Schrade 152OT Sharpfinger

You seem to know more about this brand and so I would like to ask you if you would bother putting a custom handle on American Shrade blades or would money be better spent on original handle old Shrade knives in better condition.

If it were me and I were considering spending money to customize a Sharpfinger, I'd want the blade to be new/unused. There is a large number of Sharpfinger on eBay with original blades and "pakkawood" handles. I believe most of these were unfinished knives when the Schrade factory went out of business, and someone added the pakkawood (plywood) handles recently; I wouldn't hesitate to use one of these for customizing. The prices are reasonable too.
 
I only have two questions to ask!
Were the unfinished Schrade blades tempered? Or rejected for defects and not finished?
I have never liked anything that was not finished... as finished is a word in the English Language that has may meanings... Ken

There is 3 sharpfingers New in Un-opened clampacks for sale on eBay now (321007964422)
If you use a knife as a tool, you want the best one you can find!
 
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If you look at the tang stampings on many of those 'things' resembling knives you will see Scrimshaw, Heritage and all manner of stampings...Schrade didnt throw them in bins to make them up later as 20 year old Scrimshaws or Heritage etc.....Chinese handle pins and cross guards bits of coloured pakkawodd and those re constituted cardboard sheaths....so they should be cheap.....I take several knives into the harsh unforgiving Australian Bush with me when I go prospecting and I depend on them with my life at times....trust one of those 'things'....NEVER...there has never been a substitute for quality..I really dont want my obituary to be 'here lies a bloke who saved $50 on his knife'....I took one I was given to test out in my fishing boat once lasted about 3 weeks in the salt environment cutting bait, before I threw it overboard..rusty/useless crapp of a knife <stainless?..less staining than what??> and the sheath had also gone the way of all wet cardboard...overboard......... .Hoo Roo
 
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Don't you like those nice knives Larry? why don't you tell us what you realy think about those LOOK-A-LIKE knives... Ken
 
G'day Ken, as you well know cutting your Damper or skinning a Roo or Galah to eat, or cutting your climbing ropes to enter diggings, is no time to find out if your knife has had appropriate heat treatment etc.....Hoo Roo
P.S. you know how to cook a Galah?...always cook with a stone or rock and when the rock is soft throw out the Galah and eat the rock.....Lol
 
When I was quite young, I shot a duck-looking bird; I then had to swim out to get it.
If I had known then how to cook a Water-Hen, I would have enjoyed the stone.
The Water-Hen was the worst Duck, I have ever tasted&#8230; Ken

ps. I have a Brand New 2011 Schrade D'holder in a Taylor box, I would like to swop for one of your 2OT's.
 
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Ken, as a general rule the blades were blanked, pierced, tang stamped, heat treated, flashed, ground, dressed (in the case of fine blanking there was no need for dressing), and polished in that order. Handles were put on afterward depending on the model category (regular run, special edition, SFO, etc).

Eric
 
Hi Eric,
I know nothing about making a knife! do you belive these knive blanks were finished by Schrade before the Close-down and only needed the handles? Ken
 
Ken, I'm not too familiar with what's out there, but of the few I just found they seem ok (didn't see any 152's though), as long as they have the correct tang stamp and are already ground, they were most likely stock.

Eric
 
Ken, as a general rule the blades were blanked, pierced, tang stamped, heat treated, flashed, ground, dressed (in the case of fine blanking there was no need for dressing), and polished in that order. Handles were put on afterward depending on the model category (regular run, special edition, SFO, etc).

Eric

Hi Eric,
I know nothing about making a knife! do you belive these knive blanks were finished by Schrade before the Close-down and only needed the handles? Ken

Ken, I'm not too familiar with what's out there, but of the few I just found they seem ok (didn't see any 152's though), as long as they have the correct tang stamp and are already ground, they were most likely stock.

Eric

I have examples of 152's in every stage of completion. While we can hope that only previously finished blades were used on these, we really don't know.
 
As many of the blades being sold have 502SC <Scrimshaw> and Heritage etc stamped on them...does anyone really consider Schrade was going to complete them at some time in the future as say American Outdoors series, and wade through the 'stock' to find each one to complete...or were they discarded for other reasons at time of manufacture...even if kept as overruns or Guarantee purposes it was long after any Guarantees for the originals could have applied....it would make more sense if all discarded blades were thrown into removal bins for eventual destruction or re-cycling?..before the opportunists moved in to complete anything resembling an original blade...now it appears to be the fishing/fillet blade bins that they are up to, with thousands of new "exotic" pakkawood,orange handles examples being flogged as original and genuine, by the secondary Fleabay resellers.....and has knocked the guts out of resale values of the originals/genuine collectables..IMO....I also am of the belief that ""new"" old packaging has been reprinted since, such as the 49er series box's etc etc which have printing differences to the originals....to say they were all part of existing stock some 30 years after production of the 49er series means Schrade never destroyed anything, and must have been drowning in old never to be reused stock.. wouldnt old stuff like cardboard products many years old have been recycled??..there is a whole ""new"" industry going on here IMO, attempting to appeal/dupe collectors, why else do secondary sellers add Schrade box's to those recent Chinese finished 'things'.....Hoo Roo
P.S. I have definitely had blanks like PH1's from the factory sale which were no more than thick unfinished blanks, but they were also current production catalog items in 2004......I also have a 162UH Wolverine from the clearance sale <and they were last made in 1985> it is correctly tang stamped, and has staglon handles however the blade is unfinished in all respects,,purely a thick unsharpened blank..how did it get to that stage fully handled?...will we ever really know...
 
