Is there any PRACTIAL difference?

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I have to disagree with Jackknife slightly on this one. He is right in that most people will get by just fine with poor knives but most will see the difference and gravitate to a better steel I think.

My grownup son "collects" your flashier looking knives, often not great in the steel department. I got him a Kershaw in 8cr13mov and put a good edge on it. Not great, but better than a lot of stuff non-knifers buy. He has been given lottsa other Walmart stuff but he keeps bringing that knife back to me for touch-ups and always carries it because "It's a better tool." (sigh of satisfaction). I'm trying to figure out a nice slipjoint to get him that he will use a little (for now...mua ha ha).

When I was a kid I remember that, if I had something to do I would gravitate to knives which in retrospect were nicer steel. I used my Mercator or a Western belt knife I had over the no-name whatevers. I have spoken to more than one housewife who told me that "that knife with the grey blade is the best cutter". Out of the cheap knives they had they could tell the old carbon steel was better.

Most folks don't know or want to know the difference it's true. But most folks can tell the difference and will go with a better knife if you hand it to them. It is true that most people will do just fine with a sharpened tin can lid and see our fixation with this as a bit..... "different".

In re: old vs. new Schrades. Old Schrades are just a good example of old school carbon steel which will sharpen easily with minimal equipment and skill level to a fine edge. Then they will hold that edge surprisingly long for how easy it was to achieve. I heard the newer ones weren't too bad.
 
In the distant past, Schrade was rightly renowned for its quality knives. As time passed and the company's fortunes altered, it may be that it was in the end, turning out rather basic knives of not exactly stellar quality. Similar to Camillus in a way, I was looking over a Yello Jaket lockback (same size as an OT-3) of mine the other day. It is a very late model and frankly the build and quality is awful. As Schrade became a Chinese based manufacturer, a lot of people may have looked at it with scepticism or excess nostalgia for the 'real thing' this is not surprising either.

My limited experience of Schrade Chinese knives are a slipjoint I gave away but really good quality and the steel was fine, can't find fault with it except on a subjective aesthetic level-didn't like the 'embellishment' too much. A Sharpfinger that seems fine and has a decent sheath. A Buffalo horn 3-OT lockback in stainless with nickel silver liners. The stainless sharpens deadly keen and stays like it, the build quality is really surprising: no gaps, no play at all and flush springs. The equivalent 'genuine' Schrade I would like to try in sawn delrin but the Bay prices for unused ones look far too much so I don't have one to compare, but frankly I'd be surprised and happy if it were as good. 'PPP' is an etch you will see on another manufacturer's knives, a superb American maker of slipjoints that most of us are rightly pleased with...it could stand for in some contexts, Prejudice,Perception,Phantasy. The difference lies in the individual knife, as Levine sagely points out, read the knife.:D
 
The equivalent 'genuine' Schrade I would like to try in sawn delrin but the Bay prices for unused ones look far too much so I don't have one to compare,

Some are really trying to get too much from USA Schrades these days. They made gazillions of them. It helps to get one to use to scratch the itch and then just keep your eyes open rather than "look" for more.
 
I would be interested in seeing what the quality is like on the current overseas-made Schrades. I looked at a couple of knives shortly after their production had moved overseas and the quality was pretty bad, so I just wrote them off as not worth looking at and never looked back. However, that was several years ago and it would be nice to know what the quality is like now.

As far as a current Buck 110 vs. a current LB7 is concerned, I have a current production Buck 110 and it is a good knife. I like carrying a folder in a belt sheath (although I have a good assortment of pocket-dwelling traditionals) and the Buck works well for that.
 
I've had several USA and Chinese (current productiom) in some cases the older Schrade were superior and in some cases there were some bad production years or somerhing because the quality was not as high as other older ones.

In the spirit of what Schrade is to me a company that made iconic yet somewhat ubiquitous user slipjoints I think they are all great.

That said I seldom try to buy the new ones when I can scour for a fine condition older one in 1095 steel. There's so many out there at good prices!
 
afishhunter, it's not so much that you're original post stirred everyone up here. It's just where you asked your question is all.

