Quality of modern Case knives

[JM2]

Grabbed a random handful of Case knives from my drawer.
As you can see, the handle slabs are all even side-to-side, blades are well centered, blade stock is typical for the style, and I can guarantee you the blades are sharp and there is no blade play. Yes, there are small liner gaps... full disclosure.

View attachment 1889821

What are 4&5?

 

[JM2]

Case can and does make good knives. It would be nice to see them step up the quality control and attention to detail. Just ordered a few swell center jacks, fingers crossed.

Glad you got a good Peanut K.Coper, careful they tend to multiply.

The one I had never did, but it was old... maybe the multiplier was on the fritz.

Guess I’ll have to get a newer version and see what happens.

 

[JohnDF]

What are 4&5?

Those are both Large Texas Jacks.

 

[Alex.Y.]

Post #33, shown below, sorry I'm not good at quoting posts. How can you speak of Case quality, sharpening, etc. w/o owning them? You're just a hater?

Whithout owning? Read again what I've said previously.

So, Alex.Y. then it's YOU that needs to stop buying Case knives from wherever you've been buying them.

I got them from different places. I only buy them occasionally (as I said above), and seems like there will be no opportunity in the nearst future, so you can relax, I suppose.

I also reserve the right to buy whatever I want and to leave objective comments on the items I've bought.

Grabbed a random handful of Case knives from my drawer.
As you can see, the handle slabs are all even side-to-side, blades are well centered, blade stock is typical for the style, and I can guarantee you the blades are sharp and there is no blade play. Yes, there are small liner gaps... full disclosure.

It's either you are lucky or I am unlucky with Case. Why people call me a "Case hater"? It's just all Case knives I have have flaws like some RR, a fact. If I hated them I'd rather forget about them and don't visit Case threads.

But what whould you expect from lighter company taking over cutlery company, right?

 

[Bloodloss]

I feel like Case is hard to beat for user knives. I keep coming back to them after looking at everything else out there. Yeah, I wish they did some things differently.
It would be great if they had a custom shop where you could pick the pattern, covers, steel and badge of your choice and expect it to be executed well. I would easily pay 2-3x regular price and wait a year for it.

 

[JohnDF]

Why people call me a "Case hater"?

I guess it's comments like "their blades are too thick" or "it takes a lot of work to sharpen them" that send that signal to people.
Their blade stock thickness seems pretty typical amongst traditional knives, and being that they are almost all hollow ground, the comment seems disingenuous. Then there is the fact that Case does not use a hard steel on their knives, which actually makes them easier to sharpen, not harder. You certainly have a right to your opinion though, and I realize that receiving bad examples leaves bad feelings from the purchase. Maybe actually showing some examples of the problems would help people understand better.

 

[Alex.Y.]

I guess it's comments like "their blades are too thick" or "it takes a lot of work to sharpen them" that send that signal to people.

Where I said anything about thickness? I said

have you seen the width of their blades? What's more annoying is trying to sharpen them good without grinding off too much so they won't look like years of use or something.

Width, man, width. Not enough of it to totally resharpen without making them look grinded down. And yes, for sure it is easy to sharpen them, that is why it is annoying - to balance the width and the sharpness.

English is not my mother tongue so I am sorry if I expressed incorrectly somewhere. By width I mean that vertical space from the spine right down to the cutting edge. Please correct me with a right term if that's the wrong one. Maybe heigh?

 

[JohnDF]

Width, man, width. Not enough of it to totally resharpen without making them look grinded down. And yes, for sure it is easy to sharpen them, that is why it is annoying - to balance the width and the sharpness.

That makes more sense. Thanks for the clarification.
But still, Case blades come in many different widths, some very narrow and some very wide.

 

[hornetguy]

Sorry, that was a confusing post... my bad.
So, Alex.Y. then it's YOU that needs to stop buying Case knives from wherever you've been buying them.

NO CASE KNIVES FOR YOU!!!!

 

[GmpaJim]

It’s interesting to read peoples critiques. Something to ponder.
I worked at Case. (for about 15 min.) Mass production is still highly dependent on hand process. It is an art form. No two machines preform the same. No two makers use those machines with the same touch.
I see lack of uniformity as warm and human. To much precision can be uninteresting (unless it’s a Marine Drill Team)
Design, of course is another view point.

