the humble CASE knife.

a while back, i flew to visit my parents. my stepdad was terminal..and spending time with them was a priority. flying, i had to leave all my EDC choices at home. i was carrying on my luggage. no benchmades, no Sogs..nothing.

i feel naked without a knife. like what would i do if i found an avocado that needed opening? the horrors. my stepdad pulled out this cardboard box and said..pick one. the box was full of random stuff. mostly dime store junk. rusted out no-name blades. but what caught my eye was a Case knife. i picked it up. it was heavy and dense for it's size. dull as all get out..butter knife dull. i ran it over a old arkansas stone he had..it just felt "right"..i got a working edge on it and just used it normal. oranges, hang nails,, checking the doneness of a steak fireside, ..boxes..letters. it was pretty nice.

when i tossed it back in the box, he said to keep it. i was going home and could care less if my bag got lost, so i checked in my pack. in it was the CASE. it is slowly growing on me. if i have troubles at work, i find myself rubbing the scales to help me think. countless avocados have been sliced. harvesting fruit from trees..done!! not all knife openings need to happen with a theatrical CLICK!

my stepdad has passed and i am so glad i have this small reminder of him. i recently sent it to CASE for a cleaning and a sharpening. i just cant get it that sharp. i got it back today. they cleaned it up like new!!! it is sharper than i could ever do..(not shaving sharp )..it is fantastic. i'm a fan of case knives. i might even order another one. my wife loves this one, and always sneaks it off into her purse. Case has wonderful customer service.

here it is. anyone else?

I too have loved and had many Case knives over the years. As a 10 year old boy working on the farm.. A CASE Folder was my first Christmas gift from the farmer and his wife. ( great people whop I learned more from then I may ever really know) God Bless them. And like your step dad. Both are passed. and yet still close to my heart. Its because of this that I think I really learned the value of a good knife/cutting tool. and fueled my passion and obsession for sharp and pointy And every year I would get a case folder this happened for many years until I grew older and moved away as a young man.

Your knife sounds and now looks awesome. and CASE is overall a great company.

Thanks for sharing the story and the picture.

Great story.


I too love my case (1960's.) Litterely never leaves my pocket. My grandfather gave it to me when I was a kid, and if full of memories. The middle blade, even though had a broken tip, gets the sharpest of any knife I own or have sharpened.

How did you go about sending it to case? I would love to have this one cleaned up. Was it expensive, and what was the turn around like?

It was free. Took them two weeks. Yours looks like carbon steel?

I have my dad's old one as my edc. looks just like yours. I dropped it a couple of weeks ago and cracked the bone scales and was thinking about sending it in for a refurb. what's the process if I may ask?

Yeah it's carbon. Has that perma-ODC-patina from years of use.

S-

i emailed them. they quickly emailed back telling me that cleaning and sharpening was free. they sent me a link (that i deleted)..i think i read there is a nominal charge for actual repairs. very painless.

now that i know, i wont hesitate to buy a used on at any antique store. i've seen them occasionally..i want a high carbon one like j's.

My grandfather has carried a Case stockman his entire life. About 30 years ago he saw all the stainless steel blades Case was releasing and grew worried that they would completely replace the carbon blades so he bought a few carbon stockmans to keep as gifts for all his grandsons he would have (none of us were born yet). I was the oldest grandson and on my 13th birthday he gave me two knives: a new stainless stockman that I could carry without worry and a brand new carbon stockman that he had kept oiled and wrapped in newspaper since before I had even been born. He repeated this tradition with his next three grandsons. Like an idiot, I misplaced that stainless Case he gave me, but I still have the carbon knife he gave me and its still unused. I'm still torn between leaving it unused to and carrying it every now and then and giving it some use.

kyle..can you please post up a pic?

i am gonna buy a carbon one and send it in..i have a love for all things carbon.

my first knife cut. remember it like yesterday. yellow scales, on a high carbon Case knife. i shot a BB into my granddad's old shovel handle. opps. he had just given me a that case carbon knife. i opened it and tried to pry out the BB, and ditch the evidence. i didnt snap off the tip, but i did manage to close the blade on my thumb. i think i was nine. i screamed. mom took the knife from me, gave it back to her dad..and confiscated my daisy BB gun. it was NOT a good day. never saw that knife ever again.

let the search begin! i think i am old enough now to not close a knife on my thumb. i think.