The members on this forum are generally more than just your average user with maybe two or three knives and don't understand why on earth anyone would pay $100 for a pocket knife, or even $600 on a custom model. Their utility knife from Home Depot cuts just fine. And it does. Serves their needs.

You would get a similar response in any kind of forum where the members consider themselves to be specialists as opposed to those that having a run of the mill Widget from off the shelf at Walmart is good enough for what they want and need to do. In reality, I know that 99% of my knife requirements would be met perfectly by my alox Victorinox Electrician. They're a great knife and quite reasonably priced. Been around forever. It was my gateway drug to this forum and all the enablers found here. There's forums and FB pages dedicated just to Swiss Army Knives.

Go to a camera forum, a watch forum, stereo forum, it's all the same. Go over to the flashlight forum where guys pay big bucks for a McGizmo pocket light.

Audiophiles are some strange people to me. Why would I need a $6000 stereo sound system when I can get a stereo from Walmart for $80? My son is a technology guy. He's always making me upgrade my phone to the latest model. He's telling me all it can do and its capabilities etc., and all I really want to do is make a phone call. But I go along cause I know it makes him happy. But I rarely, if ever, use all those other features. I like the camera cause it's convenient. Look at car guys. Fancy rims, a gauge for everything, etc. All I want my truck to do his get me where I want to go and home again. My father had an old jon boat. Kind of a brown color. All scratched up, couple spots of primer here and there. Butt ugly looking thing. I asked him why he didn't get it painted. He'd just shrug and say that won't make it catch fish any better. He could never grasp why some guys would buy a $30,000 bass boat. Dad's gone now but guess where that ugly boat is parked. My brother has a 35' fifth wheel camper. Has everything in it. Satellite TV. Really?! Myself, I figure if I need all that stuff along with me to go "camping", I'll just stay home. But he enjoys it and is always talking about upgrading and telling me why I should get one.

So, for practical use, your offshore Schrade will work just fine if you aren't interested in becoming a pocket knife fanatic like most guys here are that have a different pocket knife for every day of the month. Or more. Lol.

So don't take offense at some of the replies you received. It's just folks showing their enthusiasm for something they're very passionate about.

Joe
 
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afishunter - I was the first responder in your thread. Now you see why it was a simple "welcome". Most of the members are great guys, and I knew they would really get into your question. Don't worry, they are having a fine time.

Just my 2 cents worth, I buy quite a few of the old Schrade USA knives. I had to chastise my own brother for impulse buying an offshore Schrade on sale in a brick and mortar. He's a gun guy. Now he know's better.
 
afishhunter, it's not so much that you're original post stirred everyone up here. It's just where you asked your question is all.

The members on this forum are generally more than just your average user with maybe two or three knives and don't understand why on earth anyone would pay $100 for a pocket knife, or even $600 on a custom model. Their utility knife from Home Depot cuts just fine. And it does. Serves their needs.

You would get a similar response in any kind of forum where the members consider themselves to be specialists as opposed to those that having a run of the mill Widget from off the shelf at Walmart is good enough for what they want and need to do. In reality, I know that 99% of my knife requirements would be met perfectly by my alox Victorinox Electrician. They're a great knife and quite reasonably priced. Been around forever. It was my gateway drug to this forum and all the enablers found here. There's forums and FB pages dedicated just to Swiss Army Knives.

Go to a camera forum, a watch forum, stereo forum, it's all the same. Go over to the flashlight forum where guys pay big bucks for a McGizmo pocket light.

Audiophiles are some strange people to me. Why would I need a $6000 stereo sound system when I can get a stereo from Walmart for $80? My son is a technology guy. He's always making me upgrade my phone to the latest model. He's telling me all it can do and its capabilities etc., and all I really want to do is make a phone call. But I go along cause I know it makes him happy. But I rarely, if ever, use all those other features. I like the camera cause it's convenient. Look at car guys. Fancy rims, a gauge for everything, etc. All I want my truck to do his get me where I want to go and home again. My father had an old jon boat. Kind of a brown color. All scratched up, couple spots of primer here and there. Butt ugly looking thing. I asked him why he didn't get it painted. He'd just shrug and say that won't make it catch fish any better. He could never grasp why some guys would buy a $30,000 bass boat. Dad's gone now but guess where that ugly boat is parked. My brother has a 35' fifth wheel camper. Has everything in it. Satellite TV. Really?! Myself, I figure if I need all that stuff along with me to go "camping", I'll just stay home. But he enjoys it and is always talking about upgrading and telling me why I should get one.

