Case Fixed Blades in the Field

B

bladeblabber

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Oct 15, 2011
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So I’ve always used buck knives to skin and quarter deer, hogs, squirrels etc. Bucks knives have always done well for me and I love their products and their mission. The last six months or so I’ve switched to using mainly Case knives, specifically a muskrat is SS and a 5” Finn fixed blade in SS.

The muskrat has skinned many squirrels this season and done very well and yesterday was the first time I have had a chance to use the fixed blade. I had two deer to skin and was impressed to find out the Case got both of them skinned and quartered without needing a touch up on the edge and still has a working edge after the fact. The edge did not chip or bend even going through the rib cages and sternum.

I’m very surprised that the Case steel held up as well as the Buck steel always has and I think I have a new lifetime hunting partner in the 5” Finn.

Does anybody else like to use Case fixed blades? Pictures always welcome!

 
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Not surprising the Case fixed blade held up. I've never used one, and I'm 98.8% sure my hunting days are over.
Where I was raised and hunted, if someone said "Case" the first thought was tractors and farm implements, closely followed by a case you stored something in. I'd never heard of Case knives, and don't remember seeing them for sale or any magazine ads.
I'm sure they did advertise in the magazines - at least those for the east of the Mississippi River readers.
I was on the wrong side of the river, I guess.
I didn't see any Case cutlery for sale in SoCal, when I "lived" there, 1975 to 1980.

I used Buck and Uncle Henry (stainless steel), along with Western, Camille's, Imperial, Ontario/Old Hickory and Schrade Old Timer carbon steel. (tho some of my Old Timer did have a "Schrade +" blade.)
In the days that Buck used 440C, their edges lasted a little longer ... after/if you managed to put a useable edge on it. From the factory, they were duller than an axe back then.

I think the Western L/F/W66 was the most common and popular hunting sheath knife back then, until Old Timer came out with the Sharp Finger.
 
I think both Case and Buck have learned that good grind geometry makes as much difference in useful edge retention as anything, in most normal uses. Buck proved this for themselves via extensive CATRA testing, which prompted them to narrow their spec for edge angles to 26° - 32° inclusive as part of their new 'Edge 2000' spec. Blades in relatively simple stainless steels like 420HC can hold up pretty well with thinner grinds and narrower edge geometry. I've noticed the newer & thinner grinds from Buck have started to look & cut more like Case's thin grinds. I don't know if Case relied on CATRA testing to come up with their preferred grinds, or if they just figured it out over time for themselves. But they've done pretty well with it, as far as I'm concerned.

I've always liked Case's thinner grinds, especially in their post-2000 era knives. They're great slicers. Some will knock their hollow grinds in favor of flat grinds. But the hollow grind is a big contributor to great cutting geometry and ease of resharpening.
 
B bladeblabber Like you I started out with Buck fixed blade knives when I bought my own, but never exclusively - although I’d say Buck 75-80% of the time. I have acquired a Case fixed blade that I want to use this season on a deer. So far only killed one whitetail doe and that was for a buddy who no longer hunts - he took the entire deer to his favorite processor so I didn’t even skin it. Going deer hunting again this week and I have this NOS 1980 Case 223-5 in my truck, waiting its turn to skin and butcher one. OH
Case_223-5_-_1980_(2).jpg
 
Old Hunter Old Hunter nice blade, is that a phenolic-type handle on that Case? I wish Case made some sheath knives with the phenolic handles like Buck, they clean up easier and are less maintenance with all the blood and water that comes with cleaning game.
 
B bladeblabber that Case knife I have (pictured) has a black Delrin handle (discolored with age) - guess that is as close to black Phenolic as Case got. Case countered Buck's popularity in the 70's/80's with a series of black handled fixed blades named after American Indian Tribes - I remember a Cheyene and an Apache but there were others. I don't know if this knife is one of them because I have no reference guide to that series. They had really cool graphics on the boxes though. OH
 
Case does make synthetic-handled, lightweight versions of the 5" Finn pattern and their other fixed blade hunting knives. It's not a phenolic like Buck's, but a textured material. Looking online, it looks like they can be found in black or blaze orange. A vendor pic of the black example (pattern# LT216 5 SS) is below:

583.jpg
 
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