Copy/Clone Case Sodbusters out there???

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Maximumbob54

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Saw mention elsewhere someone thought they bought a fake Case Sodbuster. They were swearing the bone and shield on it were both plastic. No clue if they were right or not as I didn't see them test it. Looked around and I don't see copies on Ali or similar. Is this something to be aware of now? I'm used to knives in higher price ranges getting clones but the average Case Sodbuster is in the $50 to $100 price range. The answer is of course buy from a reputable dealer, I'm just curious if anyone knows if fakes really exist or not.
 
Without a picture or link showing the alleged fake, it's impossible to say much about it. In general terms, I'd think it wouldn't be worthwhile for someone to go to the trouble of faking it, especially with the shield, tang stamps & other details. At the price point for these, it wouldn't make sense for someone looking to profit from that.

That being said, Case Sod Busters have been popular in the past for customizing with other handle materials & such. There used to be an active member here on BF who specialized in it. All of his work was above board and honest with no attempts at presenting them as original Case product. So it's possible or even likely that many user-customized examples are out there.

Edited to add:
Regarding Case's shields on more recent knives, like 1990s or later, at least some of their shields aren't as obviously metallic as with older knives from them. I think they're a pot metal casting instead of being stamped out from sheet stock as on older knives. I say this because I've had one Case pocketknife drop its shield, which I eventually epoxied back into place. And by the feel & weight of it when held in the hand, it does have a sort of 'plastic' or lightweight vibe to it. That knife was a special 'Red Shield' edition 5344 SS small stockman, pictured below:
tfaVZdD.jpg
 
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Typical legitimate Case Sod Buster handles are, in fact, made of a type of plastic. The regular black and yellow handles are synthetic material, but do not have shields. Case also makes several jigged synthetic versions of the Sod Buster Jr. with shields, in black, blue, white, and red synthetic material (Delrin or similar).

Here is an example, link directly to Case's own website: https://caseknives.com/products/jigged-rough-white-synthetic-sod-buster-jr
And all of the Sod Buster Jr. models in current production: https://caseknives.com/search?q=sod+buster+jr&options[prefix]=last&type=product

As you can see, a lot of plastic (synthetic) there. Don't know about the shields.
 
Why buy a fake sodbuster?
For under $15 you can get the same pattern from Rough Ryder, Imperial, and others.
I can't speak for the Imperial (I don't have one) but the (full size/"large") Rough Ryder Work Knife is thinner mark to pile sides than my Sod Buster Jr.; About the same as my Weidmannsheil lock back "sod buster" pattern.
I may be mistaken, but I think the full size and Jr. Case Sod Buster are the same width.
 
jc57's reply above is good info and reminds me of an additional point.

Many have seen the '6' in the beginning of the pattern# and assumed immediately it means a bone handle material. And it sometimes does, in part. But it's easy to forget that the '6' also implies any jigged handle material from Case, including bone and jigged delrin/synthetic materials. So, if the knife has what looks like a jigged bone material, it could also be a jigged synthetic and still be completely authentic.
 
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I should have added the knife appeared to be a harvest orange jigged bone with a brass or nickel silver (hard to tell with the lighting) shield sodbuster jr. It was not one of the Delrin models. All the Delrin jigged or not I've seen had a very monotone coloration while this one had the usual look of dyed bone. Add to that the Delrin is usually thicker than the usually thin bone covers. I'm avoiding posting links to prevent the thread being nuked.

Again though I'm more curious if anyone is aware of fakes out there to watch out for.
 
jmh33 said:
As been stated at least a billion times!!🥴
Buy from a dealer you can trust!!👍😋👍
John 😁
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Maximumbob54 said:
The answer is of course buy from a reputable dealer,
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I get it...

The only reason I'm curious is going looking for discontinued models sometimes you have to search far and wide.

I'm not looking for harvest orange but having recently missed the pb&j models if I were to someday go looking, are there fakes out there??? Not of that specific model but in general.
 
Maximumbob54 said:
I get it...

The only reason I'm curious is going looking for discontinued models sometimes you have to search far and wide.

