What is going on at W.R. Case and Sons

I think most would agree that the OP's knife needed to be replaced. But people have different expectations.

A few years ago someone sent me a very long list of questions regarding a knife that I was selling. In his message he also said that he rarely finds a knife that meets his high standards. And I wondered if he was actually interested in knives or just being picky. If all knives were perfect, then he would need to find a new hobby to be picky about. ;) I'm teasing... but there may be some truth to it also.

Recently, I was apparently too picky for a seller. I asked a seller for a photo of the other side of his knife and he refused! He wasn't polite about it either. To me, that was reasonable request for a $100 knife purchase. But to him, it was an annoyance.

Some guys buy knives to cut stuff. They may not care if there is blade rub or slightly off center blades or some gaps in the springs. If the knife cuts that may be enough. Some may not tolerate a single flaw. Some guys will tolerate some stuff but not other stuff.

Anyway.... I just received a new Case knife today and I'm very happy with it. Very well put together knife.
 
bt,

unfortunately I've had similar experiences. I truly love Case knives. my grandfather carried Case knives, I do, and I want my children to. But not sure they can survive if their QC keeps going down.

I'm not sure what they are doing. Most of my case knives are from the last few years.........and they are all over the place. I've had both ends of the spectrum. Id put my STJ and O32 med stockman against GEC any day, probably not as good......but darn close. But I've also had some lemons.

I've not had enough lemons to stop me form giving them another try; but it definitely makes me think twice. I have a SBJ in the mail now with my fingers crossed!

Oh and out of fairness........I have S&M, GEC, and Buck knives that had issues and needed to be repaired. all companies will.
 
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supratentorial said:
...Anyway.... I just received a new Case knife today and I'm very happy with it. Very well put together knife.
Click to expand...

I wasn't expecting it but there are no gaps in the springs...



None of the blades are touching or hitting the liners. The spey blade is close to the liner but does not touch. Any blade rub would be caused by pushing on the blades instead of lifting them straight up...



No rub marks on the blades.

 
It seems like case is knocking it out of the park on several patterns. At least from folks reviews on here. STJ, 75, 032 med stock, 18, med jack, med trapper have had great reviews here and my examples are nearly flawless.

I'll be able to speak for the SBJ in a few days. But based on reviews here It should be good.

Have not heard any bad things about the sowbelly and it's still on my wish list.

I'll be carrying my small stockman today for my daughters ballet. She gave it to me for Father's Day last year. The middle pin is completely loose on the mark side and have been planning on sending it back for repair, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Perhaps I will next week. Lot of sentimental value in that wonderful imperfect little knife.

Jim
 
I recently picked up a blister-packaged Case Hawkbill Pruner w/black Zytel handles (LT1011 SS) at Lowe's. The knife has a square tang (half-stop, in other words). One thing that immediately struck me, in inspecting it, was that the backspring is perfectly flush with the handles in all three positions (closed, half-open, fully open). I honestly don't know if I've ever seen a half-stopped folder that hit all three positions in such dead-on fashion. Strong snap and no play as well. And all this in a lightweight, no-frills, 'Sod Buster-esque' utility folder for about $24.


David
 
One thing that seems to be a problem for Case, at least in my view- the blade tumbler. Is it too much to ask to want pointy blades with crisp corners? It gives a real nice shine, but the blade needs repointed- I've done this on my last three or four, where the stock tip was radiused. It seems like a good way to hide imperfections, like a really deep clearcoat and buff on a car paintjob.
 
Sword and Shield said:
One thing that seems to be a problem for Case, at least in my view- the blade tumbler. Is it too much to ask to want pointy blades with crisp corners? It gives a real nice shine, but the blade needs repointed- I've done this on my last three or four, where the stock tip was radiused. It seems like a good way to hide imperfections, like a really deep clearcoat and buff on a car paintjob.
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Case fixed that on the sway back. A much reduced tumbler cycle.
 
