Case best quality years?

I have 16 Case knives so far (including those I received) and none has proved disappointing. Most are sodbusters, but there's also trappers(3 mini , 2 large), teardrops (2-1 & 2 blades-), stockman (humpback & sowbelly) and a Baby Butterbean, all bone or delrin. I may be lucky (sure I am, I received 3!) but find they are all great value for money, with an even greater choice of patterns and handles. I don't have more simply because I have only two hands (:eek:) and can just use one at a time (:confused:) and there'are so many interesting knives around...
 
My biggest gripe with Case, and I have a bunch of their knives, is the the edge grind. I can live with the blades not being perfectly centered and I don't particularly care about about the dye jobs. But, it seems like every brand new Case I've handled lately, the edge was an afterthought. The edge geometry is often wonky and there's always burr left along at least most of the edge. So, I hand pick them and luckily I have an excellent dealer. I usually have to look at about 4 knives of the same pattern and build before I can find one with an edge that is fixable without too much work. All that said, I love Case and will continue to sift through them.
 
cigardoghd said:
My biggest gripe with Case, and I have a bunch of their knives, is the the edge grind. I can live with the blades not being perfectly centered and I don't particularly care about about the dye jobs. But, it seems like every brand new Case I've handled lately, the edge was an afterthought. The edge geometry is often wonky and there's always burr left along at least most of the edge. So, I hand pick them and luckily I have an excellent dealer. I usually have to look at about 4 knives of the same pattern and build before I can find one with an edge that is fixable without too much work. All that said, I love Case and will continue to sift through them.
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I don't find this to be an issue if I'm going to use the knife. One of the first things that I do when I get a knife is sharpen it. Most case knives will shave out of the box but usually the edge is not ideal for use. Pretty much every gec I've bought so far needs edge work too. They might be sharp but I'm not sure what angle they were shooting for if any at the factory. That goes for case and gec. Edges are usually a personal thing though. Some people like a mirror polished edge and some prefer a working man's edge that's coarse but still razor sharp. I just use my extra coarse for setting the angle and then finish up with my coarse stone. So far my experience with case f&f has been good post 2011.
 
VashHash said:
I don't find this to be an issue if I'm going to use the knife. One of the first things that I do when I get a knife is sharpen it. Most case knives will shave out of the box but usually the edge is not ideal for use. Pretty much every gec I've bought so far needs edge work too. They might be sharp but I'm not sure what angle they were shooting for if any at the factory. That goes for case and gec. Edges are usually a personal thing though. Some people like a mirror polished edge and some prefer a working man's edge that's coarse but still razor sharp. I just use my extra coarse for setting the angle and then finish up with my coarse stone. So far my experience with case f&f has been good post 2011.
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You're absolutely right. Edges are usually a personal thing. I'll admit that I am a bit picky. But, I don't think I've come across a case knife in the last 20-30 (2015-2017) I've bought or been gifted that could shave UNLESS the burr was removed first, which really isn't anything a thorough stropping can't take care of. I only have 6 GEC knives (so far :) ) that I can compare, but their edges seem much more consistent on the examples I do have.
 
There have also been complaints about uneven and dull edges from GEC.

For example, http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1430370-GEC-Edge-Question?p=16486245

As others has said there is a LOT of variation in what folks call sharp. I've never gotten a knife from GEC that was sharp. Others say they're shaving sharp. When it comes to traditional knives, I expect that a new knife will need some work to be sharp.

For perspective both GEC and Case are sharpening by hand. Case uses a belt grinder. GEC uses a stone wheel. For comparison, Victorinox's sharpening is completely automated and much more consistent.

supratentorial said:
Thank you, Neal. Here are some photos of the automated process for sharpening at Victorinox.

Victorinox



I have a booklet from Victorinox that shows their sharpening and manufacturing before their production became so heavily automated. Their manufacturing process has changed a lot.

Case, GEC, and Queen sharpen manually. I think Buck probably does as well but I haven't looked it up. GEC sharpens on a slow stone grinder and Case uses a belt grinder.

Setting up an automated process might be more difficult for GEC and Case compared to Victorinox. GEC and Case both work with a much wider range of knife blade shapes and sizes.

Could the manually sharpened edges be considered part of the charm and tradition of a hand made traditional knife? Or is a highly uniform and consistent edge from an automated process more important? What do you guys think?

GEC


Case
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Aside from their dying process which has a lot of room for improvement, I find current offerings as good as they get. I've had several in the last couple years and honestly have nothing really bad to say about them.
As for the dye jobs, from what I've seen, the new Rogers jigged bone all look great with fairly even coloring reminiscent of their old red bone.
 
I'm a fan of the current Case offerings. I prefer to hand pick them, but a good one is usually easy to find, depending on the pattern. I do wish the dye quality on the bone was deeper though. I love the new "as ground" finish on the stainless blades.

I'm not so much a fan of the '90s and early 2000 era knives. Quality is all over the place, and seldom good.

I have a few that are of early to mid '70s vintage, and they are generally pretty good, other than the walk and talk being all over the map. All over the map.
 