I'm not looking for harvest orange but having recently missed the pb&j models if I were to someday go looking, are there fakes out there??? Not of that specific model but in general.
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This is the first I have ever heard of the possibility of a fake soddie. 🤔

My post was not directed to you just a general observation!! 🤝😁
John 😎
 
It's been a while since I'd done any shopping on 'the auction site' for knives, or anything else. But I do notice that almost anything goes in listings online, at times. Maybe a knife that's not actually 'as new' as described, but instead one that's been damaged, neglected or altered badly and then 'cleaned up'. Or sometimes just obviously false claims that the seller assumes won't be noticed by most anybody shopping there. I'd once seen a Jr. Sod Buster listed that was described as 'vintage' because it was HEAVILY pitted and therefore looked 'very old'. But the post-2000 tang stamp so clearly visible in the photos gave it away as less than 10 years old (at that time, when I saw it) and apparently the seller didn't know any different, or assumed no one else would.
 
jmh33 said:
This is the first I have ever heard of the possibility of a fake soddie. 🤔

My post was not directed to you just a general observation!! 🤝😁
John 😎
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Didn't mean to look like I was singling you out!!! It's just that you can't usually get a discontinued model anywhere safe. Another example, if you're new to collecting and want to find a model in CV... Good luck finding any old stock on the shelves still...

Obsessed with Edges said:
I'd once seen a Jr. Sod Buster listed that was described as 'vintage' because it was HEAVILY pitted and therefore looked 'very old'.
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I've seen similar and it made me wonder if that's almost a "home business???" (not sure what to call it) being done to knives. Like how Case already offers Pocket Worn models. Or how you can buy Colt 1873 clones that are factory distressed to look old.

Edit: Those were bad examples. Those are done knowing up front they are clones. I strictly meant seeing knives that have been "aged" and passed off as vintage on purpose.
 
Maximumbob54 said:
I've seen similar and it made me wonder if that's almost a "home business???" (not sure what to call it) being done to knives. Like how Case already offers Pocket Worn models. Or how you can buy Colt 1873 clones that are factory distressed to look old.

Edit: Those were bad examples. Those are done knowing up front they are clones. I strictly meant seeing knives that have been "aged" and passed off as vintage on purpose.
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In the example of the 'vintage' listing I saw, I assumed at the time and still do now, that it was probably just somebody who found the knife on the ground somewhere after exposure to the elements for a few years. And then, not knowing any of the history of the pattern, cleaned it up and tried to turn a quick buck from it. I would've hoped that if it were an organized attempt at faking things, they'd at least shown more care to avoid giving it all away in the photos they attached. Made me laugh and feel sad at the same time at the apparent complete lack of sophistication or knowledge in how they described the listing. To their credit, the photos were very clear and showed all the pertinent details, which ironically betrayed it all, in my eyes anyway.

Edited to add:
Another detail which gave it away... The knife listed was the yellow-handled Jr. soddie (3137CV), which wasn't even introduced until 1993. So, calling it 'vintage' meant something on the order of 10-15 years old at most, at the time I saw the listing.
 
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Wait.

Everybody says I'm "Vintage"...

I assumed that meant made in the 50's.

I hate fake stuff, I saw some fake silver Eagles the other day.
 
I have seen fake Case knives before, but they were just generic Chinese trappers with the Case name printed on the blade somewhere.
I don't go looking but have not seen any others aside from faked antique Case knives.
It's not impossible, but the question becomes what knife of the few dozen patterns do they copy, which of the dozens of cover options do they fake, and which shield.
Which is worth counterfieting, and how far do they want to go.

I would expect any fake Case knives to just be as I've seen before, random generic Chinese slipjoints of a pattern Case may or may not offer with a generic Case branding on it somewhere.
 
I've seen a couple of fake Case knives on Chinese express not a while ago. One was a jack similar to GEC 14 or 15, so beware, people.
 
Alex.Y. said:
Here. I just wasn't sure if I should post a picture of a fake. For informational purposes only.
View attachment 2719686
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Aside from the swedge on the pen blade I would not expect this were a fake, if it had some kind of old Case tang stamp anyways.
I'm betting the knives were originally intended as GEC fakes and somebody decided they might as well go after Case collectors as well.

This knife is sort of what I expected in that it's not a copy of any specific Case offering, good news for Case collectors but it's closer to a GEC than I expected and could certainly fool somebody who's new to them.
 
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