Case recent quality examples & ordering unseen

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Mar 8, 2018
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I'll start off with this I love Case they are a classic American company with good quality products at a good price. You have saw and heard people talk about buying their knives unseen is risky might get a good one and might not. Myself included.

So I decided to put it to the test because I have heard that their recent productions are outstanding. I ordered 3 to see if they're any quality differences etc.

A mini trapper and two different Stockmans.
Mini trapper production date 11/28/17
Medium amber CV stockman
9/19/17
And their newest Burnt canyon amber bone stockman (which is a medium same as the other but very different in ways)
02/19/18

First the mini trapper cover to bolster finish is good along with no gaps in the blades and liners. It's got a good half stop and pull and a good snap for a Case probably the best "walk and talk" I've had on a recent Case knife. Only gripe is the blunted tips. The sharpening is rough but it's to be expected.

Next the Amber bone CV medium stockman. Very good fit and finish cover to bolster and blade to liner. The blades do touch in places and cause a rubbing scratch specifically the clip and sheepsfoot. The pen on mine does touch the nail nick on opening which gives a slight amount of resistance and ofc leaves marks. The pull is very easy and the snap is decent but not as strong as the mini trapper and it has a good closing snap. The blades on the CV are much nicer sharpened that the two SS models they don't feel "micro serrated" and come out of box sharper than the SS imo.

Last the deep Canyon Bone it's a larger medium stockman. Gorgeous knife very good cover to bolster and blade to liner just like the other but just like the CV stockman the blades rub but only in one spot and it's slightly. The pull is light with a decent snap again and a good closing snap. The blades are roughly sharpened with some grind issues at least on the sheeps. and feel "micro serrated" but the Spey and sheeps are pretty sharp. The clip is eh alright.

One thing I loved as soon as I opened the Stockmans is they had nice sharp pointy tips which was awesome bc I hate the blunted tips in the past but it seems that's been fixed. Even tho the mini trappers were still blunted.

Conclusion : you'll get a good one I think. Most likely won't get a "bad" knife but I do believe if hand selecting you'd get a great one with no blade rubbing which doesn't bother me but some it will. Sorry for the essay.

Thanks for reading! Have a great day. What would
thread be without some pictures thought it would be best to add them in at the end.
Didn't want to post the blade rubbing and one grind issue bc it would be too many pics in a row but will if anyone wants to see it.

Deep canyon is 1st 4
Next 4 CV amber stockman
Last two the Trapper and it's blunt tip.
image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg
 
Good to see an objective evaluation like this, of particular interest to me as I'm in Europe so I have to buy unseen.

My recent CASE experience of 3 knives in just over a year has been patchy, A Walnut Bone Stockman arrived with beautiful bone but woeful blade play and weak action, plenty of gaps. I returned it to the dealer in the US who was VERY helpful and concerned, he sent a replacement that had excellent fit, no blade play but the bone slabs were mismatched and streaky. I gave the knife away.

Then a Half whittler the new 2 spring model. This in Burnt Salmon Bone. The dye job was grotesque, hideous white streaks and strawberry pink. Burnt? It got dyed but not a lot of improvement. Good snap, no gaps, no touching liners but springs NOT flush on open, sunk, I dislike this rough feel. It's an OK knife if only I could dye it better...

Then cv Chestnut Bone Teardrop, Wharncliffe. Really excellent knife, can't find any faults with it (except the design gives it a very small blade frame ratio in my view) First class F&F, sharp, centred blade, great snap and a joy to own. Full marks there.

