While I don't have conclusive proof one way or the other, my sense with inexpensive Case knives is that you are more likely to get a "good one" without issues if it is a vintage (early 1970s or before) knife versus a more recent offering. Does anyone else get have this notion as well?
I don't just have "the notion", I completely agree. I just got a couple of CASE knives that had been used hard by my grandfather. Used hard... carried for so long that the bone scales are almost smooth.
Blades
STILL centered. Not much snap left, but at about 50 - 60 years old now, I can live with that.
When I go to a one of the big guns shows here, my favorite knife guy usually has a couple of ringers. I love the old CASE knives; I think he hopes he sees me. If it is a pattern or particular type of knife I want, I will pay a pretty good penny for a used knife. I don't buy new CASE knives anymore, but will look through a ton of old CASE folders to see if there is one I have to have. From this certain used knife guy, he tells me his used CASE knives have less issues than the brand new ones.
That's OK with me. Finding certain 50s/60s/70s large jacks, a large Copperheads, a nice mid sized stockman, or a large single blade is like finding gold to me. Those knives were actually considered work knives, and used for work by many that owned them.
One thing I don't get on this forum. The acceptance of poor quality workmanship on a product. I don't get the "it's a work knife, who cares" attitude. If spend $20 - $30 bucks on a knife, I don't want such low expectations that I can't actually be disappointed.
For those that don't care what they get for their money or have been trained well enough by the knife companies to accept poor workmanship, that is certainly understandable. I looked at several CASE soddies at Bass Pro Shop before Christmas when looking for some good work knives. Out of the 5 they had, something was wrong with all of them. Yes they cut; sure, they would have been OK for work. But I wasn't in the mood to say "well when you spend crap you get crap" so I didn't bite.
On a sub forum here, there was a thread about the Kershaw Crown being sold at Walmart. Full Kershaw warranty, good stainless, nice sized and even had the blade oriented the way I like if I decided to keep the clip. The large bolsters are heavy, the blade is hollow ground, the grinds were even, the locking bar hit the first third of the blade heel, the blade was centered and the handles are solid micarta. I takes a screaming edge and holds it well.
The knife was $10. Yup, ten. I bought four. I kept one, gave the others away to a couple of knife guys and they love them. That is a great deal on a work knife, and it exceeded expectations. And then of course there was that $10 price tag...
The frustrating thing about CASE is they can make good knives when they want. I have seen those CASE soddies that were honestly just about perfect, and one lately on the other end of the scale that wouldn't open it was so full of machining gunk and oil. The knife guy at Bass Pro is a huge CASE fan, but tells me he looks at every single knife, polishes it out and cleans it if needed. He checks for fit, finish, and blade snap before he puts them in the display case. He loves his job. He loves CASE and Benchmade. But he says he is sending more and more CASE knives back because of their poor product. Is their issue lack of QC? Poor training?
If CASE can make enough of the soddies (and others) to be appreciated as good workmanship (as seen in this thread), why do they send out the poor quality ones as well? Isn't that like peeing in your own pool?
I tend to look at these issues like I do when I buy other tools. If they don't care about the one thing that makes the tool (say in this case, the blade) why would they care about the rest of the knife? What am I
not seeing?
Maybe they should raise the price on this model of knife to pay for more consistent workmanship so no one will have to look at their sodbuster and expect crap,
since after all, it is just a work knife. That way they will be thrilled if they get a "good one" (i.e., one that has been properly assembled and fitted. With poor quality as a benchmark, everyone would be happy, or if they got a good one, ecstatic.
Or I guess, they could make them all crappy. That way no one would be disappointed, as they would all be crap. It just seems that if you could make some of your knives well, you could make most of them well.
Being a "work knife"
WAS NOT an excuse for CASE's poor quality as short as 20 years ago. I remember when CASE
was the working man's knife. That's all I bought. Similarly, the last couple of CASE knives I bought were probably 30 years old.
Just thinking out loud here. I am not trying to offend CASE fans at all. I AM a CASE fan. I just like 'em about 30+ years old now.
I certainly wouldn't be disappointed with traditionals. To me (just my opinion) they are still the top of the mountain as far as folding knives go. And there are plenty of great knives out there, old and new. Just adjust your sights a bit, and purchase very carefully.
Robert
) are fantastic. I have passed on many that weren't up to my standards, there are plenty of them out there. I think that's just the nature of a product that is largely handmade though. Nowadays we are used to things that are made in super high-tech factories, where a human hand may never touch an object until you open the box and touch it yourself. Things that are made this way are extremely consistent. If you went to an Apple store and asked to inspect several Ipods so you could pick out the "nicest one", the folks working there would look at you like you were nuts. Traditional knives are not like that. 