The Schrade Walden 153 Uncle Henry...Golden Spike & Schrade 153UH variations..

This is true. I hear when LF&C closed Albert agent and purchased all the steel and brass for pennies on the dollar. Right before or at the beginning if WW2..
 
Codger_64 said:
They were essentially hamstrung by the heir/heirs.
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I was lead to believe that the demise of Schrade was due to the employees demanding more money, and not that they didn't deserve it, but things were getting worse with the onslaught of cheap Chinese knives coming into the country. Most people seemed to be concerned with price over quality. At least this is the way I understood what I read about the closure.
 
Comparatively they were some of the best payed. That don't mean its a lot though. I don't believe anyone was demanding anything schrade had mass layoffs before they closed. I don't really know though I wasn't there and people still don't talk a whole lot about it. Tough all the way around I guess.
 
It was a perfect storm. A disinterested owner, rising material and energy prices, a very demanding, manipulating customer (always lower prices), an outside turnaround specialist who didn't know the industry, a too broad product lineup*, nonprofitible overseas operations, etc.

From what I have gleened, the employees were the least of the problems. And yes, there had been multiple layoffs. There was no one single issue, nor anyone with the knowledge, foresight and, most importantly, the power to make needed changes before it was too late.

*for some insight on this aspect, add up the patterns and variants in each catalog 1997-2004.
 
Codger_64 said:
It was a perfect storm. A disinterested owner, rising material and energy prices, a very demanding, manipulating customer (always lower prices), an outside turnaround specialist who didn't know the industry, a too broad product lineup*, nonprofitible overseas operations, etc.

From what I have gleened, the employees were the least of the problems. And yes, there had been multiple layoffs. There was no one single issue, nor anyone with the knowledge, foresight and, most importantly, the power to make needed changes before it was too late.
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Well, this is apparently more than I knew before. I did try and read everything I could about the closure. I was in total disbelief about it as Schrade was my chosen brand that I clung loyally to. I'm still saddened and will only buy knives made in the U.S.A. because of this.
 
As usual codger I think your analysis is very accurate. Schrade was not the only manufacturing jobs to disappear. I try to focus on the broader context and what fundamentally happened in this country. We made a whole lot of knives For a very long time. There are a very few still pulling it off.
 
5-4-71 salesman samples shipped 7-19-71 when returned from vacation.
11-29-72 sears craftsman same as we will make the 153uh the blade will be stamped craftsman USA etched on pile side 2-lines custom skinner aca edge use 165 sheath made of elephant grain leather. Yearly estimate 3000 pieces.
12-8-72 new items-153(code#79) this is the new uh pattern hunting knife. All displays and hunting knife line should be ready for shipment between March 15 and April 1
Projected production estimates Jan 17 1972 weekly 45,830 - 5,728,750
 
Ballenxj said:
Ah, You were part of management at the old Schrade Ellenville, weren't you? ;)
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I believe he said that his notes were made from reading a file/notebook belonging to someone else who did not agree to allow them to be reproduced.
 
G'day James, I don't understand your last line above concerning the UH153.12/8/72 projected production estimates..weekly 45,830 -5,728,750.
Larry V advised that item #79 <UH153> in 1973 had 3,485 shipped with 4,223 ordered, per my first posting page 1 of this thread.
Could you please clarify what your figures represent. Are you saying production of the UH153 was expected to be 45,830 weekly in addition to all other knives Schrade produced in 1972/73.?. Thanks. Hoo Roo
 
Reply. Sorry Larry I should have clarified that. Was a little early. I found some notes and wanted to post some info before work. Those are weekly and yearly projected totals for all knives. I don't think they hit the yearly number. I saw a spread sheet for end of year totals and I thought they were closer to 3 million total knives. Don't quote me it's been awhile. They broke it down between fixed blades and folders. The vast majority of paperwork went into dumpsters. I don't think schrade kept records detailed enough to tell us how many SW 153's were punched out. Probably the only guy that knows is the one who stamped them and I bet he wasn't all that concerned about it at the time. I did have a conversation with Harold B. At Canal he said when he worked in the custom shop he always made 3 protos. 2 for schrade and one for him. I'm sure his predaseesors had the same practice. Your probably more likly to see protos and low serial #'s surface then the other couple thousand. Those are the ones buried deep in someone's collection. The rest hopefully were put to good use. I tried but unfortunately some of the things we agonize about weren't all that important then and by the look on there face they are not all that important now either. I don't think the answer is out there. I would guess if the projected 300 pieces for sears they would have punched out 3k waldens. Especially if the did the waldens first. But who knows. That is a shot in the dark. It would not surprise me if a knife in the high two thousNds came around. It's fun talking with you guys about it though. Hope some of this info helps.
 
We do have the end of year production reports. They indicate the totals shipped by the end of the year and in some cases the number of completed knives still in inventory. The early years of this pattern read thus:

1972 -1
1973 - 3485
1974 - 7048

We can only discern how many Walden marked blades were shipped by recording serial numbers as they appear. And even this is not exacting. Did serials # 1,511 and 1,653-1,659 get trashed as rejects? But we can approximate with a lot of educated study.

And true, none of the management and workers were there to make and record history. They were there to make money for the company and for themselves. We are truely blessed to have as much of the company and pattern history as we do. Mostly thanks to unselfish former employees sharing what they know and what documents they salvaged.
 
Larry I think the numbers you have for shipped and ordered were likely the intermediate "SCHRADE" stamp by that time. Before they went to SCHRADE+. The walden stamps were probably ordered well enough in advance to be ready to use but this will start to drive you crazy after awhile. To be honest this is why I gave up trying to figure it out. It's like Chinese calculus.
 
Codger if you look at the late dates I post that #1 shipped might make sense. But the those numbers are not reliable when considering tang stamps.
 
So far our highest documented SW serial is #01857 which is more than half of the quantity shipped in all of 1973. It is not much of a stretch to assume that a minimum of 2,000 pieces were blanked and stamped, with their normal overuns of about 10% allowing for rejects and replacements. We would do well to also work backwards on Schrade marked 153's to narrow the numbers. From experience we know they would not have scrapped any SW marked knives while initiating the changeover to the Schrade name, but rather continued shipping them until depleted.

Thank you James for your input here. I value it highly as every clue and question helps. As you know, I find the minutia of production details quite interesting. I am pretty sure that Dave, Harold and the others consider it water under the bridge and understandably so.
 
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