Case quality

I've had a few Case knives with quality issues. But generally, when I consider what I paid, I'm satisfied.

For the Case knives that needed help, I've sent them to Case for repair, and they come back absolutely superb.
 
Minor gaps happen. Steel stock isn't straight and needs to be straightened during manufacturing. That's true for manufacturing in general. High quality olympic barbells are an obvious example because they're 7 feet long. The bar stock is straightened before it is machined and the knurl is turned. But even then there is a range that is considered acceptable even for a $1200 olympic bearing bar (though its not as bad as the $50 bar from Sears ;) ).

Case gets the material for the liners in rolls and straightens them. The old fashioned assembly with squeezed pins can also introduce some gaps. Sometimes they're large and cause problems sometimes they are insignficant. My experience with Case has been pretty good. There were some small gaps on a sodbuster but my sowbelly and other Tony Bose regular production patterns have been pretty good.

To my eye, these Case knives look pretty good. There's sometimes some minor uneven liner/spring shadows that occur when a blade is opened. If I recall correctly they're ground flush in the closed position. Some of the knives in the photos may look like duplicates but they are actually different knives.






 
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JPD1998 said:
If you're not happy contact Case, they're CS is pretty good.
Just send a picture of what you feel is an issue and they'll get back too you. If they think it's within spec they'll tell you.

I bought a Cheetah with jigged buffalo scales and the jigging was pretty awful on one side, they apologized and sent me a new one that was perfect.
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I've sent knives back for physical issues, but never cosmetic. What do you think they would do with a stockman that has really uneven scale colors?
 
JD Bear said:
I've sent knives back for physical issues, but never cosmetic. What do you think they would do with a stockman that has really uneven scale colors?
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Here's what I did.
First I emailed CS and explained the issue, they're response back to me was that they needed a close up picture to determine if it was what they considered "normal" . They told me buffalo horn was very hard to jig because of it's composition. But my knife looked like a chunk broke off near the lock release.

I emailed a few pictures and they told me to send it back. I'm pretty sure they gave me a new one, but they said they repaired it. They also sent me a nice booklet too , about the history of Case knives.
If I remember correctly , the total turn around was about two weeks.
 
JPD1998 said:
I emailed a few pictures and they told me to send it back. I'm pretty sure they gave me a new one, but they said they repaired it. They also sent me a nice booklet too , about the history of Case knives.
If I remember correctly , the total turn around was about two weeks.
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Very nice. That time frame is outstanding. I got a walnut stockman and the deep brown is beautiful and exactly what I was looking for, but one side is a little on the red side and doesn't match very well. I've been carrying it for a couple weeks so I wouldn't send it back now, but if it happens again in the future I'll take that into consideration. Other than that, the fit and finish is great.
 
Case knives have different levels of fit/finish based upon the price and the product line. For the yellow delrin, $35 stockman, I would not be surprised by some minor gaps, for a $350 Case Bose, I would not expect gaps.
 
jc57 said:
Minor backspring gaps are not uncommon with Case knives and are not really a problem unless you decide they are.
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Agreeing with the others. If a knife cost more than abut $100, I'll be bothered by gaps. But unless they're excessive, they neither bother me, nor are they actually a problem.

FWIW, most recent Case knives I've come across have been pretty good. Makes my heart happy, since brands like Rough Rider have been lighting a fire under Case's butt in many areas, including fit and finish. The worst Case I came across seemed to be a bad run of lockbacks that tended to not lock very well. That was 10 or 15 years ago.
 
I have seven or eight Case knives and the only one that was a bit off was a yellow delrin penknife that the scales weren't fit as well as they could be, but otherwise it is a very good knife. A couple of my more recent purchases were extremely well done.
 
Is Case really better than other USA made Traditional Folders that cost a fraction of the price?
 
xtonesterx that is a good looking Case trapper. Some of their fit and finish is a crap shoot. When you figure most of their knives are working type knives you can expect a few gaps in the springs. Pretty good knives for the price. I have a mini trapper I bought last year that had some minor flaws as far as finish goes but the knife does what a knife is supposed to do, cut stuff. In all my years of fooling around with knives I don't remember paying a lot of attention to spring gaps. Blade play yes, took it to the vise for a gentle squeeze. You can always send it back and hope they fix it to your satisfaction. It is a tool and nothing more, you believe that don't you.
 
I have four different Case knives now, and I'm perfectly happy with the quality, considering the price. They make some very enjoyable knives for the money.

Some of the brass liners might have a gap, but it's such a small gap that I'm not even 100% sure if it qualifies. It certainly doesn't diminish the functionality of the knives.

Also, I like that they are made in the USA for an affordable price.
 
Thank you everyone for the replies! I really am not too worried about the gaps especially for the price as some of you have mentioned. I bought this trapper to use the crap out of it haha. Only reason I was asking was just to see where Case knives were as far as fit and finish. I'm really happy with the knife. The clip point blade is perfectly centered with no play and the spey blade is a little off center but not rubbing and has no play as well.


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My experience is limited to half a dozen peanuts and a teardrop jack. I've no issues with any of them but the teardrop is superb






- Paul
 
kamagong said:
Every single production slipjoint I've owned had gaps that showed light through the liners. The only slipjoints that don't are my customs.
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My EDC is ~55 year old Ulster/Craftsman two-springer I bought a few years ago for literally just a few bucks. No gaps. No light.
 
This came in a awhile back



looks like a gap but not really on the other side, difficult to get that angle



and this came in today





 
So I ended up ordering another yellow handled trapper. This one is 100x better. In fact there is only one spot where minimal light can be seen through the liners and spring. Very happy with the qc on this one especially for the money.
 
Most all of my cases don't have any liner gaps, and the ones that do are very minuscule. My experience is their QC is pretty good but funky occasionally, I have a large sodbuster that had oddly sideways ground center pins that stick out halfway with sharp edges and one side of the handle is ground off much thinner than the other side. On the other hand I have a baby canoe that has F&F every bit as good as a GEC except for a little blade rub, which is hard to avoid when you cram two blades into a very narrow space, so I'll give them that one.
 
8 of my 12 Case knives show glints of light through the springs. 3 out of my 5 GECs do the same.

Small gaps in the liners/springs, sunken/proud pins, sunken/proud springs do not bother me. Terrible dye jobs used to bother me. Now, I'm comfortable enough to dye them myself. If I like a pattern, I'm especially lenient on "quality" issues. I find myself buying more and more Case knives and ignoring the people questioning Case's quality.
 
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