The knife is in good shape and has less staining on the blade than I thought, and no rust. I treated my sheath with neatsfoot oil, and I'm guessing that is what kept the blade safe, shiney, and rust free. Besides that, our basement is relatively dry. The blade is slightly over 5" long from the hilt to the tip, 1/16" thick carbon steel blade that is 7/8" wide at the hilt end and bells out slightly toward the front to a width of 1". The blade sweep is greater than I thought it was which is what makes it a nice shape for skinning.

Along with the Craftsman I found a "Texas Wildcat" 5" double-edged spear point dagger with a thumb strap sheath which I had forgotten I owned, and a "Rapala" brand filleting knife made in Finland that I bought in the 60's.

I also found the large lock picking tool set I had been looking for so that I can sell it There are no legal restrictions to having lock picking tools in the State of Wisconsin as long as you do not have a burglary conviction which would catagorize you as being in possession of burglary tools. If "Joe" from the cabin post had these in his possession, he would not have had to break any windows.

Bountyhunter

My father had a Craftsman folder. It looked a lot like my 5" Schrade LB7. It was a heck of a sturdy knife. I wonder if Sears/Craftsman covers them with their free replacement guarantee like they do their other tools. Does yours say anything on the blade?

Vince

Norad45:

This is a fixed blade sheath knife which used to be sold in the sporting goods department when Sears had a sporting goods department. As such, it did not come under the heading of tools which your dad's folder might.

It has a stacked leather handle with an 1/8" thick stainless half-hilt extending on the cutting side and a 1/4" stainless end cap. The end cap is held on in a very unusual manner which I have not seen on other full tang knives. The handle end of the tang appears to have a notch of almost 1/4" milled out of the center and a 1/4" round stainless steel rivet with an 1/8" hole in the rivet, and the rivet is pressed into the notch. Without disassembling it, I am guessing the rivet has a shoulder band on it that matches a cutout on the inside of the forked tang so that when it is driven in, it cannot pop out. I believe the 1/8" hole in the rivet is a holder used by the press that installed the rivet. The tang does not extend beyond the end cap to hold onto it with a milled shoulder, so I am guessing there is some sort of end cap retainer shoulder built into the tang that presses the forked tang out against a groove in the end cap when the rivet was driven into the notch on the tang.

Only writing on it says "Craftsman" and "USA", and the back of the sheath says "Genuine Leather".

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />