Terrible Factory Edge on Case Knife

[hsherzfeld]

I just received a brand new Case Barlow (well, new from 2019). It’s beautiful on the outside, but the blade edges are awful. They are very coarse and toothy. The bevels are uneven; they are very deep just above the sharpening notch almost to the point that the edge is concave, but very obtuse (and lopsided), probably near 45 degrees, at the tips.

To quote Mark Twain, “True, the knife would not cut anything, but it was a ‘sure-enough Barlow’, and there was an inconceivable grandeur in that…”

Have Case’s edges always been this bad?

 

[gotgoat]

if you buy a Case knife plan on sharpening it

 

[afishhunter]

Bad factory (or user applied) edge can happen regardless of brand.
Any knife will eventually need sharpened no matter what the factory edge is like (presuming it is used).

I know a bad factory edge is at a minimum ... frustrating ... when you go to use the knife the first time, and didn't check and fix it before dropping into the pocket.

It will be good after you sharpen it.

I don't know if CASE offers a sharpening service, or if the original edge is warranted.
You can email them to find out?
I also don't know if the Case warrantee/guarantee is only applicable to the original owner with proof of purchase. (I think it is.)

EDIT:
P.S. If you sharpen it yourself, use light pressure, push the edge on the stone (never pull the edge - that creates a massive wire edge/burr on a Case and other knives with realitively "soft" blades.
Strop with a clean leather or canvas strop at the same angle you sharpened, again with a light touch. No diamond paste. Use Red or Green rouge if you must put something on your strop.
After you set your edge, dry stropping will generally restore the working edge.
A "razor edge" is a waste of time and effort. After 1 or 2 cuts depending on what it is, the "razor edge" is gone, leaving the working edge anyway. The working edge lasts much longer.

 

[Grasshopperglock]

Don't look at the new Buck traditional stuff.


I asked see one in the glass case at Murdoch's. My guts started hurting. Ugh....what a shame job.

 

[Prester John]

As with any large company, there will be lazy, careless employees. My guess is there is some turnover at Case, and the knife should not have gone out like that. Of my 9 or 10 Case knives, I have not had a problem. Should be easy to fix with a good sharpener.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Don't look at the new Buck traditional stuff.


I asked see one in the glass case at Murdoch's. My guts started hurting. Ugh....what a shame job.

One example doesn't speak for all.
No the edges aren't perfect, but non of mine have been that bad.
Definitely not great and they were more consistent 30 years ago but today Buck still does a decent enough job getting sharp edges.
The edges are ground by hand, and sadly there's just not enough people with the skill to do the job we expect on a mass scale that are willing to do it for the wage such a job pays.

The GEC h20 I bought a few months back had a very consistently ground edge but it just wasn't very sharp at all ,the last Buck I bought had a less even grind but was hair popping sharp on both blades.

In the end they're catering to the average Joe who only really cares whether the knife came sharp from the factory

 

[afishhunter]

Don't look at the new Buck traditional stuff.


I asked see one in the glass case at Murdoch's. My guts started hurting. Ugh....what a shame job.

Seems the 301/303 have suffered some QC issues of late. The bolsters over polished/ground to slivers, for example.

My 2015 and BF 2018 301's both suffer from over polished/over ground to slivers bolsters.
The offshore 371's on the other hand have proper bolsters to support the pivot pins.
Almost tempting to send the 301's to a modder and have the blades transplanted to a 371.

Buck has also upped the price to where the 301 isn't a viable alternative to Case price wise. I paid $44 for my standard 301. Same knife is around $70 now. No thankee. Case costs abut the same, gives a choice of covers, and has carbon steel instead of stainless on some.

 

[birdsbeaks]

Between the weird grinds, the big gaps, and the extreme overuse of mediocre stainless, I don't pay too much attention to Case's "traditional" traditionals any longer - though I am a fan of their more modern traditionals such as the recent run of S35VN/Jigged Buffalo horn models.

I've also been generally disappointed with recent offerings from Bear & Son as unintentional recurves are one of my biggest knife peeves.

It would be easy to accuse me of having been spoiled by GEC, but I've been thoroughly satisfied with all of the examples I've received from Rosecraft Blades.

I have one of the (upcoming?) Case purple bone barlows on backorder and hope it doesn't arrive as yours did.

I know there are strong feelings about receiving dull blades from the factory but if Case can't be bothered to demand a proper edge from their employees, then give me the option of purchasing a completely unsharpened CV blade and I'll do it myself. I prefer DIY to fixing others' mistakes.

 

[dundak]

Should been around when Queen wasn't putting edges at all on their knives...fun times.

 

[Grasshopperglock]

One example doesn't speak for all.
No the edges aren't perfect, but non of mine have been that bad.
Definitely not great and they were more consistent 30 years ago but today Buck still does a decent enough job getting sharp edges.
The edges are ground by hand, and sadly there's just not enough people with the skill to do the job we expect on a mass scale that are willing to do it for the wage such a job pays.

The GEC h20 I bought a few months back had a very consistently ground edge but it just wasn't very sharp at all ,the last Buck I bought had a less even grind but was hair popping sharp on both blades.

In the end they're catering to the average Joe who only really cares whether the knife came sharp from the factory

It was no doubt sharp. The example I handled would satisfy most people. Toothy enough to do the job. Crappy enough to where if it was sharpened back after the teeth wore off. It'd be a mess.

