Question about my Schrade Uncle Henry

S

snappybob

Joined
Jan 25, 2012
Messages
2
I'm not really a knife collector per say but I own several. I wound up here after breifly losing my Uncle Henry and then getting it back a few weeks later. I did an internet search for Uncle Henry's and found that they had not been made in the USA and not by Schrade since 2004. I started wondering if my Uncle Henry was a original USA made knife or a made in china knife. On the main blade it says "Schrade + USA 285 UH". Looking around the web I found a site that said the UH meant that it was made prior to 2004. 1985-2004 I believe. I got the knife brand new as a gift from my son several years back. I guess it could have been 8 years ago but it doesn't seem like it. I did a Google search for Schrade + USA 285 UH and came up with an endless list of these knives for sale. Could it be that there are still that many around, brand new in the box? Are the chinese knives stamped with this same stamp? I'm just curious to get a little history on this knife. Thanks for any help.
 
The China made Schrades I've seen did not have the "USA" in the tang stamp. As far as I know, yours was made here in the US before Schrade went under in 2004. Yes, there are a lot of them out there. A lot of sellers have what is in my opinion a rather skewed definition of "new in box", and there are plenty of sellers who would sell you a China made piece as US made, so exercise caution if you buy over the internet.

If you didn't already know, the "+" indicates stainless steel blades. Google search can misinterpret that to mean "find anything with Schrade in the description, then add anything with USA, anything with 285 and anything with UH. The result can be a search list with China made Schrades because they say "not made in USA" in the description and the search engine just picks up on the USA part of the statement.

Welcome to the forum!
 
Welcome!

Jack's comments are all true.

Only Schrade knives which were made in the US will say, "USA". The current Taylor Company Schrade products imported from China do not say "USA" on the blade. Which is not to say that some unscrupulous pirate copies won't.

"Schrade +" was 440A. They did an excellent job with that alloy.
 
Thanks for the excellent info. I didn't even think about the + signs effect on my search results. It's always good to know that mine (whatever it may be) is an original and not a copy. Thanks again. The next rainy day, I live in south Texas so who knows when that will be, I'll have to go through all of my old knives and start compiling some history. Very interesting website.
 
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