Sword and Shield said:
One thing that seems to be a problem for Case, at least in my view- the blade tumbler. Is it too much to ask to want pointy blades with crisp corners? It gives a real nice shine, but the blade needs repointed- I've done this on my last three or four, where the stock tip was radiused. It seems like a good way to hide imperfections, like a really deep clearcoat and buff on a car paintjob.
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If you don't mind stainless steel, try the "as ground" satin finished blades. The lines are very crisp. But I agree about the overly tumbled shiny blades though.

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The last two Case knives I have purchased have been 'decent' (with a slightly burred edge on the Tiny Toothpick I bought today.) Other than that, I can't complain about their quality... yet.

We'll see how the final Yellow Delrin scaled Peanut is when it arrives later this week.

The Captain
 
I went to the Case store in Branson two years ago and picked out a knife and noticed the blades weren't centered and rubbed slightly. The clerk went through a half a dozen knives before he found one that was centered. I asked him if it was normal to have so many that weren't centered and he said he was having more and more being returned due to poor centering/blade rub. But in all honesty, the ones I looked at weren't that bad and had I not read about blade rubbing on blade forums, back in the day, I probably wouldn't have even noticed. In reality, the blade centering and rub probably doesn't matter, but if I'm going to fork out my money, I'd rather get one close to perfect in case that slight rub turned into a bigger problem on down the line.

Another thing, this is a kind of a retail outlet type of store and the Case knives are really marked down. Maybe they are a lesser quality? I don't know. I have noticed that a hardware retailer in my area sells Case knives. They are MUCH more expensive than the outlet store in Branson, but all these knives seem to be a much better quality and zero issues. Possibly the quality issues at the Branson store are figured in to the pricing?
 
I don't think it's the store in Branson. They are a major distributor. I've never been to the store but I've ordered from them many times over the years. But discussion about the store belongs in the feedback forum so I'll stop at that.

Some patterns are more prone to blade rub than others. And some of it may be due to pressing on the blades rather than lifting straight up. People have mentioned blade rub issues the new 38 pattern from GEC. Rough Rider knives get a lot of praise and you rarely hear complaints about them but I think it's because of the price. Every single Rough Rider sowbelly that I've seen has a spey blade that rubs HARD on the liner. But I've never heard anyone else mention it. The Rough Riders are made of cheap materials also but they're very inexpensive so people like them.

I like Case but I find some of the knives from Queen more interesting since imho their knives more closely resemble the oldies. Some of GEC's knives closely resemble the oldies but most don't. That's one of the things that makes the SFOs so special. The Case Bose collaboration knives are also special.
 
Ive had real good luck with Case over the last 10 years or so. When I first "got back into" knives, in the mid 90s, I ordered a Case small stockman and was kind of disappointed. Nothing really wrong with the knife, but it was just blockier and less elegant than the Case knives I had seen and owned into the 80s, when I understand things got really grim. Other than that, everything I have gotten from Case since the early 2000s has been fine, including some NOS going back to the mid-90s that had a high chance of disappointing, I found out in retrospect.
 
I posted with a pic on the Seahorse thread and I purchased that at the Case outlet store in Branson. All of the SHW's I checked out were good quality. The main difference with them is they varied very much in color with the one I was looking at buying. The knife is flawless to say the least despite blade rub from me pulling and pushing the blade while opening. I can't put it down. Also it was the sharpest out of the box knife I'd ever gotten from case. I think the QC is on the rebound, but maybe that's just me.
I did send a Case Indian Canoe in CV back to them around xmas because there was bad blade play and the bolster pins were coming through. They had a new flawless canoe sent back to me in 4 weeks. I was very happy camper.
 
jackknife said:
It's a fact that the knife industry is a cut throat business at best. That's why Schrade, Camillus, and a host of old marques are no longer with us. The cost of new tooling is high, and that's what I think killed Schrade in the end. The tooling was shot, no capability of holding any kind of tolerance, and sloppy stuff was going out the door. Some of the Schrade branded stuff I saw the last few years they were operating was horrible.

I hope Case doesn't take that route, but they need to increase their QA a bit, even if they have to charge a few dollars more. I'd pay another couple bucks for a hand inspected knife, and I'm sure you all would. Heck, how much do you pay for a GEC? Double? Almost triple in some cases? (No pun intended!)

