Why does Case get a pass on "surgical steel?"

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19-3ben said:
Thanks for clarifying. In turn, I apologize if I misinterpreted and came across as harsh.




They do? I didn't realize. I thought they were supposed to be pretty good. I really only have my toe in the "traditional" pool, so I am unaware of a lot of stuff like that.
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Case knives are still great, but the problem is that gec came around with knives that are above and beyond what you may get with case.
If your just after a working knife with quality where it counts most then case is fine, but if you want something that is just about always perfect in every way ( I believe there may have been some sort of harness jack with issues in many examples ) then the extra cost of a gec may be justified.
 
popedandy said:
Case doesn't say surgical stainless, that's Gerber. Case says tru-sharp stainless steel. As others have said, it's common knowledge that it is 420HC.
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Nope. It's in their literature if you look, and on websites that market their knives.
As an example, here it is in a copy & paste from the Q&A on the Case website

Is there a simple way for me to know the type of steel that was used in my Case knife?

There are two ways to identify the type of steel used on Case knives. Today, each steel type has a unique abbreviation that can be found after the pattern stamp on the knife tang. If the knife has stainless steel blades, the letters "SS" will follow the pattern number. In the same fashion, "CV" denotes chrome vanadium, "ATS-34" stands for ATS-34 steel, "154-CM" is 154-CM, and "BG42" is BG42 steel. There is a second way to identify the steel type. This can be observed by looking at the logo stamp on the reverse side of the tang. Refer to "S" in the Case logo. When the logo contains a lightning "S", the blade is either made of Tru-SharpTM surgical steel or ATS-34. When the logo contains a regular "S" that matches the other letters, the blade is made of Chrome Vanadium. Case SlimLocks are the only knives currently made with BG42 steel. This line of knives carries a special logo stamp. Note: This answer specifically addresses Tru-SharpTM surgical steel (SS), Chrome Vanadium (CV), BG42, ATS-34 and 154-CM steel.
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22-rimfire said:
I always start with a trapper pattern; essentially a two blade jack knife. Usually a pretty safe choice.
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I work in an office/professional environment. While we're pretty laid back and I can usually get away with a PM2 or similar clipped to my pocket, there are times I have to put on the monkey suit. For lighter wear like that, i was thinking a Case Slimline Trapper, or Buck 302 might be a good fit, being lighter and slimmer than the multiple-blade knives.

How is the Case jigged synthetic bone? Does it actually have the look/feel of the real deal? Or is it obviously cheesy plastic?
 
I'm not a big collector. I use my knives and let the blades patina and I like the CV that patinas.
But when I got this Case Trapper I felt I was going down a notch from the CV steel and wished I could have just bought a new one in CV. I "put up with" the SS steel.

After I used this knife a bunch I was TOTALLY PLEASED with the SS steel and the way the Stag Trapper cut and held an edge. Part of that experience was the fact that both blades are hollow ground, part of it is the edges were properly ground and "stropped" on the buffing wheel at the Case factory. I point that out because there is some chance that since the Stag Trapper is kind of a flag ship model for Case perhaps the blades got a little more attention during heat treat and during sharpening and the hollow ground thing I mentioned.

I can't back any of that up other than to say it SURPRISED THE HECK OUT OF ME how well it performed out of the box. Meaning it was sharp and cut for a long time. What's not to like . . . so the "surgical" Case SS steel CAN perform.

PS: I like some knife companies more than others but I won't give them a "pass" . . . I'm pretty picky and outspoken when they be slipping.

 
It's kind of good what case does. Puts functional knives in the hands of users as well as collectors. No hassling with scalpers
 
Why wouldn't anyone get a pass with Surgical Steel? What's wrong with it? Every knife I've ever had that was made of it have all turned out to be EXCELLENT KNIVES, not one turned out to be a dud.


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19-3ben said:
I was going to post this in "traditional" but figured i might get a biased view there, and would rather get a representative sampling of opinions.

We all crap all over every company that advertises that they use "surgical steel."
Yet Case, which is highly regarded touts their Tru-Sharp Surgical Steel, and we all go along with it. Do they get some kind of special dispensation? Or do people hate on Case also and I'm just unaware of it?

Assuming they do get a pass... why? Is case just too much of a sacred cow to butcher?

Do we actually know kind of steel the "Tru-Sharp Surgical Steel" is?
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its a traditional knife, that was the steel that was used. Besides its heat treatment not steel,
if you ate a bad meal would you blame the ingredients or the cook?
 
