Case Knives...

stevekolt

stevekolt

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Joined
Jan 9, 2007
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As someone who is just getting into the "traditional" side of this chaos, why so little talk of Case knives?
 
Speaking for myself, they are ubiquitous. What's to say, they've been around forever. Quality varies, but their execution of the patterns are pretty well known for people who have been around traditionals.
For some, I think the steel is unexciting. At least Queen had D2.
Lion Steel does modern updates on barlows, other companies are doing new slipjoint designs.
Some companies do it better - Bokers from Solingen, GEC.
GEC is the new kind on the block that is far better in quality. Costs more though. And those Boker Classic special runs are pretty nice too.
That quality thing - while some are fine with it, I find F&F varies. Not as much as Queen's declining years Not nearly as bad as modern Hen & Rooster.
For me personally, when Queen did things right I prefer their renditions of patterns. That's me.

But then, this is a forum. If you can't find what you want with the search engine, we love to talk. As you probably know.
 
There's a lot of topics in traditional knives. Doing a quick scan of the thread titles of the first and second page, I find that 4 out of forty threads are about Case knives. 10% seems a reasonable amount to devote to a single brand. I don't think Case is being ignored.

That being said, Case seldom brings out new patterns. They bring out new handle materials more frequently, but there is only so much you can say about a new handle material. So the topic material is a bit more scarce with Case than some of the other companies who bring out new patterns much more frequently.
 
Case makes a great product. Id bet we all have at least one. Many of us have a few. But discussions about commonly owned items, the Honda accords of the knife world, don't happen as often as the more rare, collectable, dare I say desirable, knives. We all want to show off our hard sought old knives or hard bought new customs, but less excitement over the very reliable, daily workable all time staple.

I love my case knives. By all means, bring up what you wanna talk about. I'm sure many of us here would be happy to indulge and enjoy the conversation!
 
stevekolt said:
As someone who is just getting into the "traditional" side of this chaos, why so little talk of Case knives?
Click to expand...

Welcome to a great new addiction! :)

I love Case knives. But as said, there's a whole lot of options out there and many, I'd bet you never heard of.

Grab a towel to wipe the drool off your chin then click on this thread link: What "Traditional Knife" are ya totin' today?

And go back 10-20 pages and marvel at the beauty on display!

And this sub-forum is chock full of the finest people. You're gonna love it.
 
I've got a few Case knives, but most of them have been gifts, bargains, or knives bought to get to other things I wanted.

For me it all goes back to the 70s through the 90s. All you ever saw at shows were Case knives. They were the best of the best. They churned out collector knives by the zillions, gaudy, sparkly things. Case dealers wouldn't even show you a knife unless they saw a big wad of cash sticking out of your pocket. I can't tell you how many of those guys told me that Case knives were the only knives worth collecting.

Case sold attitude. If you collected any of the good old brands of days gone by you were a pitiful thing. Keen Kutter, Primble, Belknap, just old junk. Schrade and Camillus? Just cheap junk. Even worse, I was primarily a Buck collector back then, still am, really. Who wanted those things? They don't take an edge for beans...

I gotta admit that seeing those same Case knives being sold these days for bargain prices makes me a little happy.

The moral of the story is that knife collecting, just like any other hobby, goes through cycles. There's always somebody out there who is eager to tell you how to spend your money. Do your own thing and enjoy it.
 
Those of us on the forums aren't really the norm. We know about knives most people have never heard of. There are more people out there collecting knives that have never been on the forums and never will. Many of the brand's we discuss on here are unheard of on the street. Case is still huge. One knife shop I go to carries every brand imaginable and he told me Case easily outsells everything he stocks including moderns. Look on the auction site, lots of bidders and Case is still very popular. Some of the Case websites I look on always have knives listed as limited quantity, and out of stock and they will notify you when back in stock. I think maybe on here, we tend to look at other brand's more because Case is so popular elsewhere.
 
Did somebody say Case Knives?????

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knarfeng knarfeng mentioned that Case doesn't introduced new patterns and he is correct; however, over time, Case has pretty much made every pattern and every so often, Case will reintroduce a pattern from their past.

I don't know if you can tell, but I like Case knives and their quality. Sure there are glitches every once in awhile but all the other manufactures experience a bump once in awhile too.

The knives pictured above are just a few of what I have. I LIKE EM111111
 
Txjohn said:
Nice 6347 Misplaced
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Thanks, although its missing a bit of the main and has been reprofiled, whoever did it did a really good job. I didn't really notice until I compared it to pics of others.

JohnDF said:
And you already have more knives than I do... :D
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What can I say, when I jumped in, I jumped with both feet. Lol Honestly this has become such a fun hobby for me. I enjoy the hunt about as much as I do what I find.
 
I've only experienced 5 case knives so far and not a single lemon.
The current weeks carry is my sodbuster Jr.



If I had to make any suggestions that might boost conversations regarding case knives it would be to offer CVA for every pattern / scale material, and universally switch to their as ground working finish saving the mirror finish for the limited and collector stuff.
Sure some people want a " better steel " but I've never heard any real complaints about their CV when it's available on what you want.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Sure some people want a " better steel " but I've never heard any real complaints about their CV when it's available on what you want.
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Sure have to agree with that. I have a CV single blade Sway Back that sees a lot of watch pocket time.

As long as pics are being posted, here's a Barlow from the only run that left the Case factory without a tang stamp (100/2500):
Case_BarlowA.jpg
 
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