Stanley 99E questions

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Wehrwolf

Joined
Aug 17, 2015
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Hi, I am new here,

I have a few questions about the Stanley 99E

I haven't been able to find much online, but how long have these knives been made for?

I have a couple, I noticed today on the back of one it says USA and a new one is just blank on the back, I assume they are now like everything made in China?

Are there any websites that talk about the history of this specific knife?

I've seen a few different limited edition colours, but that's about it.

What do you guys think generally about the 99E?


thank you
 
Here's Staney's moniker. It looks like they are importing parts and pieces then doing the assembly in the USA.
madeinusa.png

http://www.stanleytools.com/product...lassic-99reg-retractable-utility-knife/10-099
 
Wehrwolf said:
not sure what is "funny" I asked genuine questions

I am not trying to make a funny joke,
Click to expand...

Welcome. While I don't have an answer to your question, I would like to apologize for RX-79G's behavior.

It's what he does.

I hope his actions do not make you feel negatively about the site or the remainder of the members here. :thumbup:
 
Knife aficionados pride the!selves in knowing/owning the right knife for the job. At least that is what I tell myself every time I try a new pattern or blade type or lock type...or steel.

I'd like to hear more about this classic. Wouldn't surprise me if there are collectors groups for it.
 
Welcome to the forum.
Sorry I really can't answer your questions, you would probably have better luck at one of the Stanley Tool forums.
I have a few older USA 99e's but I mostly used a 199 during my drywall/interior systems days.

Good luck with your search.
 
I don't own a 99e ( my preferred utility knife is the 10-499 ) but I know that they've been around a long time and are still made here in the US ( to what extent I don't know )
I do know that Stanley got into some real trouble back in the 80's for lying about the coo of a lot of their products, so there's a chance that it could be made overseas even though it says USA on it. And if it doesn't say USA on it it's probably from around the time they encountered the trouble.
 
I can’t answer your question but to show I / we can take the subject seriously . . . well as seriously as I can take anything that happens on this Monty Pythonesque dream of a God forsaken lump of rock . . far out here in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy . . .
. . . where was I . . .
. . . oh yes . . . box knives
Here are some photos to look at until the true box knife aficionado arrive to rescue us from this chaos and mayhem.

having passed through the nine circles of box knife del cammin di nostra vita . . . er, well, four or five anyway . . . I find that the thin and elegant Gerber EAB Light with a Stanley "Standard" blade (for their fixed / non retractable ) which is 0.4 mm thick (as opposed to the more popular and wholly too macho 1 mm thick blade ) is the Ferrari / holy grail of box knife dom. The slot needs to be changed slightly with a diamond file to be able to enter the kingdom of the Gerber by the way.

The thicker black handled Gerber folding box knife I really like. See last photo; second knife up from bottom. It has a grippy handle on the order of the popular Griptillian pocket knife and the blade release is brilliantly easy to use
BUT
it has not been perfected and the blade can pop out in use and is so unpredictable one will end up hurtling it into the abyss.

I hope this helps or at least entertains in some small way.

PS: Check out that tiny little gold colored Omega retractable box knife. In my opinion that is about all most everyone here (including me) needs to EDC for daily thread cutting and package opening and that all this other obnoxious, over the top display of the sword makers art is not only out of place in the modern world but down right backward and Neanderthal . . .
highly addicting . . .
expensive . . .
and should be avoided at all costs . . .
but fun and I for one am not going to stop or feel embarrassed for enjoying it . . .
so . . .
there it is











 
Since "Stanley knife" is a phrase used like "Kleenex" and "Band-Aid" in many countries for a wide variety of razor knives, I think it might be an uphill battle trying to find a collector following for something so ubiquitous that it has lost its branding in the process. "Dumpster", "Windbreaker", "Stetson", etc.

There are only 7 references to the 99E on this dedicated forum:
https://www.stanleytools.co.uk/forum/

A quick survey of Ebay also leads me to believe that there is no trade in older, collectible versions of the 99E, either.

Stanley lists the 99E as being amongst the tools that are "Made in the USA from foreign materials". This is considered acceptable language by truth in advertising pundits and watchdogs as long as the materials are essentially raw materials, and not sub-assemblies. So, unless Stanley is lying, the 99 is not made of Chinese parts, but made in the US from foreign steel, zinc, whatever.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/56667/41-brand-names-people-use-generic-terms


And that is why I thought the question was "funny", but I put a :) next to it because there should be no hard feelings about me thinking it funny.
 
What do I think of the Stanley 99E :

Oh . . . well . . . er . . . it could fill a book really . . .
For instance it got me to appreciate knives with full fisted handles and small blades.
seriously
One has serious force for cutting and yet control at the tip.

I perused the same in this experiment see photos bellow :
(for the squeamish knife purist you may want to avert your eyes due to the brutally graphic images of the maiming of an innocent knife)

David Boye in his book Step By Step Knife Making thought that the future of the fixed blade knife carried for EDC utility was in a full handled knife with a blade on the order of two inches. The longer I carry folders the more I tend to agree with him.

My modified Opinel is brilliantly useful in a work environment. The only drawback is that if it gets the slightest amount of water on the pivot you won’t be able to close it for a day or two because the wood swells and locks the joint. The Stanley is fully functional in such a situation . . . well that is until the slide rusts up.

My main dislike of the 99E is the constant rattle; not storing spare blades in it eliminates a great deal of the rattle.

The slide button is in the damnd way too; while cutting the button can be depressed and the blade slide further out than intended.

The blade shifts around some in the knife while cutting so for more precise work it can be, at least intellectually, questionable.

For these reasons I have, for box cutting, given up some handle size in trade for a more solid and more compact Gerber EAB.

At any one time I have three, four or five other knives on or near me that have larger handles etc. so that is fine then.

PS: that huge Opinel disappears in the pocket and I can carry it all day long. It is so light and stands upright so really there is no problem. Much less weight and irritation than carrying a 99E.


 
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The 99 has been around for at least 60 years. My grandfather was a carpenter, he had an old one in his toolbox when I was a kid.
I prefer to 10-499 because you can change blades without a screwdriver.
 
afishhunter said:
The 99 has been around for at least 60 years. My grandfather was a carpenter, he had an old one in his toolbox when I was a kid.
I prefer to 10-499 because you can change blades without a screwdriver.
Click to expand...

I also prefer the 10-499 (the version with the finger grooves ) and I especially like how it stores the blades without all of the rattle. And how it has the twine slot.
 
The 199 was the first. Stanley's website says 1936. I think the 99 came out in the '50s.

I prefer the 10-799 fixed model, especially when doing drywall work. I can't stand it when the blade shifts, or the stupid lock mechanism craps out and the blade gets left in the material you're cutting.
 
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