At the moment I'm waiting for a Small stockman in Rootbeer Bone, I liked a Mini Copperhead in the same bone so I chose that. Let's see, keep you informed :cool:

Thanks, Will
 
I have good pretty good experiences. My main complaint is that on some of their patterns they use too weak of a spring. I have found that over time a knife with a weaker pull can become a problem, as the spring slowly gets a little weaker you lose snap. My trapper that I have had for about 7 years has almost no snap closing now. If it gets dirty at all I will have to push it closed. On the good side it does have pretty good snap opening but it just gets annoying having to push the blade closed.
Maybe I just need to keep it cleaner, bit a little more backspring tension could go a long way for me.
Besides that I find that the ones I have handled have been either acceptable or very good. A lot of them I dont think I could tell from the golden era early to mid 70s knives. Some have some small gaps but those dont bother me as long as they dont cause discomfort.
The best example of one I have is my sway back jack in chestnut bone cv. It had a tiny bit of blade play when I got it but besides that it could not have been more perfect. It was perfectly flush, had perfect walk and talk for its size, NO gaps, the handles are died beautifully, and the backspring termination is perfect.
The most recent knife I have bought was a texas jack in amber bone and CV. It has a little gap and the backspring on the main blade is a little proud. Everything else was pretty good for a knife thats well under 50 bucks.
 
It is a small sampling of 3 patterns with n=1 for each pattern. For many of us this is a typical order. A lot of opinions are based on this type of order. But to know whether it is representative, you would need to order multiples of each. Usually 3 of each is considered a minimum sample size. That is much less common. A single example is a case study (no pun intended). It can still give information but not about consistency of each different pattern.

There are often differences between patterns. There can also be differences between different runs. For example, weak snap on the secondaries was common of the GEC calf ropers from the recent run. On the first run many years ago, the secondaries had more snap. As other examples, lockbacks from GEC often have some play...recessed pins are common on GEC knives... problems with the mechanics were common on the 35 harness jacks, etc.

I've bought 3 of the Case humpback stock knives with ebony covers and based on that experience, I think that pattern typically is gappy. Still great knives though. I've bought LOTs of Case sowbelly knives... at least as many as 6 from a single run (Christmas gifts) and they were about as good as it gets for factory made knives. There are some differences in the Sowbelly knives made in 2001 and, for example, 2011.

Another difference is that problems with GEC and Rough Rider tend to get ignored. And Case tends to get a beating on the forum. Case tends not to get credit even when it deserves it. Comparing the high quality pearl used by Case to the junk opaque white pearl used by Rough Rider, not a single person on the forum acknowledged there was a difference in quality when I posted a comparison! Prospective buyers get warned about needing to hand pick Case knives but Rough Rider knives that will have lots of problems are recommended without any warning. Not a fair representation in my opinion.

Now that Queen, Canal Street, Schrade, and Camillus have closed their doors, we've only got a few US manufacturers left. If we don't appreciate them now, they won't be around later.
 
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> But in order to know whether the results are representative, you would need to order multiples of each.

I did a lot of Case orders for multiples, a few years ago. I'd get one knife for myself and a second one for my father-in-law, so two of each. I did this probably 10 or 15 times. It's not a large sampling, but better than one. In most all cases, both knives were entirely acceptable, if you could live with a bit of horizontal blade play. It seems as though Case shoots for a lighter pull; not as crazy light as Buck, but lighter than older GECs. Pretty much the same pull that Camillus and Schrade used to give us.

Now that I've become proficient in tightening pivots and repeening pins to bolsers, I have a very high confidence level in buying a Case. If a blade is lazy, the pivot is probably a hair tight. If there's play, I can tighten it.

One thing that I'm particularly impressed with is Case's thin grinds. Pretty much all of my Case knives are extremely efficient cutters. Better than my GEC's in fact, and on par with my oldest Camillus knives.

I just wish they'd make their blades a bit harder. I can live with 1095 and 420HC (or whatever Case uses) if it's hard enough, but the soft Case heat treat tends to give me fits, with all of the floppy wire edges and low edge retention. I really wish they'd make an effort to put out knives in their 154CM, which actually performs quite well.