All I need to know is my SS Cases take a shaving sharp edge and keeps it going with some stropping. They just Work.
 
DeadboxHero said:
its a traditional knife, that was the steel that was used. Besides its heat treatment not steel,
if you ate a bad meal would you blame the ingredients or the cook?
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Huh? I'm not complaining at all. I'm not even disparaging the steel being used. Only asking about the marketing terminology used to describe the steel. nobody is blaming anyone for anything here. Not sure where you're getting that.
 
19-3ben. I wasn't aware that Case used a synthetic jigged bone. If they do, I guess it shows how much I look at their knives in the last couple of years or when I do look at them in a store, my eyes just go for the stag and real bone scales. Even Rough Riders have real jigged bone. You out to give one of the Rough Riders a try along with the Case and see what you think.

I was told at a particular knife store that sells Rough Riders that the Case rep was there looking at the knives and bought about a dozen Rough Riders and just kept shaking his head... how do they do this for this price? Do try to avoid Frost knives however.
 
From ZviSofts Knife Steel Chart database:

Case Tru-Sharp Steel Composition And Reference Data

C: 0.46; V: 0.30; Cr: 13.00;
Mn: 0.40; P: ?; S: ?;
Si: 0.40;
Maker: Latrobe - United States (US)

Notes:
Cases uses Latrobe 420HC steel under this alias.

Cross-References:

Known Aliases:
420HC

From knarfeng:
knarfeng said:
Don't know if I'd call it "poor", but Case Tru-Sharp is 420HC anud they run it at 55-56. The higher hardness of Buck 420HC is noticeable to me in daily use, as well as in side by side testing.
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http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-420HC-as-Blade-Steel?p=16347967#post16347967

And so Case blades are light on both carbon and RC, comparative to other steels. Flip side is you can sharpen it on a rock :cool:, something that's valued by many fans of traditional folders.
 
22-rimfire said:
Even Rough Riders have real jigged bone. You out to give one of the Rough Riders a try along with the Case and see what you think.

I was told at a particular knife store that sells Rough Riders that the Case rep was there looking at the knives and bought about a dozen Rough Riders and just kept shaking his head... how do they do this for this price? Do try to avoid Frost knives however.
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I read what you wrote 22 so I went and had a look at what they had in Rough Riders on Ebay here in Aus, and I found this one, and there was only 1 available.
 
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How is the Case jigged synthetic bone? Does it actually have the look/feel of the real deal? Or is it obviously cheesy plastic?
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I am not sure exactly which material you are referring to. I looked very quickly on their site and didn't see a synthetic bone though they have jig molded plastic. Any way let me know if they have a new material of late.

The white knife below is basically plastic (called Spar X ) but I really am fond of these white knife scales. I think it feels fine / I like it. The bovine bone is slick like the plastic . . . the dif is if you look really closely you can see a grain and bits of material down in the bone that is not there in the plastic. I may one day get a Trapper in the white plastic but I am not buying knives right now.

The red knife is REAL bovine bone that is dyed red.
They have a synthetic stag which is bovine bone made to look kind of like stag. I don't have one of those.

 
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Coke said:
I read what you wrote 22 so I went and had a look at what they had in Rough Riders on Ebay here in Aus, and I found this one, and there was only 1 available:


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Thick stainless hilt, FULL tang, mosaic pins, real bone, and really nice EDC size fixed... and it will make a nice birthday present for a mate of mine.

Now there are NONE left.:D
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Dang, those are about a 20$ knife here.
BTW most rough rider pocket knives are about 12$ or less here, and I'd only recommend them at that price as sometimes you don't get a good one.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Dang, those are about a 20$ knife here.
BTW most rough rider pocket knives are about 12$ or less here, and I'd only recommend them at that price as sometimes you don't get a good one.
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A screenprint of the message I just NOW received from the Seller:


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:D
 
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Coke said:
A screenprint of the message I just NOW received from the Seller:


m9pqi9.jpg



:D
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Well that sucks, I've had a few rough riders that were all decent including the one I've kept.
That Bowie is actually pretty nice looking, but not worth that price and since the stag cracked I'm assuming they probably don't resin stabilize the stag their using causing the crack during pinning
 
There's an American seller that has a Persian styled RRider that I saw a few months ago, but for some reason, he wasn't advertising it in his listing as a RRider so when you search for all RRiders it doesn't come up. I just stumbled across it at the time by accident. He had a massive amount of them at the time, so chances are he still has a few or more left. It was a little beauty of a knife... I'll see if I can find him
 
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