This thread got me thinking

Dijos

Dijos

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Nov 20, 2001
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Someone wrote a "how does Victorinox do it" in terms of their low price and good quality. My question is why can't case do it? I know they are very collectible, and the're 2x+ the price of SAKs. This leads me to believe that Case should be great, or at least as good as schrade. Any thoughts?
 
Just my opinion.....

Case could probably "do it"....if they wanted to, or more important, if they HAD to....now, as things are, they sell everything they can produce, so why bother doing things any different.

Now let me make a statement that, while true, may seem irrational to some....Case is NOT in the "knife" business....nope...they don't make knives....they are not in the cutlery business at all.....
 
Not to make excuses for them. I for one would love to see some of the old quality come back.
The cost of the materials they use is higher than the materials victorinox uses. Victorinox uses celidor, aluminum, brass pins, and the stainless steel.

Case uses real bone, delrin, stag, MOP, nickel silver brass, 420, ats-34, brass, nickel silver, etc. etc. etc.
 
Victorinox has one of the most modern automated factories in the world. lots of new CNC machines that don't have Monday morning blaas or Friday afternoon not give a s--t attatudes. It's also one of the oldest still family owned companies in the knife trade.

The other is Opinel. Ditto all the above for them as well.
 
My opinion.....
Case has become a "collector's" knife. They are no longer a "user's" knife. Just because your Granddaddy's Case was great doesn't mean your's will be.

Paul
 
PWork;

That was the point I was trying to make in my post....Case does NOT make KNIVES.....Case makes COLLECTIBLES......the fact that these collectibles resemble knives is only incidental.

The laws of supply and demand that apply to knife companies do not apply to Case any more than they apply to manufacturers of Christmas tree ornaments.....

And don't believe me....Case looks at it this way themselves.....they do not make knives....

Not that I can blame them....if they had continued to make actual knives, they would be like Queen is today (a strong company that does make actual KNIVES but only about one tenth the size of Case)....or they would be gone completley.
 
Excellent point, Knifaholic. I could not agree more about Case making collectibles, rather than knives.
Phil
 
What would be nice, is to see Case use some of that small supply of nice stag they just got and pair it up with their more than adequate Chrome Vandadium steel. Not gonna happen, but it's a nice thought.
 
I am very sad also about the direction the case knives have gone in, in the last 12-13yrs?

I notice now when I look at the backsprings on their trappers, the springs are not finished well. You can see bad grind lines going down the springs following the length. Bad enough to catch your finger nails in. To me personally if you are making collector knives than I would think you would want to have good "fit and finish", but I guess that is not a concern to them now?
 
What about Bose/Case knives, collector, or quality user at a high end price?

Schrade tried it look where they are :eek: .

Spyderco and BM do it, collaborations shouldn't make the knife more collectible, it should take a quality knife and make it fancier, but without the collaboration the knife company and knife quality should stand alone, don't ya think?

Another thought, unions, nothing can ruin a quality product faster than 5 people gettin' paid the same money for the same job regardless of their competency to do the job at the same level of expertise.

JMHO
 
The cranberry bone handled copperlock took a nice shaving edge, and nothing seems wrong with the fit and finish at all.
The complaints about Case seem to relate more to poor quality control than poor design.
As far as the steel quality goes, I don't cut enough things to give a valid comment on that ............ but it did take a really long session on the sharpmaker to get a shaving edge on it
So the steel certainly seems to be hard enough.
 
I do not think designs have ever been called into question, the 420, and the poor "f &f" of many of the knives have.
 
Did Case become unionized just recently, or were the good old knives also produced with union labor?
 
Why the crack on unions? If you live in america you trust your life to a union made car every day. Even the hondas and toyotas are made in US or canada by union labor. If you enjoy a reasonable work week with vacation, medical benifits, sick days and disability...you can thank the union movement.

Why do you all love to bash case? They are not just a "collectors" knife. They are sold in hardware stores and walmarts all over the country to real people who use them every day. I've bought 3 as presents in the last two years and every one has been in good shape with fine fit and finish. Don't forget you can get a particular pattern in a wide variety of price points and the quality will also vary, but that's just business.
 
Personally, I do not feel anyone likes to bash Case, not that I am aware of? I think many of us are dissapointed with the quality of Case knives in the last 15+ years, even more so lately.

When you have a considerable number of people having the same problems, its a chronic problem! The "fit and finish" on many of the ones I have seen, is not very good. Queen has problems with some of theirs, but overall theirs is good. When you match poor "F & F" with 420, you get a knife that is "so, so". I remember the days when case made some outstanding quality of knives.

This is not bashing only speaking the truth. I think we all would like to see case produce the quality they use too. I still buy Case from time to time, but I usually have to really pick through to find a decent one (that I find acceptable).


Unions are good. I think T. Erdelyi is more refering how some people who do poor quality work are protected by unions.
 
Having lived near the Case plant and some of the other legendary Case related towns I found the lure of Case collectables to be exhilerating. I started in 1972 and massed a nice collection. In 1995 I sold nearly all of my Case related collection because of my dislike of the knives they were producing. Everyone wanted Case and few realized that it seemed to be another collection fade like beanie babies. I then decided that Pennsylvania related pocket knives would be the focus of my collection and still is. I am not interested in a anything Case does now as far as collectables. I look for old knives that have character and quality. I am not bashing Case, they are a company that has bills to pay. If newbies choose to support them, that is great. As for me, I am not interested anymore unless the sitaution changes and I don't think that it will. I am nearly embarassed as to some of the combinations that have been invented in order to lure the knife purchase. I mean, give them an event, name or date and they build a trapper with a nice box and stamp it limited edition. Come on folks what are we stupid. :mad: Last week at Walmart I looked at a big display of Winchester knives, "at least that is what the blade was painted" :barf: cheap knives bent on using a great name to sell them. Oh they will sell, and the drawers of the buyers will be filled with junk. I for one am only interested something made to last. Just my 2 cents :grumpy:
 
I have to agree. There are some many "limited editions" out there you cannot go to a knife show without getting a break from "one table to another". There are just too many of them out there. The funny thing is that limited editions are only as valuable to the person seeking them. Also when you consider there are a "ton" of them out there, they cease to be so "limited".

Ive seen the chinese winchesters at wally world also, very dissapointing. Its cheap cutlery like this that has been running american made cutlery in the dirt (like schrade, etc.). I still have some of the old winchesters made by bluegrass, that was quality!

Personally, I like to use some of the schrades and the queen knives when it comes to hard use. There are many good ones out there still, but the market is flooded with junk for the most part.
 
I am headed to Columbus OH on Thursday for the big dog show. I bet I won't find one remington dog stripping knife there. I yearn for the good old days. See ya
 
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