So, for practical use, your offshore Schrade will work just fine if you aren't interested in becoming a pocket knife fanatic like most guys here are that have a different pocket knife for every day of the month. Or more. Lol.

So don't take offense at some of the replies you received. It's just folks showing their enthusiasm for something they're very passionate about.

Joe

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Thank you Joe. Great post.!!

Your dad is just like so many, who don't care about what the obsessed 'phile is. Nobody is as persnickety as the fan of that particular object.
 
Now you see why it was a simple "welcome". Most of the members are great guys, and I knew they would really get into your question. Don't worry, they are having a fine time.

You betcha

BTW, welcome.
 
Time we had some pictures.
Mine are all estate sale or antique store except for the four-blader I bought new. (Actually all estate sales- I've bought Bucks at antique stores but not Schrades.) They're good cutters and I like the longer-than -some sheepsfoot blades.
Lcz3Dyxh
 
Just picked up these three.

The sheepsfoot on the top "Copenhagen" Schrade is serrated as well, not chewed up.

 
I think there is a practical difference.

I am a wood carver and a teacher of whittlin' and wood carving. I teach a lot of people, kids and adults how to whittle, carve, and sharpen.

My knives have to work at more than cutting apples, and the Chinese made Schrades of the last couple of years are in my experience just as good at taking and keeping an edge as were/are the old ones. I have some older US and German knives - carbon steel - that are not even close in edge keeping abilities to the current stainless offshore offerings from Schrade, Colt, Marbles, and Rough Rider. I wish they were, but they just aren't.

I have several Case knives - Stainless and CV. The Chinese ones listed above are better. Recently I got some Imperial Schrade Chinese knives. Among them was a Sodbuster Jr. pattern in stainless of course. At the same time I got a Case Sodbuster Jr. in CV. NO COMPARISON! The Imperial is significantly better in edge keeping, and has at least equal fit and finish - and significantly lower cost.

A couple of years ago I got a new Queen congress in 1095. For the extra money it should be better than a Chinese Schrade but it isn't in my experiece.

One other practical difference: The new Shrades are not made with the Swinden Key system, so if they do loosen up a bit it is easy to fix. Every old Shrade I had that did have Swinden Key construction loosened up on me and required a total rebuild (I did this on a couple) to fix. Thankfully, this, to me, weird system, is gone. Back in the day when Schrades were made in the US I would have used them if they hadn't been made with that system. I discovered Camillus and was quite happy with them, using, modifying and selling them for years until they were (sob) gone.

I think that you will find that the new Schrades are mostly pretty good.

One of these days I will cough up the bucks and get a GEC, (they make some very tasty looking knives), put it to work, and see how it measures up.
 
In a way just considering its name, Schrade's Old Timer line has always appealed to those who are looking nostalgically at the past. I think this is why we tend to inflate our opinions of the old ones a bit, and what the current importers are cashing in on by continuing the name. There is nothing wrong with that, however there are many other Chinese made knives that are made just as well from a practical standpoint some of which cost a bit less. I find that as time goes on, however, the practicality of the Case Caliber lightweight stockman has displaced the Chinese knives from my pocket as a user/abuser especially when wearing dress pants. It reminds me of the old Uncle Henry 897 I used to carry. The Chinese 897s tend to have really thin blades which don't stand up to any real use for me.
 
How old would it need to be to be American? Anyway i can tell?

Easy. Assuming you're asking about Schrade specifically, all of the USA Schrades were tang-stamped as such ('SCHRADE USA', or 'SCHRADE NY USA'). The newer imported ones from Taylor Brands have no USA mark on the tang; they're simply stamped 'SCHRADE'.


David
 
afishhunter, it's not so much that you're original post stirred everyone up here. It's just where you asked your question is all.

