New owners of Schrade

W

winchester73

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Since Smith and Wesson now owns Schrade after buying Taylor brands, I wonder if they have brought the quality up more. Anyone have any before and after knives to compare.
 
There are no before & after knives to compare. Smith & Wesson just bought Taylor Brands a couple of days ago. The deal won't be finalized until August. I expect more of the same. There's no change to manufacturing, just ownership of the brands. S&W accepted that quality long ago.

Ooops article was from 2016, not 2018. Old eyes!
 
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We should all be grateful for the excellent work Taylor brands did with Schrade and the enduring fidelity to the original and traditional patterns!

They even made a line in bone.

And countless kids own a traditional folder the same pattern and made to the same high quality as the knife their dad and grandad carried.

Too bad that other great American traditional company names have been trashed by not being as well respected. The new Camillus branded knives have never approached Schrade’s quality or respect for the brand’s heritage and reputation and Buck (although still running) has been subject to countless cheap knockoffs from Pakistan etc which has diminished their product.

I hope S&W don’t mess this up by dropping quality or misusing the brand name. I think TB did a great job.
 
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Camillus said:
We should all be grateful for the excellent work Taylor brands did with Schrade and the enduring fidelity to the original and traditional patterns!

They even made a line in bone.

And countless kids own a traditional folder the same pattern and made to the same high quality as the knife their dad and grandad carried.

Too bad that other great American traditional company names have been trashed by not being as well respected. The new Camillus branded knives have never approached Schrade’s quality or respect for the brand’s heritage and reputation and Buck (although still running) has been subject to countless cheap knockoffs from Pakistan etc which has diminished their product.

I hope S&W don’t mess this up by dropping quality or misusing the brand name. I think TB did a great job.
Click to expand...


I am trying to figure a way to address these points respectfully.

As to the first highlighted part, I am not grateful for what Taylor Brand did to the monumental Schrade Factory collection.

I do not feel like the Taylor brand knives are or were anywhere near the originals in quality.
I have no opinion on S&W buying them as it makes no difference to me.
Just my opinion, yours may vary.
 
I know Smith will not have them made in the US, not going to happen. If they did with so many forms closing, the only companies left would be Case, Buck or Bear and Sons to sub them out. I would like to see them enforce better quality control and use a better grade of steel
 
I don't know who made S&W knives before this acquisition but from what I know of the quality of them they were no better than the quality of Taylor Brand Schrade which is to say rather poor. This leads to an expectation of status quo for the Schrade brand but it does give rise to hope for a shift in direction to bring back some level of quality.

W winchester73 they could buy Queen's equipment and make their own.
 
They could and I wish they would but doubtful. The new tariff could make it a disincentive to off shore for Gerber Kershaw and many others or they may just raise prices.
 
Isn't this Smith & Wesson acquisition of Taylor Brands LLC actually old news, from 2 years ago? :confused:
https://blog.knife-depot.com/smith-wesson-buy-taylor-brands/
The Schrade/Old Timer/Uncle Henry/Imperial/Smith&Wesson knife brands have been owned by BTI Tools (Battenfeld Technologies Inc) for a couple of years now. So in that sense, I guess we know by now that not much has changed about the quality of the knives due to new ownership. (People differ in their assessment of the level of that quality.)

- GT
 
Ramrodmb said:
I am trying to figure a way to address these points respectfully.

As to the first highlighted part, I am not grateful for what Taylor Brand did to the monumental Schrade Factory collection.

I do not feel like the Taylor brand knives are or were anywhere near the originals in quality.
I have no opinion on S&W buying them as it makes no difference to me.
Just my opinion, yours may vary.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. Frankly, taylor schrades are not even schrades at all. They are a foreign made knife that has schrades name put on it, when you take away everything that makes a schrade but the name then what you have is a totally different product.
 
5K Qs said:
Isn't this Smith & Wesson acquisition of Taylor Brands LLC actually old news, from 2 years ago? :confused:
https://blog.knife-depot.com/smith-wesson-buy-taylor-brands/
The Schrade/Old Timer/Uncle Henry/Imperial/Smith&Wesson knife brands have been owned by BTI Tools (Battenfeld Technologies Inc) for a couple of years now. So in that sense, I guess we know by now that not much has changed about the quality of the knives due to new ownership. (People differ in their assessment of the level of that quality.)

