I think case has a strong customer base already but I think it's time for change. Look how many new patterns GEC comes out with a year. But for mass produced knives I say cases quality control in above average. Case discontinued knives over the last fifteen years that people actually used. Then they come out with ugly handles and theme knives. Now big taticals are the hot thing but I see them fading out and I think GEC is doing an excellent job making different knives for different tastes so case just needs to step up. I'm not bashing case I carry one daily prolly never carry anything else but there is always room for improvement.
I don't think tacticals are going anywhere. Their description and my initial impressions of them being only mall ninja equipment is long gone. They are now a light weight staple for me and countless of my field bound construction colleagues as hard work knives. They are very affordable, and the right ones have tremendous utility value. I started carrying these screwed together, nylon/G10 handled liner and frame lock knives several years ago and they now have a permanent place on my pocket (clipped) as part of my tool kit for work. With my RAT 1, my Kershaw JYD II (and a couple of other Kershaws!), I have plenty of hard working knife for all the nasty jobs I won't use my good knife to do.
While I have never seen an Emerson, Strider, or Sebenza on the job, I don't think that was their market. No one I know would pay $500 - $700 for a folding knife that was for solid, hard use on a daily basis.
BUT, I see all manner of
affordable tacticals used on the job that get thrown in the truck tool box at the end of the day or even left in the tool bags. While many don't hold an edge very well, their utility value is undeniable. Since they have no organic parts and are almost without exception have some kind of stainless blade, they are impervious to solvents to clean them up (don't want your CASE knife covered with tar or butyl caulk, right?), and just as important down here in S. Texas with out strings of 100+ degree days with 80% humidity, they don't rust easily. Since many have come to depend on that style of knife for work, you will usually find a higher quality, smaller tactical style knife in their pants somewhere (lock blades only, please) for the evening or weekend. Most of my associates cannot sharpen their knives, they have several affordable models that they take their knives to gun shows or flea markets in a bag to have them sharpened from time to time. At least in the construction/blue collar crowd I am in, they are a staple and are more popular all the time.
Another small point. As long as CASE makes a stockman, they will have a market. Their designs come and go and reflect the demands of the market, but they have a few basic designs like the peanut, medium/large stockman, canoe, trappers, coppereads, jacks, etc., that have been staples for decades. Those knives are still churned out by the thousands a year per model. I can't think of any of their line of good selling staples that have gone away.
And the last one. Never, ever have I seen a GEC or its cousins out on a job site. Been doing this for almost 40 years, and no one carries a $100 to $150 knife as their main blade. Useful patterns or not, it isn't practical. Besides, their knives (sorry fans...) tend to be heavy, some impossibly hard to open (hard to use TOOLS are considered poorly made in my professional group) making them difficult to use, and they use a moderately hard old school carbon. Romantic and useful, 1095 etc. is a darling among many as it reminds them of their grandpa, Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving, "the way things used to be" etc.
It still serves well for a lot of folks, but for sheer utility value at a better price, there are much better choices. And really... moderately hard carbon steel on a $125 knife?
My first stainless blades were on a CASE I was gifted around '73. It was so soft the knife was of no use. Literally, that bad. But then around '77 I got a Browning folding hunter in 440c. It cost a pretty penny, but was great. Hollow ground it was easy to sharpen, held an edge well and never rusted. I carried a few more carbons after that as they aren't much maintenance during winter for me, but when good stainless became plentiful that was about the end of me and carbon. I have a shoe box full (literally) and don't need more.
From what I see with working guys I know, if they carry a locking folder, then they tend to carry a tactical style of some sort.
See above. Don't leave home (for the job site) without one.
And if they carry a smaller pocket knife/tool it tends to either be Victorinox SAK or a small Leatherman type thing. I can't think of a single person (outside of knife forums) I know who carries a slip joint as a work knife other than an SAK.
I have never met, in 40 years, anyone that uses a SAK as a daily work knife. I see them on keychains all the time, but never have I seen an air conditioning man whip out a SAK to cut duct, an electrician use one to open heavy cardboard boxes of wire or to strip wire, a brick mason to cut a story pole, a trim carpenter use one to shave moldings, etc. Never. Ever. SAKs are uncomfortable for use for more than a few minutes, their steel isn't hard enough to keep a good edge since they grind them so thin (good slicers, though!) and the little plastic handles are soft and break. They are built "job site tough" for long term, hard use and I don't think that was ever their market. They are a gentleman's utility knife, for which they have no equal.
I see multitools of all brands out there, but no small ones. All the maintenance and craft people seem to know which one is best for their trade and they carry accordingly.
Does somebody want to defend the idea that American workers still carry traditional slip joint patterns? (It could be the case, I just don't know.)
I think a lot of us still carry traditionals. We now carry them in tandem with larger knives. I don't miss carrying my large stockmans - the 4 1/4" and beyond models I carried in the 70s and 80s. They tore up my pants, and were so damn uncomfortable under my tool bags it was ridiculous. I now carry smaller patterns such as medium/small stockmans, pen knives or peanuts. They disappear into the pocket and since my big knife takes the beating I can keep these small folders sharp as a razor for a couple of weeks.
I still know a few older guys that carry large traditionals only, but alas, they have heard the siren's call of off shore production of well made knives of fairly hard stainless. Some are assembled and fitted better than their domestic cousins, and that sealed the fate of the cousins.
The exception is BUCK. Affordable, reliable and bulletproof, it is still out there in the millions as a medium EDC for all trades.
Robert