The members on this forum are generally more than just your average user with maybe two or three knives and don't understand why on earth anyone would pay $100 for a pocket knife, or even $600 on a custom model. Their utility knife from Home Depot cuts just fine. And it does. Serves their needs.

You would get a similar response in any kind of forum where the members consider themselves to be specialists as opposed to those that having a run of the mill Widget from off the shelf at Walmart is good enough for what they want and need to do. In reality, I know that 99% of my knife requirements would be met perfectly by my alox Victorinox Electrician. They're a great knife and quite reasonably priced. Been around forever. It was my gateway drug to this forum and all the enablers found here. There's forums and FB pages dedicated just to Swiss Army Knives.

Go to a camera forum, a watch forum, stereo forum, it's all the same. Go over to the flashlight forum where guys pay big bucks for a McGizmo pocket light.

Audiophiles are some strange people to me. Why would I need a $6000 stereo sound system when I can get a stereo from Walmart for $80? My son is a technology guy. He's always making me upgrade my phone to the latest model. He's telling me all it can do and its capabilities etc., and all I really want to do is make a phone call. But I go along cause I know it makes him happy. But I rarely, if ever, use all those other features. I like the camera cause it's convenient. Look at car guys. Fancy rims, a gauge for everything, etc. All I want my truck to do his get me where I want to go and home again. My father had an old jon boat. Kind of a brown color. All scratched up, couple spots of primer here and there. Butt ugly looking thing. I asked him why he didn't get it painted. He'd just shrug and say that won't make it catch fish any better. He could never grasp why some guys would buy a $30,000 bass boat. Dad's gone now but guess where that ugly boat is parked. My brother has a 35' fifth wheel camper. Has everything in it. Satellite TV. Really?! Myself, I figure if I need all that stuff along with me to go "camping", I'll just stay home. But he enjoys it and is always talking about upgrading and telling me why I should get one.

So, for practical use, your offshore Schrade will work just fine if you aren't interested in becoming a pocket knife fanatic like most guys here are that have a different pocket knife for every day of the month. Or more. Lol.

So don't take offense at some of the replies you received. It's just folks showing their enthusiasm for something they're very passionate about.

Joe

Well put Joe.
I often wonder why TV commercials for the most expensive cars feature open country roads (usually in another country)aaaah the freedom! Then I treddle past one on my pushy sitting in the same traffic jam as all the other rusty tired PsOS on the way to work.

we were not crazy insane nuts back then
[video=youtube;hw3CE04LGiA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=hw3CE04LGiA[/video]

I was.
 
In the distant past, Schrade was rightly renowned for its quality knives. As time passed and the company's fortunes altered, it may be that it was in the end, turning out rather basic knives of not exactly stellar quality. Similar to Camillus in a way, I was looking over a Yello Jaket lockback (same size as an OT-3) of mine the other day. It is a very late model and frankly the build and quality is awful. As Schrade became a Chinese based manufacturer, a lot of people may have looked at it with scepticism or excess nostalgia for the 'real thing' this is not surprising either.

My limited experience of Schrade Chinese knives are a slipjoint I gave away but really good quality and the steel was fine, can't find fault with it except on a subjective aesthetic level-didn't like the 'embellishment' too much. A Sharpfinger that seems fine and has a decent sheath. A Buffalo horn 3-OT lockback in stainless with nickel silver liners. The stainless sharpens deadly keen and stays like it, the build quality is really surprising: no gaps, no play at all and flush springs. The equivalent 'genuine' Schrade I would like to try in sawn delrin but the Bay prices for unused ones look far too much so I don't have one to compare, but frankly I'd be surprised and happy if it were as good. 'PPP' is an etch you will see on another manufacturer's knives, a superb American maker of slipjoints that most of us are rightly pleased with...it could stand for in some contexts, Prejudice,Perception,Phantasy. The difference lies in the individual knife, as Levine sagely points out, read the knife.:D

What a great post, Will. I quoted the whole thing since to me there wasn't anything to snip.

A LOT of love for the old knives here in the subforum seems to come from nostalgia. I am surprised to see what is held as a prized possession here from time as I remember a lot of these knives when they were sold everywhere, made here, and widely regarded as useless (watchin' that language, Gary!).

