A Catalog Reference · the inventor's firm — the American switchblade house

Schrade Cutlery Co.

Walden, New York · George Schrade's safety push-button switchblade, the only factory-published numbering key in the guide, and a brand you date by its patents

Researched & written by Ethan Trex, a lifelong pocket-knife collector. · Reviewed August 2026

✓ Primary — read directly / record checked ~ Corroborated — reliable secondary ⚑ Archival — identified, off-line

The firm whose patents are the brand

Where other brands are dated by a trademark, a price, or a stamp, Schrade is dated by its patents. It was founded in 1904 for the sole purpose of making George Schrade's safety push-button switchblade — a mechanism he had been patenting since 1892 — and it is the guide's purest patent-anchored brand: its founding product was a patent, its numbering key is the only factory-published one here, and its surviving trademark dates only a 2004 import revival. So a pre-war Schrade is dated by the tang stamp and the patent date stamped beside it — and that date is a patent you can open (“PAT. FEB. 13. 06” = U.S. 812,601). ✓ primary · S1/S9

Schrade is also the American switchblade house — the deliberate counterpoint to every slip-joint flagship in this guide. This entry follows the pre-war Walden maker: the patent chain that is its spine, the factory's own numbering key, the Safety Push Button autos, and how you date a knife whose blade cites its own primary source. Keep it clear of two look-alikes — George Schrade's later George Schrade Knife Co. of Bridgeport (the “Presto”), and the post-war Schrade Walden successor.

Drawing sheet of U.S. Patent 812,601, 'Pocket-Knife,' by George Schrade of Walden, New York, patented February 13 1906, showing the safety push-button automatic knife in eight figures, signed by the inventor. — **The founding invention — the Safety Push-Button, in the inventor's own hand.** U.S. Patent **812,601**, “Pocket-Knife,” filed Jan. 7 1905, **patented Feb. 13 1906** — inventor **George Schrade, of Walden, N.Y.** A push-button through the hollow pivot plus a sliding “safety” that locks the blade open *and* closed. Held personally by George (no corporate assignee), so it is captioned to the man, not the firm — and its grant date is literally the **“PAT. FEB. 13. 06”** stamped on the knives. ✓ primary · S1

Corporate genealogy — a patent that became a factory

1892George Schrade's first automatic — U.S. 470,605 (“of New York”), via the New York Press Button Knife Co. ✓ primary · S2
1903George's press-button patent/business passes to Walden Knife Co. interests (William Whitehead) — the thread into the Walden cluster. ~ S13/S14
1904The Schrade brothers (George, William, J. Louis) found Schrade Cutlery Co. at Walden — mark “Everlastingly Sharp.” ✓ Catalog E · S9
1906U.S. 812,601, George Schrade “of Walden” — the Safety Push-Button (the plate; the “PAT. FEB. 13. 06” tang date). ✓ primary · S1
1907U.S. 845,130 — the second Safety-era automatic (the “…07” tang date). ✓ primary · S3
~1909–11George leaves the firm; J. Louis Schrade becomes president; George sets up a Solingen works (“Schradeo”). ~ S13
1917A second Schrade plant opens at Middletown, N.Y. (per Catalog E). ✓ Catalog E · S9
1919–21George → Challenge Cutlery, Bridgeport; builds the “Flylock” on his personal patent. ~ S13
1929George founds the George Schrade Knife Co., Bridgeport — the “Presto.” A different firm. ~ S8/S13
1933 / 42The company's own patents — U.S. 1,931,360 (Jacob Schrade) & U.S. 2,304,601 (Jacob Louis) “assignor to Schrade Cutlery Company.” ✓ primary · S5/S6
1940George Schrade dies (Sept. 9), Bridgeport. ~ S13
1946Albert Baer's Imperial Knife Associated Companies (Imperial + Ulster) buys Schrade → “Schrade Walden.” ~ S15
2004Imperial Schrade closes Ellenville (its 100th year); the marks pass to Taylor Brands → today AOB Products. ~ S15

One man, two companies — and a lawsuit. George Schrade co-founded the Walden firm, then built a second, the George Schrade Knife Co. of Bridgeport (1929) — and the two, both bearing his name and both making his push-button knife, litigated: Schrade Cutlery Co. of Walden sued the Bridgeport firm for patent infringement (U.S. District Court, New Haven) and lost, the patent held invalid. The clean tell is the patent-city rule: on the patent face, “Walden, N.Y.” (Jacob / J. Louis Schrade) = the Walden maker; “Bridgeport, Conn.” (George Schrade) = the Bridgeport firm. ✓ S5/S6/S8

The third of the “three knife companies.” The Pomeroy marker at 74 Oak St. records that Walden was “known as Little Sheffield with three knife companies” — the New York Knife Co. (1852), the Walden Knife Co. (1874–1926), and Schrade (1904). The Schrade brothers were ex-Walden Knife Co. men, and George sold his New York Press Button business to Walden Knife Co. interests in 1903 — ties by personnel and commerce, never common ownership. ✓ S11

The patent chain — no other brand here is its founder's patents

Seven patents open the whole story — and they even sort the two firms by the inventor's home town. The push-button that founds the company is George's personal 1906 patent; the only patents assigned to “Schrade Cutlery Company” are the later, next-generation ones.

