Current CASE XX quality?

[Prester John]

I just bought this 2017 built Case Tribal Lock a couple weeks ago, and the quality is awesome for a factory production knife. Smooth action, solid lockup, centered blade, excellent F&F, no gaps, even blade grinds, beautifully dyed bone with flush or domed pins. It did take about 6 or 7 strokes per side to remove a slight wire edge (common for Tru-Sharp), which then made it a razor. Bought off the net, sight unseen.

That is beautiful. Good dye job, and I love the red shield.

 

[Will Power]

Here's the new peanut as purchased yesterday.


And here it is as it should be after just a couple minutes of work.

Interesting Can you explain what you did and how, please?

Thanks, Will

 

[Hickory n steel]

Interesting Can you explain what you did and how, please?

Thanks, Will

No problem.

First you wanna use a piece of wood to wedge the blade open to about here and protect the bolsters with a couple layers of masking tape.


Then you're going to remove material right here, either with a needle file or by lightly kissing a belt sander.

Just go slow checking your progress, then rinse and repeat till the knife is good to go.

 

[Will Power]

Thank you! So to clarify, you remove the steel vertically from the entire tang or just the edge of the tang?

 

[JohnDF]

Here's the new peanut as purchased yesterday.


And here it is as it should be after just a couple minutes of work.

I like the orange delrin handles.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Thank you! So to clarify, you remove the steel vertically from the entire tang or just the edge of the tang?

You can't exactly get to the entire surface, so you're going to get 3/4 of it at the most maybe only the top depending on the knife.

So you're going from this

To something like this

 

[cjtamu]

After reading through all this something occurred to me. Went back and looked at GEC production totals for 2018. A big pattern run for them is 700-800, more normal for them is less than 500. Contrast that with the "Limited Edition" Case Barlow I'm carrying today, which is 1 of 2500. Every knife maker is going to produce flawed knives, and the more knives you produce, the more flawed knives there will be. Would be more useful to know the percentage of flawed knives, but we never will. We have 15 or more Case knives as far back as 1964 or earlier, and the only one with a serious flaw is the blade rub on this Barlow. Just something to think about. And since everyone else is posting their Tribals, I'm putting mine up too ha ha. It's a superb knife. And lock is flush on this one when closed.
20181108_135147 by Chris Thayer, on Flickr

 

[Mayonardo]

After reading through all this something occurred to me. Went back and looked at GEC production totals for 2018. A big pattern run for them is 700-800, more normal for them is less than 500. Contrast that with the "Limited Edition" Case Barlow I'm carrying today, which is 1 of 2500. Every knife maker is going to produce flawed knives, and the more knives you produce, the more flawed knives there will be. Would be more useful to know the percentage of flawed knives, but we never will. We have 15 or more Case knives as far back as 1964 or earlier, and the only one with a serious flaw is the blade rub on this Barlow. Just something to think about. And since everyone else is posting their Tribals, I'm putting mine up too ha ha. It's a superb knife. And lock is flush on this one when closed.
20181108_135147 by Chris Thayer, on Flickr

But a manufacturer does not have to sell flawed knives. Low QC drives higher volume and cheaper sales of “good enough” products, not excellent ones.

 

[cjtamu]

But a manufacturer does not have to sell flawed knives. Low QC drives higher volume and cheaper sales of “good enough” products, not excellent ones.

Well, by that logic, GEC, and Queen, and S&M, and Camillus, and Boker, etc. all have all made knives they shouldn't have sold. I've seen and/or own knives from those makers, and others, with flaws. You handle enough knives from any single maker, you're going to find a flawed knife. The question is, what constitutes a fatal flaw? Any QC process has to have acceptance criteria since there are few, if any, perfect knives. What some consider a fatal flaw (imperfect dye, weak springs, springs that don't sit flush in all positions, pins that aren't flush) won't matter at all to many others. Why would Case, or any other manufacturer, not sell those knives? If it winds up in the hands of someone that's bothered by that particular flaw, back it goes. For a company that produces the volume they do, I think Case's QC is remarkably good. I've yet to get a "bad" Case knife. If it ever happens, I'll send it back just like I would any other maker.

