Case Oval Shield History Question

A

Ace Rimmer

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Jul 4, 2017
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In 1974 Case introduced the "composite" shield (Ref: Collecting Case Knives by Steve Pfeiffer, 2009). As I understand it, up to that time the oval shield included an oval surrounding the letters "CASE". The "composite" shield eliminated the oval and was used on such materials as wood, composition, and jigged brown Delrin. (I just bought a 1977 with jigged brown Delrin covers, which got me to researching this.)

Anyway... I notice that on all my Case knives with oval shields that are from the current decade the shield design is opposite -- that is, the ones with bone covers have no oval around "CASE", while the synthetics (I have two with yellow Delrin) do have the oval.

Steve doesn't address this in his book. I'm wondering if anyone has any history on when Case (1) dropped the oval on bone covers and (2) re-introduced the "composite" shield with the oval.

Thanks!
 
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I'm not quite sure if this answers your question or not. I don't feel right linking to another forum but here's a quote from Steve Pfeiffer on the subject from another forum:


"The use of the so called "composition" shield without the oval around CASE started in 1974. You will see a few 6 dot 74 knives in delrin with the oval and a few 7 dot 73 knives without the oval; these are "transition" knives.

The use of the composition shield ended after 1986".
 
Railsplitter said:
I'm not quite sure if this answers your question or not. I don't feel right linking to another forum but here's a quote from Steve Pfeiffer on the subject from another forum:


"The use of the so called "composition" shield without the oval around CASE started in 1974. You will see a few 6 dot 74 knives in delrin with the oval and a few 7 dot 73 knives without the oval; these are "transition" knives.

The use of the composition shield ended after 1986".
Click to expand...

Thanks! Well, I think that answers at least part of the question. It seems they must have brought back the idea of distinguishing between bone and other materials at some time after 1986, and at that point decided to reverse the meaning of "oval" and "no oval". Thanks very much for the input!

Sounds like I should do some Google searching for "case composition shield oval pfeiffer" and see what I get. :D

Now, about your uncle... I guess he either has a little boat or a Ferrari 166MM. That's one of my favorites (based only on pictures, of course)!
 
Ace Rimmer said:
Now, about your uncle... I guess he either has a little boat or a Ferrari 166MM. That's one of my favorites (based only on pictures, of course)!
Click to expand...

:) It is in fact, a reference to the Ferrari but indirectly. My Uncle doesn't really own one.

My favorite musicians are the band named "Rush". They have a song called "Red Barchetta" in which the narrator borrows his Uncle's car and takes adventurous drives on Sunday afternoons.

I only wish my Uncle had one so I could do that too.:D
 
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