Patent	What it is	Inventor / firm
470,605 · 1892	The foundational automatic	George Schrade, of New York → N.Y. Press Button
812,601 · 1906	The Safety Push-Button plate	George Schrade, of Walden — personal
845,130 · 1907	Second Safety-era automatic	George Schrade, of Walden — personal
1,185,725 · 1916	Anti-lint fly-spring back	J. Louis Schrade, of Walden
1,931,360 · 1933	Friction-brake (anti-recoil)	Jacob Schrade → Schrade Cutlery Co.
2,304,601 · 1942	Cam-detent lock	Jacob Louis Schrade → Schrade Cutlery Co.
1,810,031 · 1931	The “Presto” fly-open	George M. Schrade, of Bridgeport (the other firm)

The knife cites its own source. Pre-war Schrade blades carry patent dates — and those dates are openable patents: “PAT. FEB. 13. 06” is U.S. 812,601; the “…07” date is U.S. 845,130. Where every other brand is dated against an outside record, a Schrade points you straight to the primary. ✓ S1/S3

The number — the only factory-published key in the guide

Schrade is the one brand here whose numbering key you don't have to reconstruct — the factory printed it. Catalog E (1926) carries a full “KEY TO NUMBERING SYSTEM”: a four-digit number read [blade-config][pattern][handle].

Page 8 of Schrade Cutlery Company's 1926 Catalog E, headed 'KEY TO NUMBERING SYSTEM,' printing the factory's own decoder: first digit = blade count and end-configuration, second and third = pattern, last = handle material, with celluloid-color and metal suffix codes. — **The maker's own decoder — a primary no other brand can match.** Schrade Cutlery Co. **Catalog E** (1926), p. 8: the “KEY TO NUMBERING SYSTEM.” Every other numbering key in this guide is a collector reconstruction; Schrade's is the factory's published spec. A 1926 U.S. imprint — public domain by age. ✓ primary · S9

2 01 3

2 = two blades (one end) 01 = Easy Opener pattern 3 = Bone Stag → No. 2013 (change the last digit: 2011 cocobola, 2012 ebony)

1st digit encodes blade count and end-configuration (7 = two blades, one in each end · 9 = four blades, two each end) · 2nd–3rd = pattern · last = handle (1 cocobola · 2 ebony · 3 bone stag · 6 pearl · 8 buffalo horn…). Suffix letters carry celluloid color (…4C = cocobola celluloid) and metals (…9GSIL = nickel silver); a fraction swaps the blade (¾ = clip). It fuses Winchester's lead digit with Remington's trailing digit — but tighter, and uniquely the maker's own spec. Pre-war the number lived in the catalog, not on the tang (stamped on the blade only from the Schrade-Walden era, ~1950s). ✓ S9

Patterns & the Safety Push Button — a whole-catalog auto program

Schrade made a full slip-joint line, but the switchblade is the identity. Catalog E gives the “Safety Push Button” autos a named section, their own “Instructions to Operate,” and the entire back cover — the maker's words: “the pioneer SAFETY Knives… the ONLY automatic knife with a safety lock — DOUBLE LOCKED… manufactured in five sizes.”

Pattern	What it is	Note
74xx / 75xx	Safety Push Button Jack	the core switchblade; 2 blades (one in each end → “7”); brass-lined; an enormous celluloid/pearl/sterling range.
G1514	Safety Push Button Dagger	slim clip/dagger auto with a nickel-silver guard (the G-prefix); also made guardless.
1613¾	Safety Push Button Hunting Knife	4⅞″ single saber-clip auto, steel-lined; blade etched “SCHRADE HUNTING KNIFE.”
20xx	Easy Opener Jack	the everyday slip-joint (the “01” pattern) — the numbering key's own example.
9033	Automobile Knife	four-blade utility: chain-hook, leather punch, screwdriver/cap-lifter, spear.
8813	Premium Stock (“Texas pattern”)	three-blade stockman (2+1 → “8”); shown in stainless.

Handles: jigged bone stag (code 3) is the workhorse (collectors call the pre-war jigging “peachseed”); mother-of-pearl (6) and genuine stag (GS) up top; cocobola/ebony/buffalo-horn; and a very large fancy celluloid (“Pyralin”) palette — the gaudy cells especially dress the autos, a 1920s–30s tell. (Schrade's celluloid is Pyralin, not Remington's Pyremite.)

Four names that are not this page. “Presto” (George Schrade Knife Co., Bridgeport 1929), “Flylock” (Challenge Cutlery), and “Schradeo” (Solingen) are George's later autos at different firms; “Old Timer” (1958), “Uncle Henry” (1965, for Henry Baer), and “Schrade Walden” are all post-1946 successor lines. Pre-war Walden Schrade is the Safety Push Button, not these.

