exactly, his was an old Schrade with stag handles, this one is made by an outfit called Excalibur and it's handles are plastic renditions of stag. When I saw it I thought I'd have a look, it was priced at $15 so i didn't expect much. Funnily enough it was brilliant, no blade play, sharp as anything, no gaps near the springs, fully peened brass pins. The blades were good, only one had a minor kink in it and though I'm not sure the steel will hold up over the long run the starting edge is better than fair.

So now it rests in a rather well-made real leather sheath that came in the box with it on my hip. Not bad for $15. It is going to be my nostalgia/beater blade, I'm not scared to scratch it or put it through serious hard duty like I might be a more expensive and well made knife.
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The original Schrade Uncle Henry’s didn’t have real stag either.

The material was a plastic called Delrin. In the Old Timer line it was brown and saw cut.

In the Uncle Henry line it was shaped and died to resemble stag. Schrade called that scale material Staglon.
 
my father (also in Aus) has the same model that he uses pretty hard (I don't know what he has done with the GEC I gave him), seems to work okay.
 
wow, surprised to hear you're in perth, I am 400 ks south in mt barker. I like the look of that excalibur. It'll make a nice dirty work knife, cheap and replaceable, my favourite :)
 
If you look on ebuy you will find USA Schrade Uncle Henrys and Old Timer in vast array. The main problem is when the postage is more costly than the knife.You'll get one for under a ton.
The excalibur looks pretty good for 15bux. They are common in disposals stores that I've seen.
 
Dale Gribble said:
Hey, Rapture. Congrats on the new find. Looks like a great little knife. I don't really care where a knife is made or the name on the tang or shield. Any knife can be great knife if there are great memories associated with it. Expensive doesn't always equate to a treasure that's passed down through a family, it's the memories you make with it. Hope it serves you well.
Click to expand...

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
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