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

Codger that is great production info. You mention they projected 1000 per week in 1994. I wonder if that was possible with their 1972 equipment.
 
You show me yours and I'l show you mine. I'm disappointed I do not have numbers like all the others.
May be, Old Mate Larry will give me that box with the GOLD sticker on it.... May be not. I'm still waiting on a 2OT for Christmas Larry.
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Codger, when did they change the brown box; and Did you read what my Old Mate Dale had to say over on AAPN.
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/...415677#p415677
 
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You guys amaze me with the nice 153's you come up with. Very nice Elephant sheath MR Counsellor, and Ken, yours is making me jealous. :)
 
I don't have anything definate on the box changes. However there are clues in the papers which will help roughly date your knife. Look at the tradenames, slogans and company name and address. All can indicate a time frame. The 167UH was introduced in 1982 for instance. There may or may not be a newer pattern advertised inside that paper.

And yes, I read that thread. I cannot however post there.
 
Codger, I have some knives with numbers and some without Schrade were not to good at keeping track of when their knives were made.
I like the knives they etched the date on the blade. I have about one and a half sets of them... Ken
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It really didn't matter to the company if their knives could be identified by exact year of manufacture after they were sold except as it applied to their warranty liabilities. With only a few exceptions, knives were low dollar profit per unit items mass produced and mass marketed, unlike an automobile where each one was serialized with an exact date code for registration, warranty and licensing.

With some study and the correct packaging, most Schrade knives can be fairly closely dated. The fact that some remain obscure as to their manufacture dates is a good thing, IMHO. I, for one, am having fun puzzling out the story behind this 153UH pattern. In the end, we may well have more documented information about them than the people who were there!
 
Codger, I asked awhile back about when the serial#s stoped. I believe they had 12 people working full time just doing serial's. The way It was explained to me is it was just a logistical nightmare. Not sure about the date. Your production info is awesome. Schrade's ability to push out knives was impressive. From the time NYK started in 1852 to present day the Hudson valley region has produced hundreds of millions of knives, maybe into the billions I don't know. I do know the folks at CAC are the last ones carrying the torch. The D2 steel they use is a fine evolution of cutlery steel. High carbon with just enough chromium added to technically qualify it as stainless. I think the quality they put out is a fine way to cap an amazing history. There is no one behind them once they're gone.
 
Can you imagine the physical space and manpower required just to file all of those loss warranty certificates coming in for years on end? If serialization did not end by the time Walmart became a major customer, it surely did very soon afterward. A Walmart had their own liberal "no questions asked" return and refund policy. So did Sears. All of the returned knives had to be shipped back to Schrade in whatever condition, often sans box, papers and even sheaths. Many of the returns were for the "defect" of staining. As years passed, buyers just did not understand the difference between the attributes of carbon steel and stainless. When the returns piled up at Schrade, they were reprocessed if possible, inspected, repackaged and reshipped. Meanwhile they had to replace returns from the stores with fresh stock from inventory at their expense. This, as much as anything, explains the shift to stainless steel in patterns formerly made with carbon steel blades.
 
Human nature prevents noble ideas like loss replacement and maybe capitalism from working as intended. It's tough to maintain morales and integrity when no one is looking.
 
I don't remember it being so. It was not for me growing up and it is not for me today. Perhaps it is a general, gradual societal shift. Along with people growing up not having knowledge of tools (knives) and their proper use and care. But society has always been changing since before there were first cutleries in this country. And cutleries have been failing, for one reason or another, since that time. A few individuals have had the ability to succeed where others fail. The Divine family was intending to close and liquidate their cutlery when Baer bought it. The same for Schrade. Both cutleries were essentially failing to be profitible. Failing to change with society and technology.
 
Indeed! Advertising hype is usually interesting, even when only partially true. In this case, the 158OT never did supplant the 152OT in popularity. And they did include the guthook feature on several sucessive lines of fixed and folding knives. The knives with this feature did sell, but never up to the expectations of the company. Have you read the purported story about the origin of the Old Timer name in the Schrade newsletter? It sounded good but...

I have since then amassed a nice group of earlier Landers Frairy & Clark wood handled kitchen and butcher knives which use the name "Old Timer". And since then have found that another cutlery used the Old Timer name in an early prewar blade etch on a folding hunter pattern. And they revived the pattern and name postwar.

1935
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1945
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Still, a Sharpfinger is good for large squirrels and small elephants and you can give it to your grandson in thirty years. I think I have enough of them accumulated now to give my grandchildren and their children and grandchildren!
 
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