Yeah, the CV gets over-polished by Case, which makes the grinds look less than desirable, but there is an upside. That over-polish makes for a very corrosion resistant knife. I have far fewer issues with my Case knives rusting than my GEC's. And I totally love the Case "As Ground" finish that they use on some of their stainless.

I think that blade rub will always be an issue with Case. The blades are generally thin and have a low profile, in an attempt to keep the size and weight of the knife down, and to allow the knife to cut efficiently. They also don't toss in much extra room for blade clearance, again in an attempt to keep the knife as pocketable as possible. This means that the blades tend to flex more than a GEC blade, causing accidental blade rub. And let's not forget that Case knives are generally much cheaper than a GEC.

All in all, if you can live with the soft heat treat, and don't mind tightening a pivot or two, I think that Case knives are a hell of a bargain. The availability of a so many nice patterns and cover options makes for a very pleasant shopping experience.

I never talk about Case much, but two of my most often used knives are a Case-manufactured Carhartt medium stockman in "Rugged Duck" G-10, and a Case CV punch stockman in yellow Delrin. I don't ever EDC them, so they seldom get photographed. The punch stockman lives on my garage work bench, and the Carhartt lives in the coffee table drawer in the family room.

PS - I don't have much Case bone. I've never really cared for their lightly dyed bone. But G-10 is nice and tough, and I absolutely adore the look of their yellow delrin.

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hjOXUmBh.jpg
 
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Good post Buzz. I agree on the thin grinds, fine slicers but they don't hold an edge too well, I actually find RR's stainless superior in retention. CASE could improve steel quality, GEC is besotted by 1095 and seems to ignore other carbons and stainless these days, not good for the future I'd say.

Some of the cheaper CASE knives are still real bargains, the Big Stockman in Amber Bone cv comes to mind and the as ground Slimline Trapper and the Pen bladed Stockman and Penknife.

Some say blade rub is inherent on multi blades, don't agree it's due to assembly precision/design. Most of my GEC knives are free of it, most of my CASE knives exhibit it but it doesn't impact on W&T, doesn't matter on carbon or as ground stainless as you hardly see it, mirror polished blades look nasty with it. But then, GEC costs a load more than CASE and has small numbers so one expects better build. I'm interested by what you observed on patina/rust. CASE cv patinas evenly and a nice dark grey comes along quite quickly, similar to Böker Germany c75 carbon. GEC really can show red rust spots, uneven patina and even pitting so their steel is requiring more care&attention than the CASE equivalent in my experience. I also like the fact that CASE uses stainless backsprings on their carbon knives, you can get a lot of internal corrosion from brass/carbon springs. GEC's all steel construction springs whilst being corrosion prone are really impressively tight in construction and gap free and I prefer them to the brass carbon cocktail.

So many variables, fortunately!
 
I can't tell you how many times I've had a Tribal Lock in my shopping cart, and not pulled the trigger. If the steel were just a little bit better, I'd own a couple of them. Same goes for the mini-trapper with cap lifter
 
Good post Buzz. I agree on the thin grinds, fine slicers but they don't hold an edge too well, I actually find RR's stainless superior in retention. CASE could improve steel quality, GEC is besotted by 1095 and seems to ignore other carbons and stainless these days, not good for the future I'd say.

Some of the cheaper CASE knives are still real bargains, the Big Stockman in Amber Bone cv comes to mind and the as ground Slimline Trapper and the Pen bladed Stockman and Penknife.

Some say blade rub is inherent on multi blades, don't agree it's due to assembly precision/design. Most of my GEC knives are free of it, most of my CASE knives exhibit it but it doesn't impact on W&T, doesn't matter on carbon or as ground stainless as you hardly see it, mirror polished blades look nasty with it. But then, GEC costs a load more than CASE and has small numbers so one expects better build. I'm interested by what you observed on patina/rust. CASE cv patinas evenly and a nice dark grey comes along quite quickly, similar to Böker Germany c75 carbon. GEC really can show red rust spots, uneven patina and even pitting so their steel is requiring more care&attention than the CASE equivalent in my experience. I also like the fact that CASE uses stainless backsprings on their carbon knives, you can get a lot of internal corrosion from brass/carbon springs. GEC's all steel construction springs whilst being corrosion prone are really impressively tight in construction and gap free and I prefer them to the brass carbon cocktail.

