Imperial IRELAND Stainless Stockman

A

ASBOB

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Feb 8, 2008
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I've gotten some stones and started learning to sharpen. As part of this, I bought a number of cheap, dull knives to practice on.

The gem out of the bunch is as follows:

--only markings: Imperial IRELAND Stainless

--three blades

--Stockman, Pattern 44 (in the Case listings)

--black plastic handles

Does anyone know anything about this knife? Is it a cheap giveaway or something moderately decent? What kind of steel is this? About when was this made?

Finally, what was Ireland's steel/knife industry like? I didn't even know they produced knives for export.

Most of the web listings I've found are about the Barlow, carbon steel version.

My thanks for everyone's wisdom.
 
I'm not super familiar with the Imperial line, but Schrade had some of their Imperial line produced in Ireland. I don't think that they were "cheap" knives, but I feel confident in saying that they were probably not the high end either.

Chuck
 
I was once told by the CEO of Imperial Schrade they had the devil of a time making knives in Ireland do to the general anti-knife climate of that country. For a number of reasons they eventually gave up.
 
They were also sold with a shield marked Frontier. If you do a search on the auction site for "Imperial Frontier Knife" you'll see a few on a regular basis. They go for $10 to $20 and you'll see some sold as Stainless and some that have rust on the blades. Unfortunately its difficult to nail down what steel was actually used. There are a lot of them out there with green delrin slabs and some still in blister packs.

I've never found 'em in a store. Whether it be a cutlery store or the local sporting goods store. Being sold in blister packs or clam shells I'd bet they were made rather recently. As far as I know they were still Schrade knives but I don't know if they were still around when Schrade closed up shop.
 
Sidehill Gouger said:
I was once told by the CEO of Imperial Schrade they had the devil of a time making knives in Ireland do to the general anti-knife climate of that country. For a number of reasons they eventually gave up.
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I think the biggest reason was mothership Schrade giving up the ghost.

I have a few of these Irish Imperials in both stainless and carbon steel. Neither were much to write home about. Serviceable steel, nothing more. They were budget offerings, according to the price lists, often having plastic handles/scales and simple construction. And there are still some NOS available.

The best success I've had with these is to reprofile the blades with a zero edge. Turns them into decent users.
 
The Frontier line was made mid 70's to mid 80's in Providence R.I., were higher quality than the Irish made knives, and better than most of the Imperial knives made in Providence during that time frame as well.
 
thawk said:
The Frontier line was made mid 70's to mid 80's in Providence R.I., were higher quality than the Irish made knives, and better than most of the Imperial knives made in Providence during that time frame as well.
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Yep. those were the Powderhorn Frontier models, of wich I'm a big fan.

There are a couple on "the bay" right now that are Irish made Imperials with green, sawcut delrin slabs and a shield that is marked "Frontier". Not the same as the R.I. built Frontier line but marked Frontier none the less.
 
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