Case synthetic handles

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Fass

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Mar 8, 2020
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I was just wondering if anyone has any long term experience with modern Case synthetic handles. How do they hold over time? 5, 10, 20 years down the road? Do they get brittle, crack, warp etc?
 
Does 45 years old make it modern? If so, this jigged plastic (Delrin?) seems to have held up better than the bolsters, even. I have owned it since it was new, and I seem to remember carrying it daily between 1993 and 2000 or so.
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***I say “seem to remember”, because I know I carried a knife daily, but didn’t pay any more attention to it than I did to my wallet, keys and belt, and this was one of just 2 pocket knives I owned during that period. The other knife had dried bait crusted in the nail nicks from before then, which I probably would have dug out if I had been using it.
 
I have had a couple Case corelon colorful acrylic sided trappers from the early 2000's ... the acrylic does display some very minor shrinkage over time. What I've seen is the acrylic sides shrink a tiny bit, so that the springs/liners are just slightly proud. It's minor, but enough that it annoys me. If I got a new knife like that with the acrylic slightly below the top edge of the brass liners, I would consider it poor fit and finish. i have a few delrin Case's from the 70's which held up great ... no signs of shrinkage at all with delrin.
 
I've had this stockman since about 2012, and for a while I was carrying it every day. I also had it stored in a plastic tool box while I was into moderns and only carried a spyderco or a benchmade. It was probably carried every day for about 3 or 4 years and (mostly) stored until early this year when I got back into traditionals. I can just feel where the scales meet the bolsters. I would still be very happy with the fit if it was a new knife.
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I don't know if I've ever seen a Case Delrin-covered knife handle that was actually broken. I'm sure it has happened on occasion, but probably no more often than with any other cover material of plastic/synthetic, bone, wood, etc. Occasionally, a hairline crack might be seen near the pins. But even then, the cracks seldom seem to propagate very far and the Delrin will continue to hold up over time.

I consider Case's Delrin handles to be essentially worry-free, more so than any other handle material. That's the true beauty of it.

BTW, Case has used true 'Delrin' (from Dupont) since 1967, with the debut of the 2138 pattern Sod Buster. They'd used other synthetics on many knives prior to that. I don't know how those have compared, in terms of long-term durability.
 
Fass said:
I was just wondering if anyone has any long term experience with modern Case synthetic handles. How do they hold over time? 5, 10, 20 years down the road? Do they get brittle, crack, warp etc?
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I'm not certain what Case is currently using for "synthetic" cover material on their workman series.
I think if they were using Delrin, they would say so, as that's pretty well recognized.
The WR Case web site does not say.
However, there are any number of tough, dimensionally stable plastics available these days. So I would not expect any problems.
 
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