Okay. What's up with you guys and Case knives?

B

Big Ugly Tall Texan

Joined
Jan 27, 2006
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107
The only knife I ever saw my father carry was a three bladed Case large stockman with yellow grips. He always kept it shaving sharp and always used only the main blade for cutting. He would sharpen it until it got down to the size and shape of an ice pick. Then he would give it to me or one of my brothers and buy a new one. That was back in the good old days when knives were made of carbon steel and not that modern stainless crap.

I can't begin to count the number of deer, squirrels, ducks, and other assorted game animals I have seen my father skin and/or gut with that knife. Or the nujmber of bull calves that had their minds turned from a... to grass by one of those knives. They never broke and he never had to stop to sharpen them in the middle of a job.

Today, I carry two Case knives... a sobuster and a single blade locker. They do whatever job I need them to do with no trouble... although I don't use the nearly as much or as hard as my father used his knives.

I trust Case knives.

Yet, I have read some of you guys bacmouting Case. Has the quality of the knives changed since the 50 and 60s when I was growing up, or do some of you guys just naturally look down on a knife that doesn't cost at least two days work.
 
I think that most of the people on this board just are not into traditional folders, so Case doesn't get that much talk. From most of the stuff that I have seen on the traditional board though, Case is still reletively well respected.

I cannot however comment on thier quality now as opposed to 30 or 40 years ago.

Some Case models are still available in carbon steel too, if that is what you are looking for.
 
The last Case knife I got was a gift from my wife, probably about three or four years ago. It's a small single blade folder with the little flipper and a blue jigged bone handle. It's a cute knife and the materials look to be first rate but the liner lock doesn't make contact with the blade when it's open ( the lock is too short) and it has a lot of play. I really should have sent it back when I got it , but it' s one of those things I meant to do but never did.

I'm always tempted to try another one , especially whenever I see those sod busters in the hardware store. They're still relatively cheap.
 
I think that they would be more popular if they offered better blade-steel in their knives.

I think that they also tend to be rather expensive for what you get.
 
As I see it, Case is quite costly for the knife you end up with. Hmmm... let me see...

Queen Cattle King stockman, D2, jigged bone or a Case mystery steel UV purple bone one?
 
The few new ones that I have seen had (in my mind) poor quality control- the blades were too loose for my liking, handle scales not flush with liners, and all of them had burrs on the edge new in box. For the price I can get a good folder with pocket clip (most necessary for me when EDCing)
I just feel that there are better knives on the market for the price.
Only my opinion on a few that I have handled.
 
I got into case knives in the late 70's and continued to use them until the late 80's. My complaint with case is that while the knives I've had are always put together very well and are attractive the blade steel seems to vary from knife to knife. Also as the years went by they seemed to come out of the box duller and duller. My first case could and did, in fact, cut you long and deep right out of the box{I was a little careless} the last case I bought was a mini trapper with red bone scales that, out of the box, would not cut hot butter on a very warm day, in the sun, in a sauna. One of my favorite knife patterns is the full size trapper with yellow scales, with the chrome vanadium steel. I never had any luck with case stainless steel. the full size trapper is just about the perfect knife. It's big enough without being too big. plus the sheeple don't get unduly upset when it is dug out of your pocket. Also I think it's typical for people to think that knives, cars, everything was better "back in the day" anyway I'll say this your dad knew his knives. later ahgar

by the way I used to work on an ambulance and it never failed whenever we picked up an older gentleman he almost always had a yellow handled knife of some description in his pocket. I guess it was just a standard.
 
Case's reputation took a nose dive some time back because of QC issues. They seem to have cleaned up their act lately. I purchased a red bone CV baby butterbean recently and, overall, I'm quite pleased with it. Fit and finish are pretty good (no gaps or rough spots), walk and talk are crisp, and while there's a little bit of blade rub, it's not bad.

With all due respect to AllenC, when you consider the number of parts that must be fitted properly on a multi-blade slipjoint and the amount of labor involved, $43 is very reasonable for this knife.
 
What is it about modern stainless steel that makes you call it crap?

Just because it is different than what you grew up using? Isn't that pretty sad?

Since ZDP-189 can outcut and outlast any carbon steel, you might want to rethink calling stainless steel "junk". Unless by "junk" you mean "it's different and scares my small mind".
 
I carry a Case knife or two on a regular basis because they were gifts from my father, but overall I'm in the camp that believes their quality (from the 1980's to present) is nothing to write home about.

