UPDATE, Battered, Bruised, but this history won't be coming back recycled from China

lt632ret

lt632ret

Joined
Jan 21, 2001
Messages
1,634
I received this message from one of our more well known members I thought I would post this reply for everyone LT


Aint heard from you in a while.
Did you get lost yet in the piles of old documents out in one of the 5 sheds?

Rumors still abound with the Taylor startup of the Schrade name.
If they bought all the knife making equipment, would they have shipped it to China or to Taylor's TN building?



I have been in the bowels of the factory for the last week. Here is the way it worked everyone who bid Had till the 23 rd to move there stuff. After that while they in some cases continued to move things whatever was still there was up for grabs ( kinda like salvage or stuff abandoned. ) It is truly a crime what was left will go to the dump or to the guy who gets the contract to clean out the building. It is simply a matter of storage. There is just to much to get it all. It was massive amount of stuff. Think of having to move a million pounds of stuff. You are going to leave some behind. Think of it like dropping a deck of cards often you will forget one card when you pick them up. Now multiply that by a million you are going to drop some crates or simply run out of room in your trucks. Also in there infinite wisdom they took everything that was shiney and new.there were items that they did not recognize as valuable because they did not know what they were. If I had more time Today ( was the end GE took over the building It was a one week free for all and that meant you saved what you could.) Very few people knew. All the artifacts were over looked ( Frankly they did not know what they were BUUUTTTT I DID.) I have dreamt of free run In the dark back areas of that plant all my life. I never knew I could work so hard. 12 hours a day. I got everything I could. It would be impossible to tell you of it all. I kept thinking of myself like the guy who finds a diamond mine, in a movie and then fills everything with diamonds and dies trying to get back home. I was run over, fell down, had a 55 gallon drum land on my toe and get this was bitten by a dog and I could not care less. I literaly carried thousands of pounds and I just did not have the time to notice and I didn't care. but aside from the commercial stuff.which was amazing. . I got the artifacts ( most anyway and they are safe ) . In fact I do not even want to talk about them and I could not describe the quantity going back in some cases 85 years perhapes more. Rusted in piles of scrap that had sat on the same pallets since who knows when??? I have not had the time or energy to go to the forum. I went to look in on blade forums one nite and the site was down. Another week would not have mattered Every inch of space is filled including two pallets on the porch. You can only take so many diamonds and make it back. I was so overloaded each day I never thought I would make it home. I had a truck and trailer and a friend with a truck and trailer. It was like a ship sinking on a reef and you keep trying to get more before it sinks. Four actual days. I hope I can still find room on my bed to sleep in fact I hope I can find my bed. Just amazing. Many things to tell but it will be a few more days .

Taylor is not making the knives. He also only bought the IP ( name ect ). He will be buying from the foreign producers he was not tied up with the machinery since he has no use for it, he did not buy it. The people who did buy it were varied and I would bet some of it went to other than american interests. However the only production I know of for Taylor is the assembly of his automatic knives since assembling the parts here is legal while importing fully made ones is illegal.

During my journeys I ran into the national salesmanager of Taylor. By the way he is a hell of a decent person he gave me quite a bit of his time and I appreciated it and the comments he made. I posed a few questions to him and frankly he made some valid points. While the knives will not be made here there importation does create American Jobs in transporting. Shipping, Warehousing, selling ect also from what I was told they are ,making every effort to keep some of the things that go with selling these items in this country ( making and building the display cases ect ). Two things we did agree on was that as long as these people were using prison labor and subsequently did not have to adhere to OSHA rules of safety ( since our little yellow cousins really are not overly caring about how long a ( political) prisoner lasts since there are plenty more to take his place ) or also do not have to pay any real wages ( unless you consider a bowl of rice a salary ) competing with them in the labor market is quite difficult and if you get good at it Like Schrade did by staying with the piecework theory, (that what you make is up to the individual by how hard that person wants to work,) well then if the labor advantage is not enough then just buy up the paper on the competition and force them into recievership. AHH SOO. LT
 
Wow, that's quite a tale. When I heard Shrade had folded, I wondered what was going to happen to all that stuff. Sounds like you really made out. I wish I could have been there. It would have been worth missing a week's work to run around like that salvaging all that treasure. Congratulations. I'm not a big Schrade collector, but it was a real shame to see an old American manufacturer go away like that.