- GT
Click to expand...
That is correct. I edited my post above :eek::oops:
 
Taylor sold out to BTI a couple years ago.
In answer to the OP's question:
Yes. I have a couple Scharde US knifes.
An Old Timer 6OT and 7OT.
I also have a Taylor Schrade 7OT, and a couple BTI Schrade Old Timer's, but do not have a comperable US made to compare them with.
I also have a Taylor Schrade Hammer Brand 4 blade gunboat canoe, but again, no comperable US made Hammer Brand for comparison.

Comparing the US 7OT to the Taylor 7OT, there are no practical differences.
Both have excellent first and finish, and no gaps.
Both lock up tight, and have absolutely no blade wiggle in any direction when open or closed.
Both have centered blades.
Both came sharp out of the box. (At least I do not remember having to sharpen the US 7OT when I bought it in 1998 to 2000)
Both hold a good edge, for an acceptable time. If anything, the Taylor made 7OT might hold it's edge a little better/longer.
Both knives are easy to sharpen/maintain the edge.
Yes, there is a slight difference in the tan part of the Delrin used by Schrade US and Taylor Schrades. But, So what?!? It has absolutely no effect on the function, quality or durability of the knife.

The BTI Old Timers I have are the 95OT large trapper, and the 12OT Pocket Pal.
As I said, I do not have the US made models of these knives.
I can tell you, that these have no blade wiggle, the blades are centered, fit and finish is excellent, with no gaps, were sharp out of the package, do not have Swendon Key construction (I don't know if the US made 95OT and 12OT used Swendon Key construction or not.) and have a "5" pull on the blades.
I've not carried these very much (I've not carried the 12OT at all, it's considerably smaller than I like to carry. The only reason I have the 12OT is because it came with the 95OT.), but, so far, at least, the 95OT has been holding it's edge just fine.

From my experience, there is no real, practical difference between a US Made Schrade and one made by Taylor, BTI, or S&W. The only difference is country of origin ... And even that may not be as big a difference as you've been lead to believe. Schrade was having some of their knives made in China before they shut down.

To those who claim "There hasn't been a "REAL" Schrade made since 2004/Taylor got them ..."
You might want to move your date of when the last "real" Schrade was made just a wee bit earlier ...
There hasn't been a "real" Schrade made since George Schrade sold out to Imperial (Baer) about 100 years ago.
 
TheChunk91 said:
I couldn't agree more. Frankly, taylor schrades are not even schrades at all. They are a foreign made knife that has schrades name put on it, when you take away everything that makes a schrade but the name then what you have is a totally different product.
Click to expand...

They're ok as an inexpensive knife, but in my opinion not Schrade.
I just can't think of them as Schrade knives, but this is only my personal opinion.
 
afishhunter said:
To those who claim "There hasn't been a "REAL" Schrade made since 2004/Taylor got them ..."
You might want to move your date of when the last "real" Schrade was made just a wee bit earlier ...
There hasn't been a "real" Schrade made since George Schrade sold out to Imperial (Baer) about 100 years ago.
Click to expand...

Well, actually, Baer bough schrade cut co in 1946 and then changed the name to schrade walden. It was still in the schrade family before then. If we're getting very techincal, the REAL schrades are the cut co and early walden knives. With the introduction of swinden and delrin is when things really changed with the knives themselves, and that also was around the change of venue from walden to ellenville (into the ulster factory actually). Those knives are still schrades but merely a different era, because the heritage of the company, its employees, its experience, its machinery, and etcetera still remained. THAT is what makes them schrade.

Like I said, Taylor is related in name only. It's kind of like in laws, sure they're related, but not by blood, so they aren't REALLY related.
 
Smith and Wesson has been letting whomever put the S&W name on crap knives for quite a while now. There's no reason to expect Schrade to be any different now that the ownership of the name switched hands (a couple years ago). They'll be the same knives made in the same factories as before.
 
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