Which Schrade knives were made in China?

P

philw

Joined
Dec 2, 2004
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I have been picking up any Schrades I stumble across ever since I first heard of them closing up shop. I have most of the OT slipjoints and a couple UH's. I also have picked up a Simon and found a great $4 deal on a Pocket Beast at Sears. Anyway, I was at a different Sears today and noticed they had a Schrade Badger in their clearance section for $7. I headed home happy with my $7 deal but after I got home and opened the package I was disappointed to find "made in China" on the blade. I looked at the packaging again which looked identical to other Schrade packaging except for not having the flag and "made in usa" on it and then on the back, at the bottom, in small print it read "made in China". That brings me to my question, what Schrade knives were made in China? I knew they had the Ireland plant but I never knew they shopped out to China.
As far as the knife goes it is very poor. The blade has play, the grips feel like cheap plastic, it opens rough. The liner lock, I mean the tiny piece of metal that is impersonating a liner lock feels flimsy. Then again I only paid $7 for it and I think it only went for around $15 retail. I think Schrade really messed up when they tried to go into the tactical/hi-tech market.
 
A couple of answers as to why Schrade had knives made in China, all having to do with economics. But one thing for sure, it seemed like it was the beginning of the end. I, too, bought a Badger, and it was junk. Funny... almost, how our American companies that import these things to market under their own good name seem to have a contest among themselves to make the 'made in china' mark as small as possible. Some of the etched ones will easily polish right out.

Just my ramblings, no doubt someone will be here shortly to give us a list of china-made schrades.

Welcome to our forum! Do tell us about your 'real', all American Schrades.

Phil
 
I think it was in 1977 or so that I learned something about marketing (I was working as a statistician in Quality Control at the time).

If I remember correctly when a manufacturer doesn´t have (or looses) its own sales force and begins to depend on a few large customers who do the distribution and sales, these customers will become the ones that dictate the rules, define the quality and regulate production.

I feel that Schrade got to depend on large distributors like WalMart, WalMart will call the plays, and Schrade will follow their rules or loose the game, if one of the rules was go cheap, they had to go cheap, they were proud enough not to go cheap all the way, and they lost the game.

About their tactical lineup, I think they had the capabilities to do great, I feel that the Cable Lock could have been a great knife if it had been done by Schrade rules not WalMart rules.

Luis
 
Don,
I could'nt agree more! I think walmart had much to do with it. Just look at all the chinese made winchester knives they sell.
 
We still haven't answered PhilW's question: What other Schrades were made in China? Does anyone know? I'd be curious.
Phil
 
Here's one I know of:

The newer Apex lockbacks were made in China; the older ones are Irish.

-Bob
 
There were several knives which had some parts made in China and were final assembled in ellenville. (Handles and the like). The badger was a full China product which had some serious problems in quality control but were allowed to be sold by Schrade due to events at the company which wouldn't allow for rejection (loss of $). The Apex line had been in the process of tooling in the orient for a while before Ireland ceased operations.

As for the cable lock that was a wonderful idea by a great young engineer at Schrade named John. I have one of the first hand made versions of that knife. He thought I was being stupid when I told him to initial it for me.

Due to the overhead created by a company as large as Schrade some homage had to be paid to the mass customer. It isn't a lie to say it influenced the product in some ways. The one thing to remember is walking through that factory you could see masters making 'one of a kinds' and special versions. Sometimes you lose sight when you have to pay the bills.
 
XNYMEDIC,
Very interesting...keep it coming.
We're glad you have decided to drop by and add to the group.

Bill
 
Thanks for the input. I went back and checked the website and the only ones that are not listed as being made in the U.S. are:

Apex, Tradesman, and Jackmaster series which are listed as being made in Ireland.
Badger....which has no country of origin listed
Spitfire... same thing, no country listed.
Has anyone ever seen the spitfire? It looked interesting especially with the ATS34.

I have been able to pick up the 12,108,104,34, and 8 OT's as well as a 34 in the 100th anniv. tin. Also have the 834 and 5 UH's ( the 5 is the IHEA version I found at Walmart) as well as a Simon, Pocket Beast, and Badger.
I almost picked up a mighty mite but they (this store had 2 left) had a little rust on them and the store clerk said they will be putting all remaing Schrades on clearance within the next couple of weeks. All except my 34, which I had, I have picked up on clearance sales at Walmarts, Kmarts, Sears and a couple local stores.
 
