Well, I'm back and the trip exceeded all my expectations. The ride from here to Bradford was great, it was a perfect spring day for a ride through the countryside of western Steuben, NY and Allegany counties, its some beautiful country and must be absolutly infested with deer and turkeys. When we got to Bradford, I had to stop and get directions to the visitors center, Bradford is a old town and is kinda sprawled out on 2 sides of a river with a highway bisecting the town. After getting my bearings, we arrived at the visitors center at about 11 am.
When I walked into the place, I was almost overloaded from the start. BIG knife displays are all over the place, along with the clothing and Zippo displays. The Case OCC chopper sits right in the middle of the floor, WOW, its a serious piece of heavy metal, very cool. We wandered around for a few minutes and then decided to take the museum tour. I can't describe the whole tour here, but I'll hit the highlights.
The wall sized US flag made out of Zippo lighters is a amazing piece of Americana, maybe the most interesting thing on display. Has to be seen to be appreciated.
The old Case knife displays will make you drool, some of the examples are incredible. There is a large "bananna" trapper pattern hobo knife in MOP that nearly made my knees weak. Probably the knife I liked most though was a tested era medium sized cigar whittler with greenbone(I think)that looked like it would be a perfect edc.
A 130 piece trapper collection donated to the museum by a collector who passed away before it could be displayed. A amazing collection of trappers.
Theres alot of history here, in the Zippo displays there are letters from Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Adm. Halsey, and Ernie Pyle among others, thanking the Zippo corp. for the lighters thay sent them. Also alot of stories from GI's from Vietnam and WW2 about their Zippo's. Its very educational and moving to read some of these letters and accounts.
Overall, the museum is larger than I expected and chockfull of stuff, it'll be worth a second visit because I'm sure that I missed some stuff. Go if you can, its worth the effort.
Now for the knives! I was there, with hundreds of different models to checkout, some for the first time, the most Case knives I've ever seen at once. So what did I pick?
My choices may surprise you, but I guess its just a reflection of my personality:
32087CV yellow derlin pen knife.
3375CV yellow derlin large stockman.
You must be saying: No fancy bone models! No Case selects! No limited editions! He must be crazy.
I'm not crazy, I've just decided to focus on collecting only CV models for the present and I've been eye
ing these 2 for a while. Don't worry, the knives themselves are great. The pen model is just the right size for edc and I touched it up it took a razor edge. I'm really impressed with the large stockman, some folks like to say Case doesn't make working knives anymore, after wrapping my hand around this knife I say nonsense. Its a true working knife, big enough to handle any chore that, including using it as a hunting knife, that you would use a folder for. At 4 and 1/4 inches long and with a hefty construction, its all the slipjoint most folks could need, I'm impressed and thats coming from a guy that thinks the Schrade 8OT is the benchmark for a working SJ. I also picked up a Case hat and a coffee mug and got the wife a nice Zippo slimline lighter. A nice haul, if I do say so.
On the way back we also stopped at the Cutco/Ka-bar visitors center in Olean, NY. Its smaller than the Case store, but also has alot of history and some nice exhibits. I hate to say it, but they had the the nicest exhibit of old knives that I saw in a whole day of them. It is a collection of dogs head stag folders from the 50's-70's that will blow your socks off. In particular was a pair of jumbo jacks in stag which are the prettiest knives I've ever seen, and thats saying alot after just coming from Bradford.Ka-bar doesn't make anything like these anymore, which is a crying shame. As a side note, I was going to buy my wife a couple of Cutco paring knives and a new kitchen ladle from the open stock, but I did'nt. They wanted 30$ for a ladle and 40$ apiece for the paring knives, which we both thought was unreasonable, considering that it was obvious they were of stamped construction. I think I embarressed my wife by leaving them on the counter after asking for them.
So there's the story, a great and educational day, perfect way to spend my birthday, and even my wife had a good time, she's great by the way, I even think she's becoming interested in my hobby, a little anyways.
If anyone has some questions about anything, fire away, I'll tell you what I know.
When I walked into the place, I was almost overloaded from the start. BIG knife displays are all over the place, along with the clothing and Zippo displays. The Case OCC chopper sits right in the middle of the floor, WOW, its a serious piece of heavy metal, very cool. We wandered around for a few minutes and then decided to take the museum tour. I can't describe the whole tour here, but I'll hit the highlights.
The wall sized US flag made out of Zippo lighters is a amazing piece of Americana, maybe the most interesting thing on display. Has to be seen to be appreciated.
The old Case knife displays will make you drool, some of the examples are incredible. There is a large "bananna" trapper pattern hobo knife in MOP that nearly made my knees weak. Probably the knife I liked most though was a tested era medium sized cigar whittler with greenbone(I think)that looked like it would be a perfect edc.
A 130 piece trapper collection donated to the museum by a collector who passed away before it could be displayed. A amazing collection of trappers.
Theres alot of history here, in the Zippo displays there are letters from Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Adm. Halsey, and Ernie Pyle among others, thanking the Zippo corp. for the lighters thay sent them. Also alot of stories from GI's from Vietnam and WW2 about their Zippo's. Its very educational and moving to read some of these letters and accounts.
Overall, the museum is larger than I expected and chockfull of stuff, it'll be worth a second visit because I'm sure that I missed some stuff. Go if you can, its worth the effort.
Now for the knives! I was there, with hundreds of different models to checkout, some for the first time, the most Case knives I've ever seen at once. So what did I pick?
My choices may surprise you, but I guess its just a reflection of my personality:
32087CV yellow derlin pen knife.
3375CV yellow derlin large stockman.
You must be saying: No fancy bone models! No Case selects! No limited editions! He must be crazy.
I'm not crazy, I've just decided to focus on collecting only CV models for the present and I've been eye
ing these 2 for a while. Don't worry, the knives themselves are great. The pen model is just the right size for edc and I touched it up it took a razor edge. I'm really impressed with the large stockman, some folks like to say Case doesn't make working knives anymore, after wrapping my hand around this knife I say nonsense. Its a true working knife, big enough to handle any chore that, including using it as a hunting knife, that you would use a folder for. At 4 and 1/4 inches long and with a hefty construction, its all the slipjoint most folks could need, I'm impressed and thats coming from a guy that thinks the Schrade 8OT is the benchmark for a working SJ. I also picked up a Case hat and a coffee mug and got the wife a nice Zippo slimline lighter. A nice haul, if I do say so.
On the way back we also stopped at the Cutco/Ka-bar visitors center in Olean, NY. Its smaller than the Case store, but also has alot of history and some nice exhibits. I hate to say it, but they had the the nicest exhibit of old knives that I saw in a whole day of them. It is a collection of dogs head stag folders from the 50's-70's that will blow your socks off. In particular was a pair of jumbo jacks in stag which are the prettiest knives I've ever seen, and thats saying alot after just coming from Bradford.Ka-bar doesn't make anything like these anymore, which is a crying shame. As a side note, I was going to buy my wife a couple of Cutco paring knives and a new kitchen ladle from the open stock, but I did'nt. They wanted 30$ for a ladle and 40$ apiece for the paring knives, which we both thought was unreasonable, considering that it was obvious they were of stamped construction. I think I embarressed my wife by leaving them on the counter after asking for them.
So there's the story, a great and educational day, perfect way to spend my birthday, and even my wife had a good time, she's great by the way, I even think she's becoming interested in my hobby, a little anyways.
If anyone has some questions about anything, fire away, I'll tell you what I know.
