I have been reading about Peanuts for awhile now and I love Case knives so I had been wanting to see what all the hullabaloo was about. I ordered a navy blue tru-sharp 'nut for my dad for Father's Day this year so I went ahead and added a red bone cv Peanut to the order for myself. I thought it might work out well as an engraving knife for my woodcarvings or something to carry when I want to cut down on the weight of the stuff I EDC.
My dad's Peanut hasn't got here yet but I got mine. First impressions weren't great. While it is the red bone handle material I may have gotten a lemon. One side doesn't seem to be fully dyed and there is a little white along with the red. It looks kind of stupid, like a candy cane or something. It's almost got a pinkish hue in a few places which looks realllly bad. The edge wasn't bad, but a few strokes on my translucent arkansas bench stone worked wonders as it always does on the CV steel. Love that stuff. One other thing that annoys the crap out of me is there's a big scratch across the backsprings. One of the things that I love about Case knives is the awesome attention put into polishing that area and I can't believe something like this could have gotten past their quality control. Odds are it happened somewhere after it left the Case factory, so I'm giving Case the benefit of the doubt there.
To me the Peanut is just "cute" and I can't see myself using it at all, especially this pink-ish one. After honing the edge to a respectable degree and finishing it with a quick trip to the strop I gave the CV steel a thin coat of 3-in-1 oil, wrapped it back up in the paper and box and stuck it in my toolbox.
My 4 yr old daughter was sitting in my lap a day or so later and I pulled that Peanut out and let her check it out (closed). The size was pretty good for her tiny hands and I think she could realize the quality of the workmanship (or maybe she just liked the sparkle and shine of it as she hefted it and turned it in her hand). I told her that I got the knife for her and that we would take it with us for her to use when we go camping.
Personally I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with the size and weight of my amber jigged bone large stockman with CV steel. I have carved a lot of wood with that knife, use it around the machine shop I work in all the time and never have even noticed it in the coin pocket of my Carhartts. If I ever weary of the large stockman I have a beautiful Rancher CV Sowbelly that is a bit smaller, but very very powerful and versatile in shop, woods and home. I can't imagine a day where that burnt stag sowbelly would be too much weight for me and a Peanut would not.
I'm not second guessing the utility of the Peanut but it surely failed to impress me as something I'd call a go-to EDC knife or as anything I would replace either of my stockman's with. Of course, I've eaten my share of crow in the past and I'm sure there's many more helpings left to go before the sun sets on my life. But for now I'll say the Peanut just isn't for me.
Now my dad on the other hand, he has always carried a Victorinox Classic so he's used to tiny little blades and doesn't use knives as heavily as I do. I'm hoping that he _really_ likes the Peanut and I'll know if I see him carrying it instead of his Classic because I know he really likes that Classic. Now the SAK has a few extras like tweezers and scissors and toothpick that he might really be used to having so if the Peanut is able to dis-lodge the Classic from Pop's EDC I'll give the Peanut another look. Those little stag/damascus ones are really nice, just seeing that makes me want one! But in all honesty, if I didn't already promise this 'Nut to my baby girl I would probably be sending it back. I hoped for sooooo much more from the dark red bone. I was dreaming of something really deep and translucent...candy-like. Total disappointment there. Looks half-assed and wussified, as if the dye wasn't applied correctly or they skipped a coat or maybe the day it was made the plant manager's gay nephew tried out for a job. I don't know, it's the first Case knife I've ever felt so let down by. Hope it doesn't ever happen again!