I'll try to pull it out of the box its stored in in the next couple days to snap a pic. It still looks new.

Nice stories, nice thread.

My grandfather was a knife collector. I don't think most of them were fancy. He lived halfway across the country, so I didn't see him that often. But when we did see him, he'd always have some knives with him, and my brothers and I got to pick one or two that we wanted. I've still got a few of them, and some good memories--it was always fun to look at all the different ones, pull out the blades, and look at the various blade shapes.

(And of course now I have a knife obsession!)

boomchakabowwow said:

let the search begin! i think i am old enough now to not close a knife on my thumb. i think.

Click to expand...

don't you believe it, I just did that a few months ago, for no good reason.lol

Here is my carbon steel Case stockman that my grandpa gave me. I looked it up and its dated 1983 and still looks brand new. The blade on the left still has "for flesh only" stamped on it! I think I'm going to save this one in pristine condition and buy a single blade modern Case to carry, maybe a Texas toothpick; I almost cut myself trying to close one of the blades with all three of them open. :dazed:

kyle. that is stunning!! is the handle black?

i think that is made from Case surgical stainless. the small blade will have a 4 digit number and end with either an SS (stainless surgical, the call it some trendy name i forget) or VC, for valadium cadmium.

case sent a catalog back with my knife..fun read.

How did you go about sendin it back. I'm really considering it for mine. There is gunk in places I can't get out (wow, that sounded really bad, lol) and would love to have it really cleaned up

Nice. My dad has dozens of old Case, Shrade, and Buck pocket knives, each one nicer than the last. I've got an old Camillus that I found in my grandmother's chicken coop in the '70s -- noy sure which uncle left in there decades before that. It takes an unbelievable edge -- super sharp. It mostly lives in my desk drawer, and opens mail, though.

Really nice story! Thanks.

When I was a kid, I ran around with a case knife. A double blade with a spear point and whatever the other broken blade used to be. I cut so much stuff with that knife that the spear blade was wore down to an awl looking thing about 3/16" wide. Those are good memories.......

boomchakabowwow said:

kyle. that is stunning!! is the handle black?

i think that is made from Case surgical stainless. the small blade will have a 4 digit number and end with either an SS (stainless surgical, the call it some trendy name i forget) or VC, for valadium cadmium.

case sent a catalog back with my knife..fun read.

Click to expand...

It's a reddish-brown, but the lighting is bad. It's not marked SS or VC. According to my grandpa its carbon steel, but I've always kept it clean so I've never tested whether it will patina or not.

the four digit number and steel designation is on all Case knives..it is on the smaller blade..one of them.

if it is a reddish brown..i bet is it 6318 SS. i love it kyle. i would use it..

Jmadams..i looked up their warranty dept. and found the repair center. i just sent it. no boxes. they say no fancy collectors boxes. i just put it in a USPS box for $5ish and sent it to them. i do think the address is dumb. it starts with

"CASE REPAIR CENTER"..duh!! talk about inviting theft at the post office. i just put "C.R. Center" hahaha. i did pay extra for tracking.

they sent a quick post card saying they got it. and to give them 6-8 weeks. i got it back in two. i did attach a note as instructed to ask for a CLEAN and SHARPEN ONLY. it was free.

it was super painless

Just won an eBay auction for a Case knife very similar to the one my grandpa gave me, even down to the year and color of the bone. I'll send this one off to Case for cleaning and sharpening and start carrying it with me. I realize I could have gotten a new one for pretty much the same amount but I wanted to carry a carbon knife. Also I'm impat

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=140974630757