For those of you who haven't handled a Scale Release model (I expect most of you have), the blade is deployed by sliding the rear portion of the front scale down. The two handle halves slide against each other, pivoting on the front pivot pin. The blade is unlocked with a similar sliding movement. Its always fun to hand one of these to someone not familiar with the mechanism and tell them to open it . This is the only US production made scale release that has been made that I'm aware of, though there are numerous custom scale releases out there and at least one European production model.
The Scale Release model was first delivered in mid-March of 2000. Production continued through about June or July of that year. According to the Daltons, the target production was 1000 pieces (a large quantity compared to most models), but it was knocked off by the Chinese cloners quickly and production was halted at between 700 and 800 pieces.
The very first Scale Releases shipped in mid-March had black handles, beadblast blades, and did not have a serial number. There were no markings or stamps on the handles. The front side of the blade was marked with the standard Dalton logo and the clip side was marked "D/S Design" and "Pat. Pend" underneath. The "D/S" stands for Dalton and Son. My local dealer got the first batch of 22 that Mr. D. shipped. Here is a picture of one of them:
Overall length: 8"
Blade Length: 3 - 3/8"
There were quite a few handle color variations made, including black, red, gray, green, blue, and maroon. The beadblast and two-tone (satin flats and beadblast bevels) were the two most common blade finishes, but there were two made with hi-polish blades (more on those later). They were available with plain blades and serrated blades. It has seemed to me that the plain blades are more common.
What I think was the second batch of scale releases produced (April 2000) had "USA" stamped in the handle above the pivot pin and no serial number. The specimen I have from this batch has black handles and a two-tone blade with the Dalton logo and the "D/S Design" and "Pat. Pend" all on the front side of the blade.
From what I recollect, the red handled version was next. These also differed in that they had serial numbers (under the "USA" stamp, but above the pivot pin) and were marked on the blade with the Dalton logo and "VOODOO Works" or "VOODOO Werks" on the front side of the blade. From what I can tell, the serial numbers started at 2000. The VOODOO Works/Werks marking came about because the Daltons were getting into other manufacturing operations (motorcycles and custom motorcycle parts) and wanted to call the knife division of the business "VOODOO Werks". The name never really caught on, but the Daltons may use it on some future releases. Mr. Dalton has also joked that he made these during his "VOODOO period" . Here is a picture of a red handled scale release (sn 2005) with the less common spelling "VOODOO Works"
One of the batches of Scale Releases that I think is the most interesting is the series of blue handled ones. Forty-eight were made for MJS knives in Ohio. These were serialized as MJS 001 through MJS 048. Three of these pieces could be considered one-of-a-kind. The MJS 007 had a hi-polish blade and a rainbow anodized pocket clip. MJS 013 had a hi-polish blade and a standard pocket clip. MJS 014, as a result of an error at the plater's facility, had red handles. Another part of that accident is that two other handle halves were anodized to the wrong colors. There ended up being separate blue and red opposing handle halves. Mr. Dalton made that one up for Mrs. Dalton with the red and blue handle halves with some special work on the blade. It is her "4th of July knife". Here is a picture of MJS 007.
The last run of Scale Releases had a chisel ground tanto blade. I think that they were made with gray and black handles. It also appears that the serial numbers may have started over at 2000 on the tanto variant. The specimen that I have only has the Dalton logo on the blade and has "USA" and the serial number stamped into the handle above the pivot pin. Here's a picture of the tanto version.
Another important fact about the tanto variant is that the handles were shaped differently than the drop point variants. Note the differences in the shapes at each end of the handles. The finger groove and handle spine also had slots that the drop points didn't have.
If I've missed any variants, you guys chime in. There were so many variants made that I didn't get a chance to get them all.
One thing that I wanted to mention for the purist collectors out there is that there were some pieces with aftermarket modifications. One of the dealers had blades fileworked and Ti coated (yellow tint to the blade). Just be aware that these are aftermarket modifications. As far as I know, Mr.D. didn't produce any knives with filework until the Slim SEAL 2000 model in about December of 2000.
Again, many thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Dalton, who provided much of the information above.