mnblade: While I don't have experience with the old ones, I think your reaction is right for the new ones. Last year (2011) was the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America. Case made a handful of knives including a medium stockman and jr. scout. I bought one for my son who is a boy scout. I hope it is something he will treasure as an adult. This year (2012) is the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts. As near as I can tell, the only current Girl Scout knife and the 100th anniversary knife is one made by Colonial. So I bought one for my daughter who is a girl scout.
Here are my observations:
- it is the classic 4 blade scout knife consisting of a spear blade, can opener, bottle opener/screw driver, and awl.
- larger than the case jr. scout I got for my son. I like this because the smaller size was one of the two complaints I had against the case.
- solid metal bail that I don't think will come off when clipped to something attached to a belt.
- Wood covers look nice except that the workmanship at the edges is not that great. There is a visible gap between the ends of the covers and the bolsters. There is a small thickness difference between the covers and bolster. There are also gaps around the shield where it is inlayed into the wood. Other than the marginal job of the inlay, the actual shield looks nice.
- When viewed from the back of the knife (along the springs), there are visible gaps between the liner, bolster, and springs.
- the bail doesn't move smothly
- blade had "China" printed on it and that paint wiped off with my finger.
- blades don't open/close that smoothly. Maybe some oil would help, but I think the metal surfaces weren't super smooth to start with.
- can opener blade not sharp, marks where the blade was stamped out are still quite visible. Not saying a can opener blade has to shave but this one was on the dull end of the spectrum that I've seen in various pocket knives and multitools.
- bottle opener blade has very visible marks where the metal was stamped out
- awl blade is not as sharp as my sons case but it is 100x sharper than on my old western pocket knife I've had for 35 years. Of course a plastic picnic knife is also sharper than the awl blade on my old western. As an aside, does anyone actually use the awl blades on a non-locking knife such as these?
- the "girl scouts" "1912-2012" and the emblem with "100" in it on the blade I think will last. I think they were stamped into the blade. When I look with a 10x lens I see tooling marks so I don't think this is an etch although I am absolutely not an expert. This area is actually my 2nd complaint about the case BSA knife. The case knife marking on the blade looks to be screened on paint so I expect it won't last.
Long story short, yeah it is nice that they made this 100th anniversary knife but the quality seems low enough to relegate the thing to a drawer instead of it actually getting used. I guess it is sort of like the western pocket knife I got as a kid. It has sentimental value but I almost never use it because I have better performing pocketknives.
-Dan