 

[AdamFuzzyballs]

The tip could be a little pointier, maybe a pinned shield would be a nice bonus, and yeah there’s a slight hairline gap in the springs, but as far as I can tell this has still been an excellent traditional knife.

Case is made to use, despite what they might tell the collectors.

 

[JPD1998]

The last Case knife I bought is the Panama in the picture. I think it was made in 2022.

I bought it as a user and to me it's nearly perfect. But I read all the comments here and went over the knife again.

The back springs do have slight gaps , but I didn't notice it until I just held it up to the light. The scales are perfect, the blade grinds too.
The biggest nit pick is that both blades have a slight wiggle in the open position. But again, I didn't notice it until now.
All in all at $79 it's a good knife at that price.

As a few mentioned I'd love it if the shields were pinned.

 

[brownshoe]

Whithout owning? Read again what I've said previously.

I got them from different places. I only buy them occasionally (as I said above), and seems like there will be no opportunity in the nearst future, so you can relax, I suppose.

I also reserve the right to buy whatever I want and to leave objective comments on the items I've bought.


It's either you are lucky or I am unlucky with Case. Why people call me a "Case hater"? It's just all Case knives I have have flaws like some RR, a fact. If I hated them I'd rather forget about them and don't visit Case threads.

But what whould you expect from lighter company taking over cutlery company, right?

Your comments are certainly not "objective" since most others have indicated you are incorrect about Case quality. Why buy them if you think they are poor qualiity?

The Bose collaborations are the world leaders in traditional patterned cutlery, that's what I expect from a cutlery company. Zippo reversed the damage done by the knife industry giant Parker. We cutlery lovers are lucky Zippo bought them.

 

[Alex.Y.]

you are incorrect about Case quality

I am correct about quality of those that I have. I never said "all Case are bad", I said "all Case I have are bad".

Why buy them if you think they are poor qualiity?

As I already said, only buy occasionally hoping for good. I don't constantly buy loads of them.

Zippo reversed the damage done by the knife industry giant Parker.

I was unaware of that. Can you suggest some reading about that? Or maybe could briefly tell yourself?

 

[TwistedHollow]

I bought a new case back pocket Barehead online. The fit and finish was great with one exception was the blade centering was so off it was rubbing against the liner when closing. I sent it in to be warrantied and they fixed it with no issue. The one they sent back was covered in grease and needed cleaned up but I appreciate them warranting it.

 

[GmpaJim]

Disclosure: I’m not a diehard Case fan. I love knives in general. So I’m not waving the Zippo / Case flag.
Quality? At the end of the day, they’re mass produced products. You decide from there, if it’s a fit for you.
But…I have to say, Zippo’s purchase of Case was to keep the brand local, employing people. It’s always been about the community.
I’m not sure how J. Parker had things wrong, but will tell a personal story.
We did seasonal service (mowing & plowing) Mr. Parker wasn’t paying. In lieu, he gave my Dad the unnumbered “prototype set“ for the 1989 Centennial Set. They hung behind his bar for years.
We gave the knives, on loan, to the museum. Case restored and reframed the collection and displayed it.
I join this forum, and one of the first things I read is..Case produced unnumbered Centennial knives for sale outside the numbered collections. Since I have all the boxes, I’m now believing there was NO “prototype set” and we were given 100 Centennial knives.
The good news is, I doubt, there are many unnumbered, complete, Centennial Sets.
The point is, I suspect a lie.
Sorry about the pics. The collection is down for cleaning.

 

[Alex.Y.]

I’m now believing there was NO “prototype set” and we were given 100 Centennial knives.

Maybe for the time they've been given they were prototypes? Well, misinformation is not a good thing, but I'd say 100 knives is a solid gift anyway.

 

[JohnDF]

I'd say 100 knives is a solid gift anyway.

I agree, what a great collection.

 

[Wild Willie]

I agree, what a great collection.

It's cool, but as someone who plows snow and whatnot, cash is definitely better. They don't accept case knives at the mechanics shop or filling station.

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

It's cool, but as someone who plows snow and whatnot, cash is definitely better. They don't accept case knives at the mechanics shop or filling station.

Seems they were also lied to about the rarity of the bartered goods.

Neat collection none the less.