My Dad would have whipped my butt for buying a Colonial, Imeperial, or any list of the knives they sold as inexpensive knives back in the early, mid 60s until they went broke. He had a real thing about knives that wouldn't snap, fit poorly, were held together by bent tabs, had hollow bolsters, or had plastic scales. He bought me my first knife in 1960 (a BSA knife) and it had plastic scales. They curled in about 5 years, and he told me that he only bought that knife in plastic scales as that was all he could find. However, the lesson he wanted to impart to me was 1) no plastic scales and 2) no poorly made knives.

Oddly, we had little Schrade knife representation around here. CASE was by far and away with no doubt the undisputed king of the workingman's pocket as was their offerings to hunters and fishermen. Many Schrades had plastic scales called "Delrin" so that was their first strike. Allow me to explain Delrin as plastic as defined by my father and grandfather in the 60s: if it isn't bone, stag, wood, bakelite (served him well in Korea), it is plastic. Dying it, putting fake sawmarks on it, didn't fool them one bit. My Dad was the traditionalist's traditionalist. Unless it was celluloid or gumfuddy, doubtful my Dad or grandfather ever saw a respectible knife with something other than wood, bone, etc., as scales. I figured Grandad was about the most "traditional" guy I had ever met since he told me he got his first pocket knife around 1905!

Besides, the "fix it" shop guy he and my grandfather went to told them that Schrades weren't good knives as they couldn't be easily tightened up after a couple of years work. Nor could you take them apart to replace a blade if you needed to. The fixit man didn't like things that couldn't be repaired easily, didn't understand the Swinden key and didn't care to. Utility was the name of the game for him and he had been repairing pocket knives for many decades and didn't like change. He was sure since Schrade was the only one that did their knives that way that it was just to keep cost down. And... many Schrades had those plastic scales (that fooled no one). So Schrades couldn't be adjusted or repaired easily, and had plastic scales, and was were same price as a CASE. Not too many around here were interested.

By the time we got Schrade knives in the very late 70s to early 80s, that I could look at personally, I really wasn't impressed. I kept buying CASE and Boker and they served me well. I never thought of Schrade as a traditional brand since I hadn't seen that many of them and didn't know anyone that carried one regularly.

I have no personal experience with the Schrades coming from the Pacific Rim countries. Until I had read so many positive posts about knives from so many foreign countries here, I probably wouldn't have ever even looked at the Pacific Rim knives. I have several traditional patterned knives from different foreign countries, and have to agree with Mr. Levine's advice to "read the knife". When I read these posts I always wonder how many people that opine freely have exact, specific, hands on experience with the subject they are posting on.

Robert
 
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Some really great posts in this thread :thumbup:
 
As Schrade became a Chinese based manufacturer ...

My apologies, guys, if I make too much of this ......... but there is no Schrade anymore. There is a company that has knives manufactured for them in China and stamps the word "Schrade" on them (as is their right since they now own that trademark). But that's different than there being a Schrade company. So phrases like "Schrade now makes their knives in China" and "Schrade moved their production to China" are not accurate. Sadly, the Schrade company ceased to exist a good long time ago. :(

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

-- Mark
 
I think the time of branding has just about passed with the end of the 20th century. There was a time when branding meant that the product was made by particular people in a particular place in the same way of the same materials. We once bought things for a time based on branding for the sake of consistency, which reached its height in the mid 20th century but died at the century's end. Indeed, Schrade has long ago gone the way of others and exists in name only. I find that products from China have gone up in quality in terms of numbers of usable examples compared to numbers that are just trash, but there are no rebranded Chinese knives that are much more likely to usable than others. This seems to be related to the use of different sub contracting factories at the end of each production run (probably trying to hit the best price point for the Intellectual property owners). I tend to avoid giving much credit to brand names on items produced overseas and buy individual examples when I can examine them personally. If anything, my experiences over the past ten years have reinforced the notion that one should not give much credibility to any sort of branding, as the relation of a name to a product is generally no longer an indicator of how well, where and by whom things are made (except for a few companies that are still actually making their own products). I find some Rite-edge brand knives to be of the same quality in practical terms as current Schrades, often at less cost.
 
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