case CV folders: SS springs?

K

kgeter

Joined
Dec 5, 2005
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I recently bought a Case Amber Bone Large CV Stockman.
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Great knife. Solid. Perfect walk and talk. I ran it through my usual white vinegar patination process, and found out that the springs didn't patinate. Are the springs stainless? No big deal, I was just surprised. Never seen a carbon blade knive with stainless springs. I kind of like it.
 
You may have debunked a myth!! Now we have to get Case to 'splain themselves!!
 
All of my modern Case CV knives have stainless springs. On the other hand, I have a 1981 stainless mini trapper with carbon steel springs.
 
None of my CVs have stained on the spring, which looks just wrong. On the other end of the spectrum, my Camillus Scout has SS blades and carbon springs.
 
okBookGuy, it's a 6375 CV, and it is sweet!

Interesting that Case chose stainless springs. Makes some sense, I guess. I mean, it looks nice, and you don't have to worry about the springs rusting: this sometimes happens inside the knife and can be hard to clean out. Offhand I can't think of any advantage of having carbon steel springs over SS springs.
 
I have a suspicion that CV makes better springs. I find more unworn knives with "soft" snap in stainless, than CV. I can't easily prove this, but after you handle a lot of different knives, you can get a "feel" for it. Maybe it's harder to heat treat stainless correctly.
 
Case made the switch to stainless springs in their CV knives at about the same time they discontinued most of the CV steel knives and replaced them in the lineup with stainless, circa 1980 or so. So it's been stainless springs for quite some time. I have to agree that I rather like it that way. You get the chrome vanadium carbon steel blades for tradition and possibly better edgeholding ability, and no rust inside the springs and liners and joints. No ugly rust powder coming out of the body of the knives and grating on the pins and loosening up the joints. Many many older carbon steel knives that I've seen have been pitifully gunked up inside and badly rusted in the backsprings between the liners, even though the blades themselves were still in pretty good shape. Unless you put some sort of good rust preventative oil in an all carbon steel folder, there will be rust in the springs. If you oil it and prevent the rust, you have an oily dirt attracting mess all down in the frame gunking everything up. Stainless springs are a perfect answer, and an excellent place for application of a stainless steel, right where the sweat and acids from your hands are going.
 
Thanks for the info Phil in AL. Using stainless for springs makes sense to me. Too bad Case makes so few CV knives these days... Looks like most are in the Amber Bone and Red series. I wish they made a large CV congress with a couple of honker sheepsfoots (feet?) like on this large stockman.
 
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