case peanut or sway back jack , CV of course

J

jacktrades_nbk

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Feb 7, 2007
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hello everybody, I've been lurking around this forum for a while now, and I keep coming back here, great people, great knives so I'm going to stay.
I'm thinking of buying two small slipjoints, one for me, one for my wife, and I can't decide between the case peanut and the sway back jack, though I'm leaning towards the peanut, looks like the main blades of the two are very close in size, but the small handle of the peanut makes a more compact package, much easier to have in a pocket, (or purse :D)
whatever i will choose, those ain't gonna be the last slippies i buy, so i know ill end up buying the other one too, but for now, i need to decide.
Any thoughts ?
Thank you very much.
 
I have both - can't go wrong. If I could only have one, it would be the swayback. It's just a tad over 3" closed, so it is a small packege as well. Just a good knife.
 
You can't go wrong with either one really. Both are great little knives. Idealy, it would be best to handle each before purchasing but if that's not posiible how about buying one of each then you can just buy a third one of the one you like better! Personaly, I prefer the peanut because of the blade shape. I like warncliffs as a secondary but not as a main blade.
 
my wife's favorite is a Buck 110, and I like the shape of the peanut blade as well, though the wharncliffe blade looks very good on the sway back jack design...
and I can't handle them before I buy.
 
anybody knows how much thicker is the main blade on the SBJ compared to the peanut ?
some pics maybe, if possible, of the two blades together, side to side and/or back side would be very nice and helpful
 
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I love my Case SBJ CV! Perfect little knife (and I have never been one for small knives) ! As for the wife, you could do what I did and buy her a black and pink polka dotted peanut from Case. Course, its SS but my wife is not a knife nut like me and she probably needed a SS cause she wouldn't take care of it like she should. That being said, she's definitely a girl and I was lucky for her to even carry a pocket knife! =) Course, it's in her pink purse....
 
If you're going to buy one for yourself and one for her, then why not get one of each? Then you can decide which one you prefer and let her have the other. Alternatively you could let her choose which she likes more and keep the other for yourself.

I like the SBJ more since it has a little extra to hold on to while still being small. The wharncliffe blade works well for me in my everyday tasks, but some people only like it as a secondary blade. I guess it depends on what you normally need a knife for. The pen blade can also be used in a pinch when the master is less than ideal for the task.
 
I would snag one of the chesnut bone CV sway backs first. Case really knocked it out of the park with that one.
 
I was super excited to finally buy the SBJ in CV after all that I had read. Once I had it in hand, it really didn't do it for me. The nail nick was too low for me to get at easily, and I couldn't open the knife without loosing grip on the blades once the half stops engaged. Hard to describe, I guess. Lovely knife though. I was really bummed. My next purchase was going to be a Peanut, but the problem my hands have with dealing with half stops is making me rethink it.

That said and my opinion aside, I think you will do better with the Peanut if it is between the two just considering the size, blade style and variety in materials.
 
I do not own a Case peanut. That being said. The fit and finish on the SBJ is leaps and bounds beyond the F&F on other recent Case knives I own.
 
thanks all for the information and thoughts,
from what i've seen and read in this forum, though I haven't seen one picture with the two together (yes I've seen the video, but it doesn't show the blades side to side), i get that the SBJ only has a bigger handle, and different blade shapes of course, with the main blade being slightly bigger, and perhaps thicker by a small margin.
Anyway, browsing around and seeing hundreds of pages and images of this forum made me like the traditional patterns even more than before.
 
I know that I am very biased, but I'll toss in my penny's worth.

After a long time I came to the conclusion that a pocket knife spends 99% of it's time in your pocket. Most of the time, it rides there, un-needed until some little thing comes up that our feeble teeth and nails can't handle, but a little sharp blade makes short work out of. Opening mail, a plastic blister package, a UPS box, string or twine of some sort, whatever.

Since its mostly a pocket object, the overall size is sometimes of more importance than the actual blade. The smaller and rounder, the better. The little peanut excels at this. You can drop it in a pocket, shove a bandana down on top of it, and forget it till one day you need a sharp knife. I've carried both the sbj, and the peanut, but my bias is still for the peanut.

But then, I openly admit to being a ' nut addict.

Carl.
 
Thanks jackknife for your thoughts on this, I agree with this knife philosophy, very good point.
I think I'm going with the peanut on this one, made my mind about 80%, but I'm going to wait for a while, maybe someone will post a pic of the two together.
 
Jackknife, if I may call you Carl, reading more of your stories made my other 20% for the peanut...thanks,
so ill be ordering two peanuts, a chestnut bone in CV and a red bone also CV.
 
Another vote for the swayback. I carry mine every day (though mine is in stainless with Bermuda green bone)
 
The Swayback has a much broader handle than the Peanut. Its secondary Pen blade is about the same thickness as the Peanut's main Clip blade, so its Wharncliffe is thicker at the spine.

This is reflected in the weight of these knives: CASE Swayback Chestnut 62g Antique Bone Peanut 36g. Quite a substantial difference!

Whichever you choose/chose I'm confident you'll like it. Then other small knives you might like to consider for later: Tiny Trapper, Pen, Eisenhower from CASE and others. GEC 25 Ez-Open/Balow these are single and double blades, many variants, 33 Conductor a type of Pen and really impressive. A Mini Canoe in single spring is another very useful small knife and let's not forget the Buck 309 in all sorts of rugged no nonsense delrin, a fine cutter too.
 
i thought the sway back blade was thicker, because of the weight too, also because i've seen many regrinds here done on it, still none on the peanut.
I made my mind on the peanut for now, but ill get a sway back jack too some day.
Thanks for the other options mentioned, very helpful, pretty soon ill have to do some serious buying...:D
Nevertheless, i would still like to see a picture of the two blades together, so i can compare them face to face, in a matter of speaking, and to see the differences in thickness and length.
 
how can i tell the difference between the stainless peanuts in blade finish, as in satin or mirror, thinking my wife would be happier with a stainless blade, i would like it to be in satin...
bermuda green bone SS is what i have in mind.
 
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I have a peanut and actually like the little fella as an evening edc, small and light but does amazingly have some good cutting power in both blades
love the SBJ looks, hope to own one one day, read too good about it!
Maxx
 
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