I cant remember which ones, but I noticed that some of the "high tec" ones they were making, cheaper priced ones, were made in china. In fact just go to wally world many of the knives there are made in china, even some of the bucks.
 
philw said:
Apex, Tradesman, and Jackmaster series which are listed as being made in Ireland.
Badger....which has no country of origin listed
Spitfire... same thing, no country listed.
Has anyone ever seen the spitfire? It looked interesting especially with the ATS34.
Click to expand...


The Spitfire (SPF1LTD) is one fine knife! It was made in the U.S.A. The box is marked "Product Made in the U.S.A. Package Printed in China" The tang is marked "SCHRADE" on one side and "ATS-34 USA" on the other.

Great compact pocket friendly shape, ATS-34 blade, G10 scales, ambidexterous one-hand opening and closing, smooth secure modified axial lock, and a clever lanyard release mechanism. Personally, I prefer it over the AL MAR S.L.B. Both are worth a close look if you are in the market for a knife of this type.

A little pricey, but well worth it in my opinion. It's still available from A.G. Russell (http://www.agrussell.com/knives/by_maker/s_through_z/schrade/schrade_spitfire_ltd_.html)
and also shows up on Ebay from time to time.

- Hank
 
OTguy said:
After thinking about this a little, I decided that no real Schades were ever made in China, no matter what the labels say.
Click to expand...

The same sentiment, OTguy, is frequently expressed in the Buck forum, concerning that brand.

Phil
 
IMO, the Chinese Apex is the same quality as the Irish Apex. Are the Ireland knives not considered "real Schrades" either? Like I said earlier, Schrade wasn't known for high quality and many of their knives were no better than Chinese imports anyway (Cliphanger, Apex, SimpleSimon, etc.).

Just wondering what you think,
-Bob
 
Part of the rub for me on this subject is that at least the people in Ireland wanted to work at the factory.....not political prisoners and slave labor conditions, mostly controlled by the Chinese Military. :(
The quality is not necessarily the only issue, for many of us.

As always, JMO.

Bill

Oh yeah, they have better golf courses and better beer in Ireland. :)
 
Thanks for the insight. In addition to the human-rights issue, that sort of system can only result in very low quality products.

Funny thing, if the Irish workers really wanted to work making Schrade knives, why didn't they make better products? Makes me wonder about all of the pharmaceuticals that are now imported from Ireland...

-Bob
 
Bob W said:
IMO, the Chinese Apex is the same quality as the Irish Apex. Are the Ireland knives not considered "real Schrades" either? Like I said earlier, Schrade wasn't known for high quality and many of their knives were no better than Chinese imports anyway (Cliphanger, Apex, SimpleSimon, etc.).

Just wondering what you think,
-Bob
Click to expand...

No, the Imperials made in Ireland were not "real" Schrades either. They were never meant to be in the same class as the products made in the US. The Imperial line was Schrades low end, both in terms of materials and pricepoint, and the line was aimed at folks who wanted basic cutting tool at the lowest possible price. This was Schrades attempt to compete with the Asian imports on a pricepoint by using the well known Imperial brand name to appeal to the US market. That being said, and not wanting to get to political, I think for the price that the Imperials are a decent working tool and would take one over 99.9% of the China/Paki junk on the market. As for the folks in Ireland making a better product....Have you ever worked in a factory? I have for 16 yrs. and I make what I'm told to make, the way I'm told to make it, out of the materials supplied, with the tools provided. Management dictates all of this, very high management. The production workers and mid-level managers take they're marching orders and do the best they can with what they have. This is the true nature of factory work today, most of the failures are a direct result of decisions made in boardrooms, not on shop floors. No working folk I've ever known are going to do a crappy job so they can put themslves on unemployment. Think about it, if the folks contolling Schrade wanted them to put out a premium line of stuff, how come they never tried it? That was never part of the buisness plan.
 
I worked in a British-owned Rayon plant and I can tell you that plenty of people I worked with had no love nor care of their product and didn't give a rats behind if the rayon was clean or contaminated. Contamination was not the result of managers but the folks on the floor. Sometimes it was out-right sabotage. And, don't believe it was because we were poorly-paid because I was the lowest guy on the totem pole and made $10 an hour, and $20 an hour doing double time on Sundays. I literally pushed a broom and cleaned up messes and filled in when bale-press operators were on a break.

Now, that is not to say that Chinese workers are incompetent. But, there has been some sheer crap come out of China, worse than the worst I have seen manufactured in the US. Granted, that is because the plant established very low quality levels and the workers met that. Decisions, of course, are made from higher up and if poor quality control occurs which allows poor-quality workers to let bad stuff through, the problem is with management.

Ash
 
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