anyone have a Case hobo?

M

mars5l

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Mar 18, 2014
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Saw one for the first time last weekend, kinda want to get one. I wouldnt mind seeing some more pics of them, and any of you guys actually use one? Figure it be a nice thing to have when camping and what not
 
I have read a lot of books about the old train hopping hobo's so that knife has a certain appeal to me that i can't shake. I am interested what these fine folks have to say about it.
 
The spoon is too small. You are better off with some kind of spork, modern hobo knife, plastic utensils, etc. if camping. But it's a nice toy. I bought a Case hobo hoping to use it, but ended up mostly playing with it.
 
I got one, with just fork and knife (not a soup eater...)
I keep it at work, use it fairly often. Very handy to have.
I also take it on vacation. I bought the sheath for it, glad I did.
Fork is not that great with salads, but that's the only negative
I have to say about it. It was an anniversary gift from my wife!
Typically I take an Opinel #8 as my "gentlemans steak knife", but
the hobo cuts steak very well also.
 
More of a "saw it and had to have it" as when I went through N. C.. one weekend we stopped at a Gun & Knife show in
Ashville and there was this Custom Hobo (Stag Scales) and just had to have it and I take it with me Deer & Turkey Hunting
as it comes in very handy! Nuts to pay $135.00 for it though.* Just one of my weak moments.
 
yea the place I goto has both the fork/knife one and the fork/spoon/knife version but int he regular material most Cases' come in. The fork version was only like $50, so not a bad a price, but the to get a spoon was another $40. I have a #8 SS Opinel that I use as a out on the town steak knife.
 
B JACKSON said:
If I saw a hobo with a $135 pocket knife, I might ask him for a handout!
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly.

When I was a soldier I got by just fine using the all purpose spoon that came in my MRE. Heck I can recall times in the Troop Medical clinic when we used tongue depressors to eat with.
 
What do you do when you are a knife nut, moving, have packed all your silverware, but then ordered a pasta dish from the local thai place? Case hobo to the rescue.

rtpZSgOh.jpg
 
The Thai food looks yummy!

I realize this is an old topic but I have owned and used this pattern from Case, Ka-Bar and others. The Case hobo knife is actually the sharpest knife that I've ever gotten from any manufacturer. I think it was probably a fluke but the knife had a 0 grind. No secondary bevel formed the edge.
 
Did you use them afield, or at home? You must find them practical? Certainly they're more compact than the nesting BSA flatware.

I also wonder when they came out and to whom they were marketed. It's hard for me to believe that Case expected guys with no money to buy a Case-priced knife.
 
I didn't end up keeping mine. For a short while I packed a slot knife with my lunch. They're a fun pattern and somewhat nostalgic for me but separate utensils were more practical for me. My grandfather used a cheaper knife that didn't come apart. He'd sometimes use the knife in the kitchen... even though there were plenty of utensils. I still have the knife... well... the blade is actually broken off.

The pattern used by Case is also called a slot knife. I doubt companies manufactured knives for hobos. Probably the most famous knife/spoon knife (no fork) is the "Red Cross Knife" from World War I.
 
The Swiss army issued separate utensils. Here's a matching set from 1976. The utensils were made by Wenger and the knife was made by Victorinox that year.





Here's some history about slot knives and "Red Cross knives" from BRL...

bernard_levine said:
Camillus was founded in 1902, not 1867. It was set up in a factory built in 1894, so that date is sometimes quoted, instead. It was a subsidiary of A. Kastor & Bros. of NYC, founded circa 1888. The Kastor name was dropped in 1947. Details in LG-4.

The problem with the Red Cross knives is that the knife and spoon do not separate, so they cannot be used at the same time. Many US cutlery firms made them for the Red Cross in 1917 and 1918. They were never made commercially, because no consumer would spend his own money to buy one to use. They were considered a joke in the industry at the time, but nobody complained, because the industry had orders for around a million of them, paid for by public donations to the Red Cross, while the US military was not buying pocketknives for soldiers or marines, only for Navy seamen.

A "Hobo" knife was originally (in the 1930s) a sheath knife with interchangeable blades (for hunting, fishing, and eating). But these are very rare, so collectors in recent years mistakenly applied the term to take-apart knife-fork and knife-fork-spoon folders, and the name seems to have stuck. The old name for these was "slot knives," because of the tab-and-slot arrangement that holds the parts together. Folding knife-fork(-spoon) sets that do not slot together were sometimes called canteen kits. But they were not called "hoboes" until recent years.

BRL...
Click to expand...

Here's an article on slot knives from a writer for Knife World. I haven't read it yet but there are some nice photos. The link is to a PDF document.

http://ibdennis.com/hobo1_01.pdf
 
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My grandpa has one. I used to think it was the coolest thing ever when I was a kid, but as an adult, it's just a novelty. There's a reason it lived in the "junk drawer" in the kitchen and not in his pocket.

As a collectors piece, go for it, but if you actually want edc eating tools just get one of those fancy backpacking sporks.
 
liamstrain said:
What do you do when you are a knife nut, moving, have packed all your silverware, but then ordered a pasta dish from the local thai place? Case hobo to the rescue.

rtpZSgOh.jpg
Click to expand...

No Churi Liam? ;) That food looks great, hope the move goes OK my friend :thumbup:

supratentorial said:
The pattern used by Case is also called a slot knife. I doubt companies manufactured knives for hobos. Probably the most famous knife/spoon knife (no fork) is the "Red Cross Knife" from World War I.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link Jake, the Slot Knife is a very old pattern :thumbup:

I got a stainless 'hobo knife' from a £1 shop, had it around 10 years, doesn't look anything special, but it works well. I usually carry a Spork instead though, and carried chopsticks and a wooden spoon in the past :thumbup:
 
Randy very kindly gifted me this Japanese Hobo Knife :thumbup:

Japanese%20Hobo%20Knife%201_zps3vtczncz.jpg
 
This is bronze and Roman. Folding spoon, knife, and spike.

 
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