 

[Will Power]

I admit I dyed this one with potash as the original dye job was manure quality
However, the Half Whittler is a very tidy small pattern-no longer single-spring unfortunately but well put together and large number of scale options. Master blade is sunk joint and this is something you can find on other CASE patterns (e.g. Humpback Stockman, impressive on a 3 blade knife) It makes the knife very easy in the pocket as there are no sharp tangs to catch on things and it's a mark of construction quality.

Don't think GEC has managed a sunk-joint knife yet? Could be wrong. So apart from the weak (actually vile) dye job on this, the knife is remarkable quality and excellent finish and here it is in its new colours, pleased with this too.Also, CASE do pins very well, flat and or domed not a yawning sinkhole on the centre pin which can be found, annoyingly, with other marques...

 

[Duper]

I just received a smooth red bone Mini Trapper and an amber bone Texas Jack in CV. I asked the retailer to inspect them for me before shipping. I have to say they are both perfect F&F to my eye. I do not see any gaps, feel any bad transitions, no significant blemishes, the dye job on the red is consistent and what I hoped for, the blades do not have any play or rub. Spring tension is to my taste.

So the quality matched or exceeded the price.

,,,Mike in Canada

 

[JohnDF]

CASE do pins very well, flat and or domed

Yes! They also do very well in the handle fit department, very smooth transitions at bolsters, end caps, and liners.

 

[5K Qs]

I just received a smooth red bone Mini Trapper and an amber bone Texas Jack in CV. I asked the retailer to inspect them for me before shipping. I have to say they are both perfect F&F to my eye. I do not see any gaps, feel any bad transitions, no significant blemishes, the dye job on the red is consistent and what I hoped for, the blades do not have any play or rub. Spring tension is to my taste.

So the quality matched or exceeded the price.

,,,Mike in Canada

How detailed are you when you make your inspection request? Do you give the dealer a list of specific features to check, as well as acceptable and unacceptable characteristics for each feature? Or do you just say, "Hey, make sure everything is OK before you send it to me"?
Thanks!

- GT

 

[brownshoe]

But a manufacturer does not have to sell flawed knives. Low QC drives higher volume and cheaper sales of “good enough” products, not excellent ones.

You seem to be under the mistaken belief that QC is 100% inspection. You control the product by controlling the process. Case sells a variety of knives with widely varying prices and quality. Quality is "meeting the customer's needs" which are different between say a Bose copy, to a normal production stockman to a yellow handled slim line trapper.

 

[Duper]

How detailed are you when you make your inspection request? Do you give the dealer a list of specific features to check, as well as acceptable and unacceptable characteristics for each feature? Or do you just say, "Hey, make sure everything is OK before you send it to me"?
Thanks!

- GT

I start off by saying I am in Canada so it is very inconvenient and costly for me to return anything for repair or replacement.

I asked for them to give the knives a good visual check for any obvious issues. I said I wanted a nice red with as little as possible fade near the bolsters. I asked them to check for any blade wobble or rub. I mentioned centering as best they could get. I think that was about it. They did a great job. And did email them back to thank them.

I guess some folks buying a $50 knife would not be as concerned but us knife nuts sometimes get a bit picky.

,,,Mike in Canada

 

[cjtamu]

I start off by saying I am in Canada so it is very inconvenient and costly for me to return anything for repair or replacement.

I asked for them to give the knives a good visual check for any obvious issues. I said I wanted a nice red with as little as possible fade near the bolsters. I asked them to check for any blade wobble or rub. I mentioned centering as best they could get. I think that was about it. They did a great job. And did email them back to thank them.

I guess some folks buying a $50 knife would not be as concerned but us knife nuts sometimes get a bit picky.

,,,Mike in Canada

Nothing wrong with that. Especially if it lets you avoid dealing with the Canadian postal service!

