Case Cutlery and their stanless

Case gets asked about their stainless a lot. Their perspective was that their main customer base was fine with it, and actually prefered a softer stainless.

Last I heard, Tru-sharp was 420hc.
 
I was on a long drive through a pretty rural place and Googled a knife shop to stop at along the way. I ended up at a small one man store run by an older gentleman from his farm. He had cattle and chickens and vegetables and a whole bunch of knives -- most of them Case XX.

He had all kinds of patterns, sizes, and scales in stainless and in carbon, plus all kinds of special editions. I didn't go in there to buy a Case, but looking through them and talking to the oldtimer, I picked out a Trapper in amber bone in CV. Even though I had never bought a Case before, I knew i was paying more than I would online, but it was worth the difference for the experience.

The knife itself was as sharp out of the box as any I've ever had, and its fit and finish were excellent. It is a nice-looking knife in a way that most of my Spydercos and Benchmades, just aren't.

I have a few Opinels in carbon steel and if this Case keeps cutting like them, I'll be very happy.
 
Every American knife manufacturer that has existed at one time or another usually had a marketing name for the use of Stainless Steel as a little more costly of an offering...

Schrade USA called theirs Plus Steel

Imperial Knives called theirs Diamondbrite and their Apex Series(Ireland) it was called Inox Stainless Steel

Camillus called theirs Sword Steel

And the flavor of stainless was 440A for those manufacturers at the time.If you look at some old blister packed knives (like the Workman models) from the 90's by Buck they weren't stating that they were using 420HC just the 58rc hardness rating.Case's Tru-Sharp Surgical Stainless is 420HC and I like that they haven't strayed from a marketing name for it.My point is if the Tru-Sharp steel was merely for collector knives to only look shiny only and not intended to hold an edge worth a darn believe me...they could use some stainless steel that's extremely lower in carbon making it unfit for cutlery use and polish it up.I bought one of the Carhartt model Russlocks in black G-10 a few years ago and would have preferred it to be in CV Steel but I'm not exactly frowning on the edge holding on the Tru-Sharp in cutting tasks around the homestead.
 
Last edited:
I may be way off on this, but it appears to me that the typical traditional blade is much thinner than your typical "tactical" knife and in most cases is a better cutter. Thy just seem to slice extremely well compared to a lot of the thicker modern designs I have owned. Where it lacks in edge holding,it makes up for it in ease of sharpening. Personally, I got tired of some of the pocket bricks with super thick blades that I couldn't sharpen worth a darn and moved over to traditionals that are just easier to cut with and maintain for me. I guess that is a longwinded way of saying that I really don't think the steel type is all that important in a traditional style knife. The blade geometry ends itself to cutting pretty much no matter what the steel. It may need touching up more often but thats just part of the experience. I haven't owned any of the Case Tru-sharp knives, but I do have a handful of the CV ones and they cut like a champ. By all accounts I have heard, the stainless ones cut equally well, and are just a tad more difficult to sharpen, which is to say, still extremely easy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top