Not mentioning how the pivot pins protruded out like tittys on a stray dog. The edge is the primary judgement on craftsmanship. Everything else is judged by that attention to detail. And I didn't care if it was a $40 dollar knife. That doesn't matter.

The edge was embarrassing. The bolster shaping was a bad joke.

I wouldn't care if Buck didn't hold a place in my life. Disappointed, I was and am.

 

[Barman1]

Should been around when Queen wasn't putting edges at all on their knives...fun times.

Indeed.
I picked up this NOS recently, hours later I had a couple of nice edges.

 

[Hickory n steel]

It was no doubt sharp. The example I handled would satisfy most people. Toothy enough to do the job. Crappy enough to where if it was sharpened back after the teeth wore off. It'd be a mess.

Not mentioning how the pivot pins protruded out like tittys on a stray dog. The edge is the primary judgement on craftsmanship. Everything else is judged by that attention to detail. And I didn't care if it was a $40 dollar knife. That doesn't matter.

The edge was embarrassing. The bolster shaping was a bad joke.

I wouldn't care if Buck didn't hold a place in my life. Disappointed, I was and am.

What model was it ?

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

As has been mentioned, this'll happen to any and all manufacturers' products at times. Case hasn't always done edges so poorly, especially in the post-2000 era by what I've seen. I'd seen more mediocre edges like that in the 1980s - '90s timeframe, from Case. But they still mass-produce knives in huge quantity, still doing all the edge-grinding by hand on powered belts in maybe a minute or two's time per blade. So in the rush to meet production quotas, sometimes things get a little too lax in terms of attention to detail. And this will happen with all of the other big mass-producers with similar grinding protocols (by hand) as well, at times.

With either of Case's standard-line steels - in 420HC or CV/'Carbon' - a Norton C/F India 8" bench stone makes edge-resetting pretty straightforward, regardless of what shape the edge originally was in. If the blade grind is relatively thin, even just the Fine side of that stone is often enough for complete rebevelling jobs on pocketknife-sized blades. I almost always put my own edge on any new knife I buy, even if the factory edge is decent. Setting it up at my preferred geometry of 25° inclusive or so just makes all the subsequent resharpenings much easier in the long run.

 

[jc57]

Seems like I remember needing to sharpen most Case stainless knives when I got them new. They were usually pretty toothy and they tended to leave a factory burr. Not really a big deal to me. I am going to sharpen any new knife I get that will be a user, be it Case, GEC, Buck, or whatever. Surprisingly, the two Rough Ryders I bought back in 2015 or so had ready-to-use edges right out of the box, a rarity for me.

 

[yablanowitz]

I just received a brand new Case Barlow (well, new from 2019). It’s beautiful on the outside, but the blade edges are awful. They are very coarse and toothy. The bevels are uneven; they are very deep just above the sharpening notch almost to the point that the edge is concave, but very obtuse (and lopsided), probably near 45 degrees, at the tips.

To quote Mark Twain, “True, the knife would not cut anything, but it was a ‘sure-enough Barlow’, and there was an inconceivable grandeur in that…”

Have Case’s edges always been this bad?

I was frankly shocked the one time I got a Case with a decent edge. Granted I only have forty or fifty, so not really a meaningful statistical sample, but horrible factory edges have always been part of my Case experience. I just sharpen them and move on.

 

[hsherzfeld]

Seems like I remember needing to sharpen most Case stainless knives when I got them new. They were usually pretty toothy and they tended to leave a factory burr. Not really a big deal to me. I am going to sharpen any new knife I get that will be a user, be it Case, GEC, Buck, or whatever. Surprisingly, the two Rough Ryders I bought back in 2015 or so had ready-to-use edges right out of the box, a rarity for me.

This has been my experience as well. I've never handled a GEC (yet), but all of the Rough Ryder knives that I've bought had edges that were pretty much ready to use. Same with Buck knives, although I haven't bought a Buck in probably a decade now. I've probably had the best experience overall with the factor edges on SAKs; they're usually sharp enough to use out of the box, even though they are usually a little toothy.

I was frankly shocked the one time I got a Case with a decent edge. Granted I only have forty or fifty, so not really a meaningful statistical sample, but horrible factory edges have always been part of my Case experience. I just sharpen them and move on.

I was just surprised by the huge contrast in the levels of effort that went into the exterior of the knife versus the the actual cutting edge.

 

[yablanowitz]

I think Case caters primarily to collectors who look at them but don't use them.

 

[El Jay]

My last two Case knives were sad examples of what was once a great product.

 

[Old Hunter]

Over the years I have had wonky edges on knives from: Bear & Son, Buck, Case, Canal Street, GEC, Schrade USA, even Imperial! I would expect a custom to be shipped with a perfect edge. I accept the fact that to get an edge that I like I must apply it myself. I have also received knives with great edges from: Bear & Son, Buck, Case, Canal Street, GEC, Schrade USA and even Imperial. OH

 

[Will Power]

It's never right to receive a new knife with poor edging, always an annoyance. I've had more blunt or badly ground knives from American & English makers than from Europeans and Asians though. Even GEC has handed out a few poor examples to me...however, overall it's uncommon .

Were I the OP I'd return aknife like that.