When I first got my Cheetah, the blade didn't close far enough & I cut my thumb on the tip retrieving it from my pocket. I used it on a possum, and the edge rippled and rolled quite a bit worse than I expected. I had reprofiled it thinner for good cutting, but the steel was too soft to take it. Then the swing guard fell off. It's not a solid rivet; but rather a two piece rivet held together by friction only. Their cheap tumble polish assures that we will never again see crisp grind lines on their regular production stuff.

I carried a Sharktooth on the farm for about two years. The locking notch got so worn I could no longer trust the lock. The thing was so lousy at holding a decent edge I had to sharpen it all the time, until the blade was not the same shape any more- I had probably sharpened about 1/4" of steel from the edge. Then I broke it.

I collected damascus bladed Case knives for a while. Blades rubbed together, and did not snap open and closed. There were gaps between the handle material and shield inlays. Blades were fitted improperly so that they wouldn't open all the way or close all the way. Aside from aesthetics, there were more serious quality issues. The edges were overheated during sharpening on most of them, so that the tips were blue. Instead of peening the rivets on top of the handle material, they were peened down inside the hole, which puts pressure inside the material instead of just holding it to the handle. The result is that many of them now have have splits and cracks spreading throughout the handles. Pivot pins were installed crooked so that there are odd gaps between the blades and handles.

I could go on, especially if I included others experiences. These are just a few of my own.
 
Hair said:
What is it about modern stainless steel that makes you call it crap?

Just because it is different than what you grew up using? Isn't that pretty sad?

Since ZDP-189 can outcut and outlast any carbon steel, you might want to rethink calling stainless steel "junk". Unless by "junk" you mean "it's different and scares my small mind".
Click to expand...
You're making a lot of assumptions. It's Case's "Tru-Sharp" stainless steel that many people have a problem with, not stainless steel itself.

Edit: sorry, I realize now you were referring specifically to a statement by BigUglyTallTexan
 
I have a few copperlocks in stainless, and the fit and finish look fine. I only sharpened one of them, a cranberry scaled wharncliff copperlock. It was quite dull out of the box, and took an inordinate amount of time to get sharp (using only a sharpmaker), but it seems to hold the edge fine.
And it didn't take any less time to sharpen the SS S&M barlow I bought, which had an even duller edge out of the box.
I can't comment on how the edge would hold up for someone that cuts rope or cardboard all day long every day, but for light to average use the one I use works fine. The edge certainly holds up scads better than the edge on my chive, The chive got as dull as a butter knife after opening 2 dozen boxes last time I moved, and spent a year laying in a drawer because it wouldn't take an edge again.
 
I think that a lot of the case "problem" is that Case used to be a golden standard. The quality went down, case reinvented itself as a "collector's item", and still, qc was patchy. I think that they have some great offerings; but do I need a stockman in 62 different colors? No. They may be riding on their former reputation-everybody's heard of case. Queen, otoh, is a company that I had never heard of, and I have only their current quality by which to judge the knife.
 
ZDP-189 is fairly rare compared to the crappier stainless steels in folders. It was a blanket statement, but comeon now I think he realizes that there are crappy carbon steels too.
 
Case is a brand that trades on it's name and fond remebrances now, much like Henckels, Wilkinson Sword, etc.....

They can put out a fine knife when they want to, but quality control is spotty.
 
Forty years ago I got my first case A two bladed Texas jack that my mom found it in a hotel room. Carried it for 20 some odd years and put it through a lot then rotated it out. I just reciently picked up a small stockman yellow handle which I was quite suprised at the quality. Currently SAK's and Spyderco's are my EDC's I will rotate the cases back in in a little while. Good dependable knifes.

Here is a pick

HPIM0699.jpg
 
errrr...

I've heard lotsa folks aren't big fans of modern case knives because of the...ahem...."crappy" stainless steel blades they use these days....:rolleyes: Not to say that all stainless is bad, but in the case of Case...yeah, it sucks.

That's among the reasons I won't own one, inspite of growing up with them. That and the QC has long since gone out the window.

A name is just a name. just cause it says Case on it don't mean it's the same knife your pappy used.
 
I have quite a few case knives. I think the newer ones say from 2000 and up are of a better quality overall than the knives made from the 70's through the 90's. of course the older ,pre1970s knives were of superb quality but I'm not going to use an antique. I don't like their stainless steel though, it seems tough to sharpen and dont hold up so good compared to the Chrome vanadium.
 
Well, I just don't see myself carrying a knife just 'cause that's all my Dad ever carried...but I'll keep it mind when I ever run into a bull calf needin' a fixin'...Hell if that's the case, why not just get a straight razor, cause that's what my grampy used to take care of the pigs.:rolleyes::p
 
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