Schrade-Walden Knife Military or Civilian?

[Old Marine]

I have had this knife for a while. It is marked:

 

SCHRADE-WALDEN

NY USA

H-15

 

Overall the knife measures 10" with a 5.25" blade. The handle is leather with plastic end pieces the cross guard and pommel are aluminum.

 

Is this knife Military or civilian? Is there any way to determine the age of the knife? It's nice sturdy little knife.

 

Thanks in advance for your comments and observations.

 

Dennis

[Old Marine]

the markings

[Old Marine]

top end

[Old Marine]

detail of the leather handle

[bayonetman]

Sorry to say, not military:

 

Quoted from http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/370340-Schrade-Walden-H-15-And-Variants

 

"In 1959 Schrade-Walden Cutlery was located in their new modern factory in Ellenville, having moved from the old building in Walden New York the year before. Enthusiastic about their new home after being in the old factory for more than half a century, the list of knives they produced included over seventy folder patterns and twelve fixed blade hunting knife patterns.

One of the new fixed blade hunters was called....the H-15 "Utility Hunter". It was produced in four variants the first year, and was a marketing success under both the Schrade-Walden and Imperial tangstamps. Always an important retail outlet for Schrade knives, Sears Roebuck & Company had a large number of the H-15s private stamped and sold them to their sporting goods customers. So successful was the H-15 that it was sold through 1975.

The H-15 represented what Schrade-Walden was known for, an honest quality knife at a good price. Based loosely on the earlier Imperial M3 military knife, the design had a broad appeal to the targeted generation. Nowdays, you will frequently see them described as military fighting knives, but they never were. They were civillian hunting knives from day one.

The Utility Hunter had a saber ground five inch clip point carbon steel blade, an overall length of 9 3/4" including the aluminum guard, leather disc handle, and enlarged aluminum disc pommel. Plastic spacers on each end of the leather handle were brown, red, or black.

The H-15 represents a good value today to the collector, and are not hard to find in excellent condition. As with any older carbon blades, examples without patina or peppering bring a premium, but prices are very reasonable still. The varients are much more uncommon, and among these, the Craftsman marked knives are most often seen."

[Old Marine]

Gary, thank you very much for the information. For the past few years it's been a GP knife on the worktable so it's not unendurable that it's not military. It is a good little knife and it's good to know what it is.

 

Thanks again for the information.

 

Dennis

[sactroop]

I will differ with the author of the article that Gary quotes above. IMHO, the knife in this post is not loosely based on the M-3 combat knife, but the MIL-K-8662 (AER) survival knife made between 1953-about 57. Both Schrade and Imperial were contractors for those Government contract knives along with Camillus. Schrade and Imperial marketed commercial knives based on this pattern. The biggest difference seems to be the hilt not matching the Government specifications for the MIL-K-8662 (AER).

 

 

[Frank Trzaska]

sactroop hits the nail on the head, it is a direct descendant of the 8662 using many of the same components.

 

All the best

Frank Trzaska