Case XX era question

[ISKRA]

After looking through the Case Tested thread I was wondering about something. Is there any way to determine whether a knife was made closer to the beginning or the end of the XX era? Say, by looking at the colour of the jigged bone or something like this. Are there any clues at all or is anything just a guess? Would there be any pattern that would switch from long pull to crescent nail nick during this time?

I think I can speak in the name of us all to say that we'd be glad if you guys also post a photo or two of an example, if there are any.

Thank you,
Žan

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

For the XX-era knives from Case (1940 - 1964), the presence of a pattern# stamp on a blade would indicate 1950 or later. Case didn't stamp pattern#s on blades until ~1950. So that would narrow it down a little bit. In some collecting guides, you'll sometimes see some XX-era examples dated as '1950-1964', and that's likely influenced by the presence of the pattern# stamp on an 'XX-era' knife. And the flipside, if there's no pattern# stamped on it, that should imply the knife was made sometime prior to the change in stamping policy during the year 1950. I assume there are probably knives made during that year, some of which might not have pattern# stamps, and others that did, depending on the timing of the stamping policy change in that year.

 

[ISKRA]

For the XX-era knives from Case (1940 - 1964), the presence of a pattern# stamp on a blade would indicate 1950 or later. Case didn't stamp pattern#s on blades until ~1950. So that would narrow it down a little bit. In some collecting guides, you'll sometimes see some XX-era examples dated as '1950-1964', and that's likely influenced by the presence of the pattern# stamp on an 'XX-era' knife. And the flipside, if there's no pattern# stamped on it, that should imply the knife was made sometime prior to the change in stamping policy during the year 1950. I assume there are probably knives made during that year, some of which might not have pattern# stamps, and others that did, depending on the timing of the stamping policy change in that year.

Thanks, that's some great info I didn't know about!

 

[danno50]

Sometimes an early XX era Case will have the closed C shield, like on the Tested era knives. Here is an 2231 1/2 SAB as an example.