Hello again, I have a few more questions. Maybe Codger can answer them.
Since I bought and started EDCing my Sharpfinger (it sits on my hip as I write this) both my mother and father have asked about it, handled it and expressed interest in having one. Hey, apparently a good knife sells itself. Anyhow, my dad's a carpenter by trade like I am, and my mother is a gardener by inclination. Since they expressed interest I've been trying to hunt up good user-knives for them on Ebay. I tried to get my father a real vintage Schrade for Christmas last year, but Ebay defeated me; I was forced to buy him a Taylor clone. Don't hate me, it is more or less the same knife and I wanted to see if he'd actually like it in use. My dad is a mad-scientist craftsman, and like most of his kind he's real persnickety about what tools he bonds with. No one can predict which ones he'll like until he tries them.
But in the end, he told me he likes the Sharpfinger, so I went hunting for a real one. recently I found him a good user on the bay. It's a standard-issue Sharpfinger in a third-pattern sheath, in good shape. The sheath is a little munged, but since my dad will likely be keeping it in a tool drawer rather than wearing it on his belt, not a problem. The knife itself is in excellent shape.
For my mother, I went hunting for a stainless Sharpfinger. Why? Well, again she's a gardener, and wants the knife for gardening tasks. Plant acids and dirt are hell on carbon-steel blades. Plus, she wants to add it to the tool belt she hangs up in her unheated, drafty garden shed...an environment otherwise known as "the place carbon-steel tools go to die". So a carbon-steel Sharpfinger was right out for her.
Recently I found a Sharpfinger that could work for her; according to the Ebay article its a 1979 Guns & Ammo model with a stainless steel blade. It's a beautiful knife, and considering its age its in great shape according to the pictures, although its not "new in box". I won the auction so I'm gonna get it, but there's a problem; mom doesn't much care for gun culture.
Which leads to my questions; how rare is this knife? I had the idea of having the GUNS & AMMO handle plaque ground off and replaced with my mom's initials, but would that destroy a rare collector's item? Was there a '79 Guns & Ammo Sharpfinger released or is Ebay lying to me?
(Note: scored it for $33 + shipping and taxes, so no matter what I end up doing with it I feel happy.)
Also, the knife I bought for my father showed up today (yay!) and my fiancee and I were examining it. Since she has an eclectic background, she remarked that the "SCHRADE U.S.A. 152" stamp seemed way too deep for necessity's sake. She's not wrong; the stamp marks are in fact way thicker than my '81 vintage knife, and she pointed out how there was substantial 'dishing' around said stamp marks. She wondered if maybe the knife steel grew milder in later years of manufacture but nobody adjusted the hydraulic press to compensate. Can Codger speak to this difference in stamping style?