Case Tru Sharp S.S.

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rprocter

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i have been looking at Case knives. almost all except Tony Bose are listed as Tru Sharp stainless steel, although they often seem to have different numbers associated with it, like 5383WH, or5468SS, 6488SS, and so on. are these numbers referring to handle material or are there different types or hardening of Tru Sharp ? what is the composition of Tru Sharp ? how does it hold up as a user knife ? thanks for the help.
 
Most of your questions can be answered at this link:

http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/wr_case/index.php

Tru-Sharp, like Cold Steel's Carbon V is a proprietary name that Case uses for it's stainless steel. Hypothetically they could change the steel type and still call it Tru-Sharp.

That being said, my understanding is that Tru-Sharp is and has for a long time been 420HC.

The numbers you ask about are pattern numbers, the significance of which are explained at the link I provided.

Regards,

Jim
 
Tru Sharp as I know it is 420 HC. The numbers on the knife are the model number. The first number is the scale material ex. 6 being bone 5 being stag. The second number is the nuber of blades. The rest is the style or pattern number.

The steel used by Case is good, but it not a carbon blade like the old ones.

You were too fast for me, I was typing while you posted sorry for the redundant post

John
 
Two of my favorite carrying knives that have pretty much become exclusive (and mentioned here whenever threads about Case SS come up) are 2006 Cases in Tru-Sharp. A full-size trapper rides in my jeans pocket and a smooth bone, mini-trapper rides in my work slacks pocket. I had been rotating various knives both in carbon steel and stainless. Now however, one or the other of these go into my pocket, depending on what pants I'm wearing. My other knives in my EDC box are just languising there.

These two knives though came very sharp out of the boxes and have lasted a while. I occasionally strop them on a piece of uncharged leather just a little and they are right back in shape. They've been both attractive, well made, and pleasant to use knives, and first rate cutting tools. I don't do heavy duty cutting all the time, but they do get some use. The mini has seen some duty cutting rib meat off bones, to include scraping against the bone. But, they are used as cutting instruments only. I pull them out cut something, I wipe off the blade, and I put them back in my pocket. I've just gotten spoiled at how smooth and effortlessly they cut. The clip on each gets used as the utility/general use blade, so the speys on each are hyper sharp. Not that the clip is very far behind at all.

BTW, the link longbeachguy provided also tells you how to date Case knives based on the tang stamp too.

This is the jeans carry trapper. (I haven't shown it off in a few weeks <G>.) The mini-trapper is Chestnut, smooth-bone. I don't have a pic of it currently.
Eng-KYBG-Trapper-2_web.jpg
 
There's been some debate before about the quality of Case's SS. It's not the best steel out there, and I'm not sure if Case gives it the best heat treat, but I personally don't think it's too bad.

One of my EDCs over the last several months has been a newly made Case medium stockman with stainless blades. I've been satisfied with it overall. The edges seem to dull a bit quicker than some other steels and I think it's more likely to deform/roll at lower angles, but the steel works fine for the light duty stuff I use it for. It's also easy to sharpen and it gets very sharp.

I've noticed that people who like to whittle a lot sometimes have a low opinion of Case's stainless. I don't whittle much myself, but I think I can understand why they might feel that way. The steel doesn't work well with really thin edges and it might run into problems on harder woods because it's so soft.

IMO, people shouldn't be afraid to buy a knife with Tru-Sharp blades though. Case knives are inexpensive, so it's at least worth a try. If you don't like the stainless, you can always stick with CV steel, which pretty much everyone (including myself) thinks is great.
 
mnblade said:
There are plenty of new Case knives being built with carbon (CV) blades, though.
Click to expand...

True, but I wish they made them in something other than Amber bone and Yellow plactic. I like the looks of the Amber bone, but would like something in blue bone, or even STAG (love the stag).

I have never had a problem with Case's SS, but I don't use these knives very hard. If I have some hard cutting I get one of my FBs. I prefer the carbon blades because they develop a patina after use. Right now I am looking for a 2 blade congress with carbon blades to replace the one I lost. Case knives are very nice and can become addicting. I would suggest trying to hold them and look at fit and finish og the knife to insure you get one of the good ones.

AMOS you have a very nice looking trapper.


Best of luck,
John
 
i have a case hobo with stag (6.5354HB) and it is absolutely beautiful, comes together and apart perfectly and the blade is sharp. based on the encouragement here, i have ordered 2 more case knives (no dealers anywhere near here, so online shopping): seahorse whittler, amber jigged bone and gunboat canoe bone stag, both in Tru-Sharp.
which lines of case are CV steel ?
 
Hey johnwayne,you probobly already know this but they also make cv cases in red bone.

On quality of ss steel ,it's not terrible and is more than enough for light work,but in my experiance is't as good as bucks 420hc or the old shrade+
I to preffer cv in case knives.
 
johnwaynesandw said:
I have never had a problem with Case's SS, but I don't use these knives very hard. If I have some hard cutting I get one of my FBs.
Click to expand...

I think that fits in with another thread on having learned things. For basic, everyday cutting many steels work great. Using these EDCs to cut the stuff they are usually expected to cut, paper, leather, critter skins, string, rope, etc., they work great. If you want to do some hard duty cutting, maybe some light chopping, get a fixed blade.

For specific chores, such as whittling, or the like, carbon steel blades are a way to go. And D2, and similar are great if you are going to do a lot of cutting, especially on abrasive materials, and have that takes longer to sharpen, but stays sharp for so long charm going on.

Comes down, as always, to what are you going to use it for and how are you going to use it. It wasn't that long ago that the thought of 420HC made me grimace. Using what others talked down though provided some surprises for me. I've come to the point, if it works well for me, I'm happy with it. It just happens the two earlier mentioned have been exceptional from the git go.\

Thanks for compliment John.
 
rprocter said:
which lines of case are CV steel ?
Click to expand...
It's not so much "which lines", but "which patterns in the small number of handle materials available".

As mentioned, there are some amber bone, red bone, and yellow delrin models with CV steel. However, not all patterns in those handle materials are available with CV. And they seem to have dropped some CV models in 2007; I can no longer find an amber bone CV peanut, for instance, but they still have the red and yellow ones. And the prices went up since last year, too.

It's actually kind of tough to find out exactly what knives are available in which materials. The vendors often only list what they have in stock, which isn't everything, and the search capability is so limited on the W.R. Case site that you can't find anything by steel type.

And I agree with everyone else that the Tru-Sharp really isn't that bad for real life, day to day cutting chores.

-- Sam
 
Here is a pretty good advanced google search to help find new CV models. Not saying this is any complete list, but you might find some models you didn't know about before.

And here's a search that weeds out yellow and amber bone handled knives.
 
I think the case SS is alright for smaller knives - under 3.5", but like the CV otherwise. Truthfully I am way more familiar with the CV. I have some of the SS ones, but haven't used or sharpened them nearly as much.
 
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