Schrade Wonda-Edge Research
Here is a brief paper I put together a while back on the invention.
The idea of adding scalloped serrations to one side of a knife blade was patented by Albert H. Baer, USPTO utility patent #2,825,968. The patent was filed in September of 1956, and issued in March of 1958, and assigned to Imperial Associated Companies, Inc. The name “Wonda-Edge” associated with Mr. Baer’s invention was trademarked as well, #72,023,627, in February 1958.
This “Wonda-Edge” feature was used for the next few decades on a variety of hunting knives, pocket knives, and horticultural and sampler knives. As the assignment of the patent indicates, knives of all three of the associated companies, Schrade Walden, Ulster, and Imperial at one time or another made use of this patent.
Serrated blades were not unheard of prior to the Wonda-Edge, but they more resembled saws in that they were toothed, with angular serrations, and usually symetrically groved evenly on both sides. Mr. Baer’s invention used rounded scallops to increase the length of the cutting surface, and placed the scallops all on one side of the blade to facilitate easy sharpening from the back, or plain side, rather than trying to sharpen the scallops themselves.
The very earliest mention I have found of the use of the Wonda-Edge feature is on the Schrade Walden 1957 price list, SW157JA. There I find listed 145WE, 147LWE,148LWE, all fixed blade hunting knives. Two pocket knives were also listed, both with stagged bone covers, 3 7/8" Serpentine Jack (we now call a two blade gunstock trapper pattern) 293WE, and the 4" Muskrat pattern 787WE with one blade serrated.
In the1959 price list, SW159J, the hunting knives listed were the H-15WE (Utility hunter), 147LWE, and 148LWE. No pocket knives with the Wonda-Edge were listed, nor in the catalog. The same hunting knives were listed in the 1960 catalog as well.
The first Wonda-Edge fruit and meat samplers I have found mention of were Schrade Walden SS700WE, SS102WE, and SS105WE in 1961. The “WE” was a no cost optional upgrade of the base sampler knives. The 1961 price list SW161J listed the H-15WE, 147LWE, 148LWE, and an SW19WE under the hunting knives and no pocket knives were listed with the WE designation. The fixed blade knives were named in the 1961 catalog, many for the first time. The 147LWE was named “B’ar Knife”, H-15WE was “Utility Hunter”, 148LWE was “Huntsman”.
The Wonda-Edge feature was not listed after 1963 in the catalogs on any hunters but the 148LWE, and it too was dropped after the 1965 catalog, and they are not seen in jobber catalogs like Belknaps.
This survey of the catalogs and price lists is not conclusive, as I have seen several knives never mentioned, such as my 137WE. And the Imperial WE variants like the serrated Sportsman knife, and the Kameo Kut D400BHWE in my collection.
EDIT: I see the Wonda-Edge illustrated on page 256 of the 1959 Imperial catalog. It is on the FF-220 fish fillet knife which may well be the one illustrated in the patent filing. I do not see the WE option listed for any other Imperial knives in either the catalog or price list for that year.
Michael