So many variables, fortunately!

Gec’s Get blade rub. My beloved 35 Churchill has a sheeps foot that is in contact with the liner and the clip’s in contact with the tang of the sheeps foot, no matter what. I have 3 of the calf ropers and on my user in ebony the sheeps foot blade is krinked into the Spey ever so slightly to the point of very minor blade rub that is a major issue if not pulled absolutely straight up (if you care about blade rub) in normal use it will cause scratches. But the Churchill and that calf roper are users and I do not care about rub. I haven’t played with the other calf ropers enough to notice any blade rub, but I’d venture to say without being careful there will be some.
I love Case, I love GEC. But in my experience it does seem GEC gets more of a pass on issues than Case.
 
My only 3-blade GEC, a #62 Maverick, has blade rub. So do all of my Case 3-blade knives. Not something that bothers me or that I even think about except when I read threads here about it.
 
I have had more good experiences than bad regarding Case and mail ordering. However, I have only done that a few times since several local stores carry them and I can pick out my knife before I buy it.
 
It is a small sampling of 3 patterns with n=1 for each pattern. For many of us this is a typical order. A lot of opinions are based on this type of order. But to know whether it is representative, you would need to order multiples of each. Usually 3 of each is considered a minimum sample size. That is much less common. A single example is a case study (no pun intended). It can still give information but not about consistency of each different pattern.

There are often differences between patterns. There can also be differences between different runs. For example, weak snap on the secondaries was common of the GEC calf ropers from the recent run. On the first run many years ago, the secondaries had more snap. As other examples, lockbacks from GEC often have some play...recessed pins are common on GEC knives... problems with the mechanics were common on the 35 harness jacks, etc.

I've bought 3 of the Case humpback stock knives with ebony covers and based on that experience, I think that pattern typically is gappy. Still great knives though. I've bought LOTs of Case sowbelly knives... at least as many as 6 from a single run (Christmas gifts) and they were about as good as it gets for factory made knives. There are some differences in the Sowbelly knives made in 2001 and, for example, 2011.

Another difference is that problems with GEC and Rough Rider tend to get ignored. And Case tends to get a beating on the forum. Case tends not to get credit even when it deserves it. Comparing the high quality pearl used by Case to the junk opaque white pearl used by Rough Rider, not a single person on the forum acknowledged there was a difference in quality when I posted a comparison! Prospective buyers get warned about needing to hand pick Case knives but Rough Rider knives that will have lots of problems are recommended without any warning. Not a fair representation in my opinion.

Now that Queen, Canal Street, Schrade, and Camillus have closed their doors, we've only got a few US manufacturers left. If we don't appreciate them now, they won't be around later.


Rough Rider gets a pass cause I can buy 2-3 for the price of a Case. Also so far I not had the issues folks have discussed about Cases!
 
Rough Rider gets a pass cause I can buy 2-3 for the price of a Case. Also so far I not had the issues folks have discussed about Cases!

There's a difference between accepting that Rough Rider knives have faults and denying the existence of the faults. It is also not a fair representation when Rough Rider gets recommended without concern and prospective buyers are warned against buying Case knives. Unless the goal is to put another US manufacturer out of business, I don't see any purpose in it.

Here's a photo of the pearl.

Here is a comparison photo for the example that I previously provided. I picked mother of pearl as an example because the difference is extremely obvious. It is a lower quality material. Some will undoubtedly say they are the same though!

