Case produced a lot of jack patterns with the pen blade on the pile side. The 6220 peanut and the 6232 Texas Jack being a couple more common ones. Ease of manufacture is certainly one reason - with the pen on the mark side, you have to make sure that you can properly access the main blade nick (and indeed, most old jacks have a cut swedge on the back side of the pen to give just that bit of extra room to access the main blade nick). Also, for many jack patterns, it's still just plain awkward to access the main blade nick over the pen, regardless of long pulls and swedging -- so Case may have been balancing ease of access (and freedom of nail nick size and placement) of the main blade against a bit more awkward access to the pen (plus, lefties had to love them). Case often dropped the pen down low and used a nail ease notch on many of their patterns with a pile side pen (like both of the above patterns) -- so they saved work in one way but added it in another. (I love patterns with nail ease notches - the notch actually works as an index so I don't have to look or feel around when accessing the pen nick. It's also nice for pen blades since it means the pen is lower in the liners (or can be made so), so it's much less likely to have the point come up over the liners as the pen is sharpened down over time.)
To me, the ultimate combination for a jack is to have both nicks on the mark side and to have the pen dropped down to be accessed by a nail ease notch - getting it out of the way of the main blade nick and making it "disappear" into the handle when using the main blade (plus it's a great detail). Here are a few very nice patterns that do this:
One of my favorite patterns - an equal end jack with both an EZOpen notch and a nail ease notch - first is a Schrade Cut Co, second is a Shapleigh Diamond Edge (made by Schrade Cut Co no doubt):
Now a couple of old Robeson script ShurEdge PocketEze patterns (note that one of the primary design characteristics of the old PocketEze patterns was fully sunk joints). First a couple of reverse doglegs, then an equal end jack:
If you want pictures of the Case patterns also, or some more like those above, just let me know.
-- Dwight
To me, the ultimate combination for a jack is to have both nicks on the mark side and to have the pen dropped down to be accessed by a nail ease notch - getting it out of the way of the main blade nick and making it "disappear" into the handle when using the main blade (plus it's a great detail). Here are a few very nice patterns that do this:
One of my favorite patterns - an equal end jack with both an EZOpen notch and a nail ease notch - first is a Schrade Cut Co, second is a Shapleigh Diamond Edge (made by Schrade Cut Co no doubt):
Now a couple of old Robeson script ShurEdge PocketEze patterns (note that one of the primary design characteristics of the old PocketEze patterns was fully sunk joints). First a couple of reverse doglegs, then an equal end jack:
If you want pictures of the Case patterns also, or some more like those above, just let me know.
-- Dwight
I was beginnng to think I was the only 1 who didn't flip the knife around to open a blade with a pile side pull. Like you, I just "reach over" with either my index or middle finger to get the blade started. This way it doesn't matter which way the knife comes out of my pocket. If the knife is facing the pile side when I dig it out of my pocket, and I want to use the main blade then I just "reach over" again.