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Hi Old Mate Larry, It looks like you are not going to start collecting these "Chinese finished things"
I have a D'holder I paid $22 for, to have a look at the finish of the Chinese 'things'
I have paid $15 too much for it... Ken
 
Here is yet another Sharpfinger SFO, 152HD, made for Harley Davidson Motorcycles. According to the new product file and memos, it appears to have been produced between 1988 and 1990 with a volume of 2,000 pieces +/-. I note that on this used example, only the blade etch was added to the knife and the black coating on the sheath did not wear well. The black Delrin covers were ordered from Crown Plastics.

Updating this earlier post from back in August. I missed the one pictured above when the bidding went above it's value to me based upon condition and rarity. I figured that eventually another one would come along in better condition.

Recently just that happened. I spotted a like new example (less packaging) whose only apparent flaw was a coating of dried "factory" oil. Alas, I did not have the funds to spare, but pointed it out to another forum member. When I went back to it a few hours later, someone had bought it with BIN. Again I told myself that, with patience, yet another one would come along.

Then this morning my friend emailed me that he had sent me a package. I went to the post office, retrieved my box and there was the self same 152HD Harley Davidson SFO Sharpfinger and it's pristine black sheath!

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Just another example of the generosity of Schrade forum friends! :thumbup:
 
here is mine from my junk draw - got it in 1983 with a guns + ammo subscription - threw it in draw + never unwrapped blade - will probably put it on ebay soon as my clean up of too much accumulations -
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just curious, codger, how often did they use that sheath with the 152OT? i thought most of them came with the strap. that sheath just doesn't look right?
 
That sheath was used for a short period circa 1983-1988. It was also offered as a seperately packaged accessory sheath during that time period. You can look at scrims from 1980-1990 for confirmation (since they are often found in factory complete boxes and easily dated by the artwork). For the accessory sheath sales, you can find them in the shortline catalogs of those years. Some quantity of handle retainer strap sheaths were used concurrently with these, and became the sole sheath type when the pouch style was discontinued.

I've done a bit more research on the Sharpfinger sheath styles. Schrade production records are mute on the subject of sheath changes and factory catalogs are suspect due to lithographers reusing old artwork. At best, we can pin the changes down to "circa" using dated examples which are mostly SFOs and limited editions. No doubt there was often overlap in the style/type used as sources and in-house inventories changed.

There were three basic sheath types. The first had a minor change early on, the shape of the end of the choil retainer strap. I find no record of part number or dealer/customer order I.D. like I do on the last two sheaths identified as accessory sheaths sold as replacements, SAS-17 and SAS-19. So I have given each style an arbatrary identifier, T-1, T-2, T-3 and T-4.

T-1: This first sheath style is noted in early (1973) catalogs and on flyer artwork as well as examples up to 1976. Many of the production sheaths of this type used contrasting white stitching.

T-2: This revision of the sheath, rounding the tab of the choil retainer strap, is first seen in a 1977 dated example though it did appear earlier in the 1975 flyer for the 152GD. It is last seen in a 1984 dated example though it continued to appear in catalogs and flyers for a few more years. Most of this type used color coded stitching as did the suceeding types.

T-3: This (SAS-17) pouch style sheath first appeared in 1983 dated catalogs, flyers and examples. The last appearance I have found so far is an 1987-88 example (502SC) and 1986 flyer. As seen on a few dated examples, some T-4 sheaths were used concurrent with the T-3.

T-4: This last sheath type (SAS-19) with handle retaining strap was first seen in a 1984 catalog, 1985 flyer and 1985 dated example. It was used with very minor construction changes through end of production in 2004.

Several special sheath textures were tried (mostly in the T-1, T-2), though none were adopted for regular production. Likewise colors of leather.

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This trivia is only important in that it gives us an additional means (when the sheath is original to the knife) to approximate the date of production of an example. Since the same woodgrain fold down box was used for so many years (1973-mid 1980's) they have limited utility in dating. Likewise the tan box (c. mid 1980's - 2000) was used over quite a period of time. The blue stripe box saw only and approximate two year use (c. 2001-2002) as did the last blue/grey box (2002-2004). As always, an original enclosed brochure is the best indicator on a NIB non-SFO, non-limited edition Sharpfinger.

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Nice example there, schutzen-jager!
 
Here is another Sharpfinger recently seen. It had no box or papers indicating the exact date or retailer, but an educated guess is a late 1990's to early 2000's order placed by SMKW. It apparently is only different from standard production in the addition of the blade etch, like the earlier shown trio of deer hunting themed knives (post #69 of this thread).

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Here is another Sharpfinger recently seen. It had no box or papers indicating the exact date or retailer, but an educated guess is a late 1990's to early 2000's order placed by SMKW. It apparently is only different from standard production in the addition of the blade etch, like the earlier shown trio of deer hunting themed knives (post #69 of this thread).

That's one SFO I hadn't seen before. Thanks for posting. Also the first sharpfinger with a remote control lol
 
There is literally no telling how many SFOs were sold with a custom blade etch as the only added feature. Considering that SMKW (or any other bulk buyer) could have the etch added and still sell well below MSRP, it isn't hard to imagine that on an order of sufficient quantity, the per piece charge had to be nominal. Schrade could pull the required number of knives from finished production, clean and etch the blades, then likely pack them in bulk for shipment rather than going to the labor and expense to place each one in point of sale packaging (Clampack or box).
 
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