A lot of this comes from imperfect parts to start with. The basic frame, the spacers, bolsters, and back springs are the same for a lot of models. The Texas jack and same size stockman, for example. If you have perfectly blanked and machined parts, it's a heck of lot easier to make a perfect assembly. Like Victorinox. Like Harley Davidson motorcycles. When Harley was dumped on the market after AMF bled them dry like a vampire, nothing much was left. AMF had just kept shoving bikes out the door that had been made on ancient machinery, out of spec, and failing before they were out of warrantee. In 1984 when they re-organized and they knew it was their last shot, they sent a survey team to Japan to see how it was done. They then made a huge gamble and investment in all new Japanese machining centers and laser guided cutting tools, and huge increase in QA. The result was, they actually made a better motorcycle that could compete with the more reliable Japanese and German bikes. They did what thad to be done, invest some time and money into the company, re-train employees that failure is not an option.

If people are willing to spend 100 dollars for a GEC, then maybe Case has to boost the price of a 40 dollar knife to 45 or even 50, and have the final QA inspectors on the line look over each and every one before it goes out. They need to do something, because when somebody here's about how Case used to be THE knife that their granddaddies carried, and they go out and buy one, and it comes looking like a refuge from scrap pile, you think they will ever buy another one? They'll go buy some other brand. Maybe Case needs to stop with the 85th Elvis birthday and name brand farm tractor commemoratives, and just make darn good using knives.

Maybe they need to send a survey team to Switzerland.
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As the gentleman machinist says...........
 
in comparison to Victorinox quality, Case knives are light years far downside. They really don't care and it is under our very eyes.
I really don't see more quality than the cheap made in China knives...and it is just sad, given the history and the good models design.
 
I think Victorinox is an apples and oranges comparison. It's been a LONG time since Victorinox made knives the old fashioned way... and when they did, it was not uncommon for them to have blade rub. Here's an oldie...



...and a much newer knife with the covers removed...





Case has changed some patterns. The 47 pattern now has 3 springs and the blades aren't crinked. My impression is that some folks don't like this change. I prefer the old way better but I suppose this change would make manufacturing simpler.



From L to R: 3-spring Buck 301, 3 spring Case 47, 2 spring Case Sowbelly


Here's an interesting warning in the ad description for a Boker knife that's being auction.

 
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Wow, my Case problems were half the reason I joined this site... and man, I am 0 for 3 so far, although I might be acting picky. I'd like to think I'm not, because they keep going on about hand made this and quality that. I picked up a Medium Stockman and a burnt stag antler Texas Jack and they both had blade rub, which was quite a surprise because again, they keep promoting their quality (as an aside, I got them from S&R knives in Ontario, and although I asked them to check out the knives before they mailed them, I'm not sure they did... so I'm not sure who to blame here, but I haven't been back to S&R; I really don't think they checked and the last knife they mailed me was a defective Benchmade fer Gawd's sake). Then I picked up the large folding hunter (actually got that from Canadian Tire; they don't carry Case knives at any branches near me but they do have a limited selection to order online) and not only did the blade have an edge that was mediocre at best, but there was blade wobble on one of the blades. I can't tolerate that on the cheapest of knives.

I can certainly post pics if required, but I have to ask if blade rub would be considered acceptable on something like a Case... I'm particularly wondering about the Texas Jack because apparently there's an embargo on the burnt stag antler; if I have one I want it to be a good one, you know? If I can find the receipt I'll probably just return the hunter because as cool as it is, I'm not so hot on the extra blade that gets in the way of the handle's form.

So essentially there are two realistic options for me (and anyone looking at this thread really): quit whining and deal with it, or return everything and ask for service? I would imagine the first response to this would be pics or GTFO so I'll get moving.
 
I have around 60 or so Case Knives left that I wont part with. ive sold off probably 30-40 of them that I had doubles or just didn't bond with. that said most have been great, but my peeve with Case is the blade centering.

now I either buy them in person or I have two Case dealers that know my concerns and they basically hand pick them for me.


Case Knives will always have that special place for me mainly because that's the first Knife I owned. (1970)
 
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