 

[Eli Chaps]

How detailed are you when you make your inspection request? Do you give the dealer a list of specific features to check, as well as acceptable and unacceptable characteristics for each feature? Or do you just say, "Hey, make sure everything is OK before you send it to me"?
Thanks!

- GT

I figure the packaging person is probably pretty busy and probably doesn't have much time to be carefully opening boxes and carefully unwrapping the knife to make a judgement call on it's status. But, my favorite vendor does have a spot for "special instructions" I think it reads and I always type, "pick me a good one and have a great day!"

I don't know if it actually helps, but so far I've been getting some pretty fine examples.

 

[Peregrin]

I always ask the vendor to send me a good example, as it will be a gift. Specifically check for blade play and obvious defects.
I figure any knife I purchase might end up being a gift.
Asking for an inspection also implies that a problem knife is likely to be returned.
If a vendor won't do this for me, I find one that will.
I don't buy a ton of knives anymore but so far I haven't had to return anything I've purchased.

 

[cjtamu]

I figure the packaging person is probably pretty busy and probably doesn't have much time to be carefully opening boxes and carefully unwrapping the knife to make a judgement call on it's status. But, my favorite vendor does have a spot for "special instructions" I think it reads and I always type, "pick me a good one and have a great day!"

I don't know if it actually helps, but so far I've been getting some pretty fine examples.

The person inspecting it before sending to you is probably the same person that will have to unwrap and inspect it if you send it back . Might as well put in the effort on the front end!

 

[Mayonardo]

Well, by that logic, GEC, and Queen, and S&M, and Camillus, and Boker, etc. all have all made knives they shouldn't have sold. I've seen and/or own knives from those makers, and others, with flaws. You handle enough knives from any single maker, you're going to find a flawed knife. The question is, what constitutes a fatal flaw? Any QC process has to have acceptance criteria since there are few, if any, perfect knives. What some consider a fatal flaw (imperfect dye, weak springs, springs that don't sit flush in all positions, pins that aren't flush) won't matter at all to many others. Why would Case, or any other manufacturer, not sell those knives? If it winds up in the hands of someone that's bothered by that particular flaw, back it goes. For a company that produces the volume they do, I think Case's QC is remarkably good. I've yet to get a "bad" Case knife. If it ever happens, I'll send it back just like I would any other maker.

“Well, by that logic, GEC, and Queen, and S&M, and Camillus, and Boker, etc. all have all made knives they shouldn't have sold.”
Exactly. From a strict quality standpoint, they shouldn’t, but they did, most likely to meet defined profit margins. By your reasoning, it’s ok for the customer to set the boundaries of QC — if they don’t send them back, it must be ok. Therefore a maker can produce cheaper unit volumes, push them out the door with lower quality standards and hit that profit margin target. A higher percentage of lower quality knives will end up in customer hands to be put up with or in a few cases returned.

I think in the majority of instances, Case buyers are not GEC buyers. There is some overlap of course as we see on knife forums, but I feel that it is very small. I live in a town of 800. Yet, I can walk to the local hardware store and have a reasonable pick of Case knives. Great Eastern Cutlery, what’s that?

Case’s market demographic is much different than Great Eastern Cutlery’s. Yes, Case makes some fine knives. People like them and comparatively their prices are good. Yet, there are always compromises to be made. Higher production volume and lower price points equals looser quality standards overall. A production volume dependent on quality materials, extensive hand work by trained cutlers dedicated to high quality standards equals smaller market, lower volume and higher prices.

In the end it doesn’t matter really. Case has defined its market, acceptable production quality levels and profit margins and remains in business. Great Eastern Cutlery has done the same. They are different and I do not see how one can reasonably argue that, overall, Case quality is as good as Great Eastern Cutlery.

You seem to be under the mistaken belief that QC is 100% inspection. You control the product by controlling the process. Case sells a variety of knives with widely varying prices and quality. Quality is "meeting the customer's needs" which are different between say a Bose copy, to a normal production stockman to a yellow handled slim line trapper.

No, I am not.
Quality is how well a product adheres to engineering and production requirements. Meeting customer needs is a marketing goal.