Dating a knife by its tang stamp — two anchors, both primary

The tang reads…	Date	The tell
SCHRADE (arched) / CUT. CO. / WALDEN, N.Y.	c.1904–1917	the early pre-war die.
SCHRADE (straight) / CUT. CO. / WALDEN, N.Y. — no “U.S.A.”	c.1917–1946	the late pre-war die, through WWII — the pre-WWII sweet spot.
a blade dated PAT. FEB. 13. 06 (or “…07”)	Safety era	cites U.S. 812,601 (or 845,130) — date it to the patent.
SCHRADE WALDEN / N.Y. U.S.A.	1946–1973	the brand contracts and gains “U.S.A.” = post-war (Imperial/IKAC), not the maker.
SCHRADE / U.S.A. + a pattern number	1973–2004	“Walden” dropped; the pattern number now on the tang.

One stamp to distrust. A claimed 1904 die with a “GERMANY” line under Walden is single-source and counterintuitive for a Walden-made knife — don't rely on it until a scan turns up.

The trademark dates a 2004 revival — the re-registration trap at its purest. No original Schrade Cutlery Co. (1904–1946) federal mark survives. The live “SCHRADE WALDEN” was filed in November 2004 — months after the plant closed on its 100th anniversary — with a modern first-use of Feb. 28 2005, now owned by AOB Products. That is worse than Case's 1948 housekeeping re-reg (there the first-use was backdated to the maker). Same “mark dates the revival” family as New York Knife Co. and Cattaraugus — and the tie is exact: AOB Products also holds the New York Knife Co.'s “Hammer Brand,” so two of the three “Little Sheffield” firms' marks sit under one modern roof. Date a Schrade by the stamp and the patents, never by a mark. ✓ S10

What a knife cost — none digitized, for a familiar reason

No pre-1930, public-domain, image-verified, Schrade-branded price is digitized (a sweep of archive.org, the ~8,900-item tool-catalog library, the 1903 E. C. Simmons catalog, the 1904–05 Hardware journals, and a Popular Mechanics 1909–1918 sample turned up none). Catalog E is a spec catalog — “packed half dozen in a box,” no per-knife prices. The structural cause is the one the Camillus page named: jobbers sold Schrade-made knives under their own house brands, so “Schrade” rarely appears by name in a wholesale catalog. Dated Schrade “Safety Push Button” magazine ads survive (1919, 1929), but with no confirmed printed price on an openable scan. ⚑ archival

In period print

Schrade Cutlery of Walden made its name on one thing: the Safety Push-Button knife, the American switchblade — “push the button, knife opens; locks open, locks closed.” The ads (and, eventually, the FTC) followed. Each quote was read on the original page; all are public-domain.

Advertisement · 1914

“Push the button, knife opens. Locks open, locks closed.”

The Schrade Safety Push-Button Knife — “made exclusively by Schrade Cutlery Co., Walden, N.Y.,” from $1.

The New York Times · Dec. 13, 1914. Internet Archive →

Advertisement · 1919

“The Ideal Birthday Gift!”

The push-button knife, “manufactured only by Schrade Cutlery Co., Walden, N.Y.”

The Sun, New York · Mar. 7, 1919. Library of Congress →

Advertisement · 1925

“The only automatic knife with a safety lock.”

“Push the button and the knife opens — operated with one hand” — a Canadian magazine ad, $2.50.

The Goblin, Toronto · May 1925. Internet Archive →

In the news · 1941

“In the Matter of Schrade Cutlery Company.”

An FTC order over advertising claims of false endorsements — the Walden firm in the government record.

Federal Register · Apr. 1, 1941. Internet Archive →

Sources

Primary sources are documents read directly; secondary are reliable leads. Full metadata (identifiers, URLs, quotes) lives in data/schrade.json.

U.S. Patents — 812,601 (“Safety Push-Button,” George Schrade of Walden, 1906, the plate); 470,605 (the 1892 origin); 845,130 (1907); 1,185,725 (1916); and the company-assigned 1,931,360 (1933) & 2,304,601 (1942); plus 1,810,031 (the Bridgeport “Presto,” 1931, for disambiguation). Google Patents · PD · all opened. ✓ S1–S8
Schrade Catalog E (1926) — the factory “KEY TO NUMBERING SYSTEM” (pp. 8–9, the second plate), the Safety Push Button section, and the handle codes. 1926 imprint · PD by age · image-read in full. ✓ S9
USPTO records — SCHRADE WALDEN (Reg. 3,124,728, filed 2004, first use 2005, owner AOB Products) + the “SCHRADE” owner census; PRESTO & FLY LOCK excluders. Read directly. ✓ S10
Pomeroy “Walden Knife Co.” marker (2014) — “Little Sheffield… three knife companies.” Physical primary. ✓ S11
Secondary / leads: the Village of Walden history; the William Schrade descendant history (the two firms, the New Haven suit); AllAboutPocketKnives / BladeForums / oldpocketknives (tang-stamp chronology, “peachseed,” the contract note); Wikipedia “Imperial Schrade”; and the Collectors of Schrades index (a lead — every patent number re-verified). ~ S12–S16