I agree with most of what Buzz said. My experience with vintage knives is a bit different. One thing that's important to distinguish when talking about old knives is condition. Not only are there a lot of fakes but there are a lot of heavily rusted knives that get partially or completely redone and misrepresented as original and unused. Fluff and buffing is the norm rather than the exception. Whenever I've bought a '72 or earlier Case oldie that wasn't messed with, it had great walk and talk. Never seen one that didn't except heavily used and worn out old knives, fakes, and reworks.
 
Buzzbait said:
I'm a fan of the current Case offerings. I prefer to hand pick them, but a good one is usually easy to find, depending on the pattern. I do wish the dye quality on the bone was deeper though. I love the new "as ground" finish on the stainless blades.

I'm not so much a fan of the '90s and early 2000 era knives. Quality is all over the place, and seldom good.

I have a few that are of early to mid '70s vintage, and they are generally pretty good, other than the walk and talk being all over the map. All over the map.
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Case offers as "ground finish" on the ss americas worksman series

And some carthartt editions

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I've got 2 from the early '90s, 6 from '01-'09, and 6 more from '10 to present. None are perfect, none are dogs. A few have slight gaps between liners, a few don't snap real hard, a few weren't as sharp as wished, but they're all good pocket knives. Their bone is always trim and well jigged, their pulls are always in the 4-6 range, and both the CV and the Tru-Sharp are easy to get a fine edge on. Of course you can pick a better example if you go to a brick and mortar who may have half a dozen to look at, but I buy a lot of knives on line and have never gotten one that needed sending back. Case makes a darn good production knife, especially for the money charged.
 
black mamba said:
I've got 2 from the early '90s, 6 from '01-'09, and 6 more from '10 to present. None are perfect, none are dogs. A few have slight gaps between liners, a few don't snap real hard, a few weren't as sharp as wished, but they're all good pocket knives. Their bone is always trim and well jigged, their pulls are always in the 4-6 range, and both the CV and the Tru-Sharp are easy to get a fine edge on. Of course you can pick a better example if you go to a brick and mortar who may have half a dozen to look at, but I buy a lot of knives on line and have never gotten one that needed sending back. Case makes a darn good production knife, especially for the money charged.
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Amen!!






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The crappy thing these days is that with slippies, a lot of the Rough Rider knives are just as nice at 10-15% of the price.

My first good knife (a Case two blade barlow) was a great knife and I'll always have a soft spot for Case knives. It was from the 60's. Case knives used to have a oil smell just like a rifle. Loved it.
 
The 7 Case knives of mine that were made recently - 2013 to 2015, are all well made with smooth operation and nice fit & finish. Two of them - a Small Texas Jack, and a Mini Copperlock - stand out to me as excellent examples with perfectly-centered blades, and maybe even a bit better level of F&F. The one thing that would make them more desirable to me would be if Case went back to the older pinned shields.
 
22-rimfire said:
The crappy thing these days is that with slippies, a lot of the Rough Rider knives are just as nice at 10-15% of the price.
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I find this to be an astonishing and wonderful thing! :thumbup::thumbup:

- GT
 
22-rimfire said:
The crappy thing these days is that with slippies, a lot of the Rough Rider knives are just as nice at 10-15% of the price.

My first good knife (a Case two blade barlow) was a great knife and I'll always have a soft spot for Case knives. It was from the 60's. Case knives used to have a oil smell just like a rifle. Loved it.
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More truth than most would like to admit.
 
I can't get past the cover materials used on most Rough Riders. The yellow is poor but tolerable. Not nearly as nice as the delrin used by Case. The black stag bone used on some Colt/Rough Rider knives is nice. The other bone and plastics are rather poor in my opinion... frankly they look like they'd be unfit for the bulk bin of dog chews at a pet store. Quality of construction is also poor compared to Case. I also see much more fit and finish issues on the Rough Riders. If you just want a knife to cut stuff, it's fine. But saying they're just as nice is not reasonable imho. I'd be sad if we lose Case to the competition. Luckily I'm pretty well stocked up on knives.
 
Jake, I agree totally. The poor recent red dye jobs not withstanding, Case's bone is very underated. Their jigging is vastly superior to anything from RR, and even their dye jobs are mostly quite good. Plus they have all kinds of synthetics, including carbon fiber. I find the hafting to be the major difference between Case and RR, clearly in Case's favor.
 
Never seen a Steel Warrior, Rough Rider, etc. that could crawl into my pocket. Almost took home a lock back whittler, but the action was too poor and the purple color...:)
 
brownshoe said:
Never seen a Steel Warrior, Rough Rider, etc. that could crawl into my pocket. Almost took home a lock back whittler, but the action was too poor and the purple color...:)
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That's very good! Spoken like a true believer. I was a believer too. I am pretty selective in terms of which Rough Riders I might purchase however. I'll handle a dozen different knives and choose one. The scale materials are paramount.

Added: I might add that I am not a collector and the number of Case, Queen/S&M, Canal Street, GEC slip joints I own is purely for use. They pile up however and many never get used. So, unless I take a turn on my buying habits, the GEC's will continue to pile up and I will pick up a few others from time to time. That includes Rough Riders. I only own a few RR's so far. One has imitation jigged bone and I was not real impressed. I consider that my fault in my choosing.

A few months ago I visited a certain store specifically to look at Rough Rider and related slip joints. I spent a couple hours doing that there and they weren't real busy, so I could play around choosing without putting out other customers or the store employees. Most of the employees really enjoy knives.
 
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