Case knife for my dad's 70th bday.

D

Daniel Hunt

Joined
Jan 11, 2021
Messages
3
Good morning,
I am new here. This is my first post on blade forums, so please excuse me if this post is in the wrong forum.
My father has been collecting Case knives for years. He used have a few when he was younger and loved them and for the last 15 years or so I have been buying them for him for his birthday, Christmas, etc.
He loves them but he always talks about how the older knives used a different steel that he preferred.
He will be turning 70 later this year and I wanted to do something a little different and hopefully buy a Case knife that was manufactured the year he was born (1951). I am not sure if the production of vintage case knives can be narrowed down to a specific year or not, or where to look.
Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Hmmm, that might be difficult. I don't think it's possible to narrow it down to exactly 1951.

The XX era tang stamp is said to date Case knives 1940-1964 but I've read that Case didn't start stamping pattern numbers on the tangs until 1949. If that's true then an XX era knife with a pattern number on it would be 1949-1964 and that's still not close enough.

It's a long shot but you might try researching to see if there was a pattern that Case only made in 1951. I seriously doubt if there was but you never know.
 
1951 falls within the 'CASE XX' era, which is bounded in the 1940 - 1964 time frame.

An important distinction, also, is that Case started stamping pattern numbers on blades around 1950. So, within that '40 - '64 era, there's sort of a sub-grouping from 1950 - 1964, which denotes 'CASE XX' era knives with pattern stamps. Anything prior to 1950 didn't include the pattern stamp. There's likely no sure way to exactly pin down a particular knife to an exact year, within that time frame. It wasn't possible to do that, realistically, until Case began using the 'dot' system of dating knives to individual years, starting in 1970. Anything prior to then would've only fallen within a range of years, in estimating age or the period of production.

I'd not worry too much about the steel, either in the older blades or in their modern CV counterparts in particular. It's difficult to know for sure, but the older blades in Case's carbon steel might've been a bit softer. But, based on older ones I have, they still take a very, very fine edge. Case's current CV steel is very good - Case has described it on their own Case Collectors Club forum as being a 'modified 1095' (w/addition of small amounts of chromium and vanadium, hence the 'CV' name). They've also established it's hardness at around HRC 57-59, a couple points higher than what they spec for their 'Tru-Sharp' stainless (420HC) at HRC 55-57.
 
Last edited:
Obsessed with Edges said:
1951 falls within the 'CASE XX' era, which is bounded in the 1940 - 1964 time frame.

An important distinction, also, is that Case started stamping pattern numbers on blades around 1950. So, within that '40 - '64 era, there's sort of a sub-grouping from 1950 - 1964, which denotes 'CASE XX' era knives with pattern stamps. Anything prior to 1950 didn't include the pattern stamp. There's likely no sure way to exactly pin down a particular knife to an exact year, within that time frame. It wasn't possible to do that, realistically, until Case began using the 'dot' system of dating knives to individual years, starting in 1970. Anything prior to then, would've only fallen within a range of years, in estimating age or the period of production.

I'd not worry too much about the steel, either in the older blades or in their modern CV counterparts in particular. It's difficult to know for sure, but the older blades in Case's carbon steel might've been a bit softer. But, based on older ones I have, they still take a very, very fine edge. Case's current CV steel is very good - Case has described it on their own Case Collectors Club forum as being a 'modified 1095' (w/addition of small amounts of chromium and vanadium, hence the 'CV' name). They've also established it's hardness at around HRC 57-59, a couple points higher than what they spec for their 'Tru-Sharp' stainless (420HC) at HRC 55-57.
Click to expand...





Thank you!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top