Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Case pocket knife - Steel type recomendation

Im going to buy a Case pocket knife because thats what my grandfather carried.

So step one in you guys helping pick my new knife...

Carbon steel or stainless steel?

I like carbon steel myself, especially the patina that they develop…

I prefer carbon steel but if you live near salt water I'd lean towards stainless

Personally I like carbon steel. I wouldn't buy a new Case knife online. I would want to examine the knife first and have it in hand before I plunked down some cash. The last few Case knives I have looked at have been really poor in their quality control. The fit and finish was poor, blades rubbed and wiggled when extended, the grinds were terrible, walk and talk was weak. Disappointing to say the least.

Got it.
Theres a hardware store I occasionally stop by that still stocks Case knives. Not the big displays I remember as a kid, but a nice selection under glass.

I don't live near salt, but it may be with me on freshwater trips.

Keep the suggesttions coming in, but I see a trend...

This one sits in my pocket most of the time, it is carbon and does rust. If you are a sweater I suggest you look for an early (pre '70-ish) stainless knife.





This is an early stainless Case Sleeveboard my daughter carries in her purse, it is every bit as good as the carbon steel in my Case carbon pocket knives.





Look on Ebay.

Nice old knives. Thats the memory of me in the welding shop with my grandpa..
The cardboard template carving / finger nail cleaning knife in his pocket.
Never sure where it went. Those old guys from the depression didn't have much and they didn't misplace their stuff.

Have to agree with this ^ ^ ^ ^
Most particularly a Moose pattern I have
My first one was given to me from an old
gent at a shop I worked at. One scale was
broken, and I sent it to Case and had it replaced.
Older old model carbon steel and sharp sharp.
I bought a newer one around 2000 and it's ok,
but not as good a quality all around as the
older one. The few older Case I have are all
well fitted and razor sharp and look professionally
built instead of throwed together
The newest "good " Case I have is a 1983 IIRC
plain jigged bone carbon trapper

It's not just Case. I've gotten some USA made Bucks in recent years that exhibited extemely poor/sloppy workmanship. A sign of the times. That kind of work don't pay shyt anymore so employees don't give a damn and management is only concerned with profit and pumping out numbers. Nobody much cares about quality/craftsmanship.

Case cv is very good steel. 1095 with a little vanadium. I checked a few all came in at 61 rockwell

Rick, it the CV and 1095 the same thing or is there a difference? I’ve just recently seen some listed as 1095.

I’d have to buy one from the era your grandfather lived. Reconnect with him in that manner. 70’s Cases were good knives and you can find them easily. Carbon steel for the win.

If Case has upped the heat treat number to 61, that is a very good thing. Forever Case kept the heat treat low to make sharpening the knife easy. People complained about Buck's hard steel because they were used to a lot of the competitors using low Rc steels. The low Rc was easy to sharpen and easy to touch up, but it needed to be touched up much more often than Buck with its harder steel. Then when a Buck with a Rc of 59-60 needed sharpened the whetstones of the time weren't always up to the task. 1095 at Rc57 is a different animal than 1095 at Rc 61.

Yes, the older Bucks were hard to sharpen but they hold a great edge.

Carbon steel, then stick it in an apple. It will develop a nice patina.

Blackheart is right , most USA made knife makers are not putting out the quality of blades that they have in the past . with all of the cheap crap coming in to USA from sh!! hole countries they have to reduce their quality to be able to stay in business . in my mind it is a shame that this is happening here. I am glad that we have a good bunch of fellows that make custom blade,s

Buck, back then, used 420C stainless steel. Not 440C. This was purposely done to reduce wear on their dies that punched out blade patterns. Softer, lower carbon, steel easier on the dies. Dies last longer and don’t have to be replaced as often. Makes the bean counters happier.

To compensate for the lower carbon steel, they heat treated it a smidge harder, which made the blade, in relative terms, more difficult to sharpen. Told to me by Buck reps years ago.

Of course, with any stainless, you resharpen when the blade is, or feels, half as sharp as it was…..a 50% loss in cutting ability. This only a subjective estimation obviously. If you wait till the blade is “all the way dull” you’ll have to totally reset the bevel to resharpen. Not so if it’s estimated to be half sharp or half dull….however you wish to see it.

This is off topic but Buck did use 440c until 1981, then 425m until 1992, when they went to 420hc.

Hank is definitely right about sharpening. Don't let them get super dull and it's easy to bring one back to life.

Correctumundo...

Case stainless can be pretty soft, the carbon is much better. You might have to look at multiple knives to find a good one, but for the money Case is still a good knife. I like their slimline trappers, sodbusters, and the Bose designed Backpocket and Swayback.