"Improved" Muskrat: What's the improvement?

[Planterz]

OK, so there's regular muskrats with two clip blades and Hawbaker muskrats with a clip and a straight blade. Some have both blades riding on the same single backspring, some have 2 backsprings, one for each blade.

Queen makes/made muskrats in both regular and Hawbaker configurations, with both single and dual backsprings. Both for Queen knives and for other companies (like Robeson). Judging by posts in this thread they made a Improved Hawbaker" (pic are gone) with a single backspring.

The Schatt and Morgan did some "improved" Hawbaker muskrats with dual backsprings. To make things confusing though, both regular and Hawbaker muskrats use the 42125 number, and 42125s came with both single and dual backsprings (although only the dual spring Hawbakers were called "improved").

My Canal Street Hawbaker muskrat has a single backspring, and is labeled "Improved Muskrat Knife Hawbaker Special".

Old Case muskrats weren't labeled unless they were Hawbaker, where the clip blade is etched "Improved Muskrat Knife" and the wharncliffe is etched "Hawbaker's Special". All Case muskrats that I've seen use 2 backsprings (apart from the 2004 Tony Bose, which isn't labeled either as a Hawbaker or improved).

Schrade made a precious few Hawbaker muskrats, and AFAIK these weren't labeled/etched, at least not on the knife itself. And AFAIK these had a single backspring. Schrade labeled the 77OT and 787 as "Improved Muskrat" on one of the blades, but both were clip blades. And as far as I can tell these used 2 backsprings.

So I'm completely confused. There's 4 possibilities...

Single backspring, 2 clip blades
Single backspring, Hawbaker blades
Dual backspring, 2 clip blades
Dual backspring, Hawbaker blades

...and all have examples that are called "improved".

There's also plenty of regular old muskrats with 2 clip blades and either a single or dual backsprings that are apparently unimproved, but look just like the "improved" ones.



EDIT: OK, so I can't find any single backspring, dual clip blade muskrats that were called "improved" (but that doesn't mean there wasn't any).

I guess the main root of the confusion is that Schrade was the first to offer a Hawbaker Special, which was unmarked and used a single backspring. Schrade later called some muskrats "improved", but these weren't Hawbakers, and they used 2 backsprings. The other companies that made "improved" muskrats all (that I'm aware of) only used "improved" for Hawbakers, although in both single and dual backspring configurations.

 

[Bob W]

Schrade made a precious few Hawbaker muskrats, and AFAIK these weren't labeled/etched, at least not on the knife itself. And AFAIK these had a single backspring. Schrade labeled the 77OT and 787 as "Improved Muskrat" on one of the blades, but both were clip blades. And as far as I can tell these used 2 backsprings.

Yes, the 77OT has two backsprings, and mine has the "Improved Muscrat" etch. What makes it "improved"? Only the etch itself, as far as I can tell.

 

[Daniel Dorn]

I'm thinking it's probably as Bob said. Anytime they make a change, they have to call it improved or else, where was the reasoning? So, even if they change it BACK, they have to justify the change and say "improved." In other words, "improved" = "different" Just my opion...