The pearl on the Rough Rider is milky and opaque. The owner/dealer's product description also warned that the material is often cracked. These first examples were pulled from the web but I had an example from this series and it had a chip in the abalone shield. You can see the chipped knife in the scan from one of my old Exchange sales. The OP also had cracks in a knife that he received.

Since the topic is durability, I'd probably skip anything with pearl and inlays. But it was the bling that he liked.

Case vs Rough Rider
40SpmA5.jpg


Chipped abalone shield
a3dlsGd.jpg
 
Having looked at a lot of case knives at the local dealers in town, I will say it can be difficult to find one with centered blades AND matching scales AND no gaps. However I have several case knives that don't meet all those criteria 100 percent, but are sturdy users.

The one Rough Rider I bought, a canoe, met all three of the above criteria! But the handles fell off the first time I really used it.
 
> But in order to know whether the results are representative, you would need to order multiples of each.

I did a lot of Case orders for multiples, a few years ago. I'd get one knife for myself and a second one for my father-in-law, so two of each. I did this probably 10 or 15 times. It's not a large sampling, but better than one. In most all cases, both knives were entirely acceptable, if you could live with a bit of horizontal blade play. It seems as though Case shoots for a lighter pull; not as crazy light as Buck, but lighter than older GECs. Pretty much the same pull that Camillus and Schrade used to give us.

Now that I've become proficient in tightening pivots and repeening pins to bolsers, I have a very high confidence level in buying a Case. If a blade is lazy, the pivot is probably a hair tight. If there's play, I can tighten it.

One thing that I'm particularly impressed with is Case's thin grinds. Pretty much all of my Case knives are extremely efficient cutters. Better than my GEC's in fact, and on par with my oldest Camillus knives.

I just wish they'd make their blades a bit harder. I can live with 1095 and 420HC (or whatever Case uses) if it's hard enough, but the soft Case heat treat tends to give me fits, with all of the floppy wire edges and low edge retention. I really wish they'd make an effort to put out knives in their 154CM, which actually performs quite well.

Yeah, the CV gets over-polished by Case, which makes the grinds look less than desirable, but there is an upside. That over-polish makes for a very corrosion resistant knife. I have far fewer issues with my Case knives rusting than my GEC's. And I totally love the Case "As Ground" finish that they use on some of their stainless.

I think that blade rub will always be an issue with Case. The blades are generally thin and have a low profile, in an attempt to keep the size and weight of the knife down, and to allow the knife to cut efficiently. They also don't toss in much extra room for blade clearance, again in an attempt to keep the knife as pocketable as possible. This means that the blades tend to flex more than a GEC blade, causing accidental blade rub. And let's not forget that Case knives are generally much cheaper than a GEC.

All in all, if you can live with the soft heat treat, and don't mind tightening a pivot or two, I think that Case knives are a hell of a bargain. The availability of a so many nice patterns and cover options makes for a very pleasant shopping experience.

I never talk about Case much, but two of my most often used knives are a Case-manufactured Carhartt medium stockman in "Rugged Duck" G-10, and a Case CV punch stockman in yellow Delrin. I don't ever EDC them, so they seldom get photographed. The punch stockman lives on my garage work bench, and the Carhartt lives in the coffee table drawer in the family room.

PS - I don't have much Case bone. I've never really cared for their lightly dyed bone. But G-10 is nice and tough, and I absolutely adore the look of their yellow delrin.

0hatRmVh.jpg

LDGtvMMh.jpg

WNhcCjph.jpg

hjOXUmBh.jpg
Great post. I agree small sample but still neat to look at. The heat treat is soft which I don't like on the CV think it's like 55 or a little harder. The grinds are nice and thin. The blade rub isn't a issue but on the 2018 production newest model it's only slightly and the blades are nicely put in. Best things about Case are they are pretty, tons to choose from, and very good price
 
I have had more good experiences than bad regarding Case and mail ordering. However, I have only done that a few times since several local stores carry them and I can pick out my knife before I buy it.
I think a lot of people may be in the same boat
 
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