John
 
Good Grief, that is a hell of a story. Unreal. Sounds like a realllly interesting four days.

Better than diamonds. How about some pics?

Also LT, thanks again for the great hat! And the Advertising paraphenalia. Something interesting... at some fairly recent point Schrade began emphasizing the word 'tools' in their advertsing. A result of 9/11, I wonder?

Phil
 
There were a couple of reasons for using the tool concept in their ads. First Schrade always maintained that knives were tools this is the reason for their failure to make knives which were considered to have only one real use ie fighting. True they made knives for the military and survival knives but to give an example of what I mean. They once made a prototype boot knife. They had over 1 million orders for it, however it never went into production since it did not fit in with this company policy. Public conciousness, integrity, and high moral standards are not conducive to good business and this policy I am sure contributed to there demise.

This however is only part of the answer in reality the major reason for this emphasis on the word tools was not as noble. Schrade maintained that all there KNIVES were made in the USA. While this was true in order to compete ( especially to places like Walmart) there tools ( Super Knife, pocket tools ect ) were either made in foreign countries or else the parts were made there and assembled here. In fact some of the lower lines of product ( knives ). Apex, Century ect were made in foreign countries.

There is a new company froming from the ashes of the old one. Truthfully I have tried to be involved in this and to some extent am. I have seen the patterns and materials knowing the people involved I believe these will be among the best limited production knives made today ( perhapes ever ). I will be advising what is going on as it is happening. The new plant is quite small and is located in the old building ( where it all started ). It is like going back in time. wooden floors, it overlooks the Bierkill ( which used to supply the power for the machines and where I used to fish as a kid looking up at the building ). When you walk through you can almost feel the souls of all those people who lived and died producing a uniquely american product and raising familys who not only contributed to this industry but our way of life. Many of these family members went on to other fields of endeavers doctors, soldiers, commerce, every avenue of life. I always say the the second most important product produced by Schrade was knives the most important product was the people and familys it sustained.

It is like it must have been in the 18 hundreds when a few disgruntled employees from Walden knife left and started The Ellenville Coop knife company, now it has come full circle and these knives will be produced under that original name ( The Walden Knife Company ). American Quality American Pride. I hope they make it, I believe at this point that if even a small amount of people still want the best if not the cheapest ( the word cheapest was used intentionally in stead of least expensive ). Then this endeaver will endure. It is a longshot a hand full of people resourses are limited it will be a one roll do or die at the craptable. What the hell a shoe string longshot is all americans ever had to start with. Like the Sgt with one arm blown off who was waving his men forward with the other, we can still fight. Goliath has become David sometimes humility is the path of reality to where your trip should lead. In any event thats the hand they hold and they can have whatever I can offer to stay in the game. Watch out China you have about 6 real americans about to kick your ass. LT
 
Thank you, LT. I look forward to your future updates and I so look forward to the new Walden Knife Co. knives :eek:.

I sure would like to know more about these artifacts.
 
Well I kind of like to think of it like the story of the young bull and the old. I kind of walked up the hill ( as slow as limited time would allow ) and got them all. LT
 
Thanks for the information LT.
Maybe we can add the new name to the forum title here, once they get things going?

Maybe an online store? I'd be in to purchase a knife, just to be part of the beginning of something rising from the ashes.

Of course I do live in the "Phoenix" area. :cool:

Bill
 
Thanks much for the information. The soul of Schrade will be around for a long long time.

Looking forward to see pictures of some artifacts.

Luis
 
As usual LT another great post...............I could just feel the rush of excitement gathering up those goodies....man I wished I could have been there to help with the treasure!!!
I will buy one of those Waldens when they are released!!

Thanks for the entertaining and informative post,
Kap
 
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