Question About Case Small Stockman Patterns

J

Justin T.

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Jan 2, 2020
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Hello,

First post here, and glad to be a part of the forum.

I want to give a Case small stockman in yellow as a gift. There is some nostalgia tied to this so I want to try and get it right-the gift is meant to replicate one from the late ‘50’s or early 60’s. I’m happy to give a new one but before I do...

Can the membership advise if there were any pattern differences over time as compared to the ones made new today? Square v round bolsters? Spey blade in lieu of another? I’d like to be made aware of differences like those over time.

Thanks in advance.
 
Welcome, Justin!
Do you happen to have the knife you are trying to replicate or any pictures? I’m assuming no, since you are trying to find the right one.

Case offers, and has offered, several different stockman patterns. If you’re set on yellow, it will limit your choices of a new one. The Medium stockman, 3318, available in yellow now was also available in the years you are looking for, but so we’re other medium and small stockmen that you won’t find new today.
 
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There was also the 3318 HE in that era that had a pen blade instead of a Spey.
 
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Perhaps others more knowledgeable than I can correct me if I'm mistaken ...

I thought a "stockman" always had a clip point main blade, with a sheepsfoot and spey/budding secondaries.
Any other blades or combinations were called something else, like a "cattle knife" or "stock knife".
 
Well, 'rules' aren't set in stone as such about knife patterns, things can change or people/manufacturers misuse names of patterns.

Generally, your assumption is accurate but CASE do a very good Medium Stockman with Pen instead of Spey. GEC's 82 Dixie throws a bender at conventions sporting Californian/Turkish Clip (slimmer Clip) Wharncliffe and Drop-Point a great model. Cattle knives I THINK have an Equal End frame and Spear master. Stock Knife is just another term and often used in old catalogues.

For the OP CASE do a lot of decent bone too, worth thinking about.

Thanks, Will
 
A lot depends on which pattern you are interested in, as Case made several different patterns of small to medium stockmans.
 
Thank y’all, and sorry for the duplicate posts (it got caught in a weird loop of some sort).

I’m a person who thinks a proper stockman runs a clip main, sheepsfoot and spey on the opposite end. Like a classic Western 742 (my favorite slipjoint of all). But I thought different blade variations were tossed on under a sort of generic “stockman” umbrella.

Anyway, the knife I wish to gift would have once belonged to a rancher in our family. It has been specifically described as smaller, and the current medium pattern of 3 5/8” is too big (I have one of these for comparison). That leaves the 2 5/8” as the desired size. And lots of men in that age and time preferred that smaller size anyway. I also firmly believe this would have been a delrin-scaled knife, as it was specifically described as a yellow-handled Case.

It seems I may not need to think about this too hard. I’m guessing a new one will suffice, as I don’t think my recipient remembers details like blade configuration or whether the bolsters were square or not (squares on a knife that small don’t make sense to me, but whatever).

Edited to Add: thanks again for the welcome! Before I settle for a new one I’ll browse a bit to see what older ones I can rummage up.
 
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Not sure if you can get it new in yellow, but the 6333 is available in jigged delrin. Though another pattern carries his name, this is the pattern that Eisenhower actually carried.
 
I looked at that one, and really like the size of that pen blade. But you are right, I don’t think I can find it in yellow. Just the brown.

Here is another question-I see there are varieties without bolsters-Case made the handle run end to end on these. “Birdseye”, I think they are called? Does anyone know what timeframe those were made?

Edited: hang on. The 6333 resembles the 9547, and the 9547 appears to also carry a “3333 SS” variant. So maybe the yellow version of the 6333 is the 3333 SS?
 
The last two numbers are the pattern number. The 47 is much larger at 3 7/8”

But, yes, a first number of 3 = smooth delrin. So a 3333 would be a smooth delrin version of the 6333. I wasn’t sure if they made them.

And SS = stainless
Justin T. said:
I looked at that one, and really like the size of that pen blade. But you are right, I don’t think I can find it in yellow. Just the brown.

Here is another question-I see there are varieties without bolsters-Case made the handle run end to end on these. “Birdseye”, I think they are called? Does anyone know what timeframe those were made?

Edited: hang on. The 6333 resembles the 9547, and the 9547 appears to also carry a “3333 SS” variant. So maybe the yellow version of the 6333 is the 3333 SS?
Click to expand...
 
So, yes, if you’re looking for that 2 5/8” stockman in yellow delrin, a 3333 sounds like the way to go if you can find one.
 
The 33044 Medium Stockman was a yellow composition handled 3-1/4” “Birdseye” handled knife from the era you are searching for. I think that was the only small sized yellow handled Case Stockman from that era. OH
 
The true "Small Stockman" was three patterns. The '333, '327, and '3033 (with the ' replaced by the handle code, eg. 6333 for jigged or smooth bone or jigged synthetic, 5333 for stag, 3333 for smooth yellow synthetic).

Currently, you can get the yellow synthetic 3333 SS model from one of the large Case dealers. It is an exclusive from that one dealer. I can't link them here because they are not a supporting dealer, but you should be able to find it easily enough.

The '327 and '3033 have been discontinued. I have one of each pattern in my collection.

The 6333 in various jigged bone and jigged synthetic is readily available. It has squared bolsters. The '27 version was about the same size but had rounded bolsters. The '033 was a little bigger. It was discontinued some time ago, though they were making the '27 version until maybe 4 years ago.

There is another option, the '344 pattern (6344 generally) which is only 3 1/4" long. It is available in about 6 handle materials, and comes in CV steel in their Dark Red Bone series.

Here is a comparison photo I did a while back of the small ones:

3zN9vcc.jpg


Left to right: 6344 in Red Bone CV, 63033 in jigged brown Delrin SS, 5327 in Stag SS, 6333 in Sawcut Antique Bone SS.
 
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The above photo is snipped from a larger comparison shot with a representative of each of my Case Stockman patterns. I am missing a few (in particular, the Sowbelly, and perhaps some older patterns). Just to get a better impression of the size:

H9ndMGL.jpg
 
WOW. Thank yall very much for the added information! Looks like I have some choices to run down.
 
The only yellow handled medium stockman currently made is the 3318, and it is available in both stainless and Cr-V. The 3318 pattern dates back to before 1940, so it encompasses the date range you want.

I just looked at used 3318 and 6318 knives that are currently available on the bay, and it seems that the blade configuration has varied over the years and I don't know for certainty which would be appropriate for an exact match for the 1950s-1960s. Overall it appears that the main clip blade used to be wider, more like the blade in a 63032. And the secondaries were all over the place, with sheepsfoot, spey, pen, and punch being used.

I'm no Case expert, but that is what I could find in a brief search.
 
The stockman is my all time favorite pattern. With that said I haven't found any knife that can replace the 63032 Case I have in my pocket.(cept another 63032.)
 
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