Case, Canal Street, Eye Brand ?

Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Messages
170
Hi,
I like the tight snap of the vintage Case medium stockmans.

Not crazy about the tightness of the modern ones though.

So any thoughts of getting a Canal Street or Eye Brand ?

Which one do you prefer and why ?
Thanks.
 
Everything by Canal Street I own or have handled has been some of the highest quality slipjoints I have seen.

I can't really say much on Eye Brand yet, if you saw my other post, I just bought my first one Saturday, carried it today for the first time and it is a VERY well made knife with great fit and finish.

It would be hard to say at this point between Canal Street or Eye Brand, but one difference is price, Canal Street's will run almost twice what an Eye Brand will.
 
I have several Eye Brand (Carl Schlieper) knives.

Fit and finish is terrific. Heavy duty backsprings. Nice chunky pieces of stag for the scales. I've got a couple of copperheads, a few of the small stockmans and large stockmans, a muskrat and a couple of toothpicks.

The large stockman, 4-1/4 inches closed is the most impressive IMO. It is built like a brick s---house, tremendous snap, no play in the blades at all.
Really nice etching and tang stamps. Heavy knife, heavily constructed. Really really nicely made.
Cuts great too.

------

Case, well plenty's been written about Case.

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Canal Street - again, extremely high quality slippies but a little finer and elegant; less heavy duty than the Carl Schlieper.
If I was going into the woods with only one slipjoint I'd take the Schlieper over the Canal Street.

------

As a working steel, I like the Schlieper carbon steel better than the Canal Street 420.
Fit and finish on the Canal Street is best of the 3 you mentioned.
I'm about to buy a fixed blade of theirs, looking forward to it.
 
If you are looking for a Canal Street Cutlery product, take a look at the web site for Sooner State Knives, their prices are at least 20% cheaper than some other sites including some on e-bay, they do not cover the fixed blade models though. Very good to deal with, I have five models and bought them all through Sooner State Knives.

www.soonerstateknives.com

Rusty1
 
2nd the vote for Sooner State. Kenny is a great guy to deal with, has a good stock, and has the absolute best prices I've found. I just ordered two more from him this week.

The original poster mentioned not liking the "tightness of the modern ones". I've never handled an Eye Brand, but the CSCs are nice. I have a few S&Ms, as well as a Languiole d'Artisan that have such heavy springs they border on dangerous (watch your fingers when trying to close them!). The CSCs I've handled are a little more sane. Still great walk and talk, but it doesn't take two tries and 50lbs of pressure to get the blade off the stop.

-- Sam
 
Here is a third vote for Sooner State Knives, a great collection for everyone and the best service and shipping I have encountered.

I have never owned a Canal Street but have owned several Eye Brand knives along with everything else made in a factory. I would have to say that the affordable Eye brand knives have always had great quality with beauty to match. They will probably wind up being my second collectable brand after Schatt & Morgan. The nice thing about them is they are always carbon bladed so they make excellent users...

Good luck,

Sunburst
 
The original poster mentioned not liking the "tightness of the modern ones". I've never handled an Eye Brand, but the CSCs are nice. ....

-- Sam

Hi,
By the tightness if the vintage Case, it actually opens much easier than the modern ones. But when pressing on the blade, the modern ones are "looser" and easier to drop down. whereas the vintage one the slipjoint "locks" and snaps close tighter.

Kind of hard to put it in words, but I hope you get the picture.
 
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