Bradford Cutlery by Case...

PocketKnifeJimmy

PocketKnifeJimmy

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Aug 4, 2013
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A few years ago I purchased this Bradford Cutlery Hawkbill/Pruner.
I never could find out much about Case' use of this name on some knives (it's the tang stamp and on it's shield). Bradford is obviously the name of Case' physical location, but I wondered if this different trade name/trademark was something they were planning on using much. It's a nice knife, but other than the name on it, it's a Case through and through, my not noticing anything about it that would set it apart from a basic Case pocketknife.

 
Yeah, maybe.
I know one thing, I find the hotdog in the bun shield a bit ugly, lol!

I do like the decent jigged bone scales on it. Blade has no play, and it's nicely centered. It has a half stop, which I like on this style of knife.
I kind'a wish it had a nice swedge, and maybe a match striker nail groove on it's blade... That would add that little extra something :)

Here is my Colt Hawkbill/Pruner with a swedged blade, and man does it add some cool flair to it :)
It has great looking jigged bone scales, fluted and pinched bolsters, a no wobble blade with good centering, a lanyard hole, and a positive half stop. The most amazing part was it's price, (about a fourth of what I paid for the Bradford Cutlery/Case knife above)... It was certainly MUCH bang for the buck :)



 
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I think that might be one of the Parker Case Classics made by Queen iirc.--KV
 
I know it's a recent vintage, definitely from within the past decade. I mean, maybe the brand was added in during Parker's time with Case, but this one is not a Parker era made knife.
I thought I had read somewhere that trade-marks & trade-names have to be used from time to time in order to keep them. Not sure if that's true, but, if it is, I could see Case using them on a limited basis for them to retain their legal ownership of it. Kind'a like a "just in case" we want to use it in the future sort of thing. Just guessing, since I have zero idea what their Bradford Cutlery trade-mark/trade-name plans are.

I don't think they have made or sold many knives under this brand. Maybe it was a test balloon, and if so, it likely did not fly too far.
 
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I recall Case using several historic names on knives that usually have the Case name on them; there are Case Brothers and Crandall marked knives out there as well. Just a nod to the past with a good marketing plan. OH
 
Bradford Cutlery was part of W.R. Case Family Brands line. Bradford Cutlery, Crandall, Case Brothers, Standard Knife and maybe even a few Cattaraugus.
 
Pretty sure that's not a Parker era case. Most knives made during the era of Parker were made by Queen and that jigged bone doesn't look like anything Queen ever utilized.
 
balor85 said:
Pretty sure that's not a Parker era case. Most knives made during the era of Parker were made by Queen and that jigged bone doesn't look like anything Queen ever utilized.
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It is definitely not a Case Classic, or Queen made, or Parker era made... It's a less than 10 year old knife made by Case.
 
Yeah, I have a humpback half whittle from that run that was made in 2012. As mentioned, Bradford was an early brand for Case, and these were done as sort of a throw back. That's the way dealers had them listed, as sort of a comemorative type run.
 
Many of the Case Family Tree knives were made under Parker. In fact when he lost ownership of Case, Parker retained the rights to many of the tang stamps used on the Family Tree knives, names such as Crandall, Platts, Bradford, Kinfolks and a couple others I can't remember. They were all in the mail order catalogs from Parkers Knife Collector Service back in the day. I think I still have a couple of those knives somewhere.
 
Arathol said:
Many of the Case Family Tree knives were made under Parker. In fact when he lost ownership of Case, Parker retained the rights to many of the tang stamps used on the Family Tree knives, names such as Crandall, Platts, Bradford, Kinfolks and a couple others I can't remember. They were all in the mail order catalogs from Parkers Knife Collector Service back in the day. I think I still have a couple of those knives somewhere.
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Interesting. I wonder how Case got the rights back to the Bradford Cutlery name.
 
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