Actually that statement is not true and is a common misconception.Elvis wrote:TripleF wrote:At the factory, tang stamps are done then the metal is hot, so the inside of the lettering has a rough texture and a dark appearance.
Think of the logistics...you put several hundred blades (actually blade blanks) in baskets into a heat treat furnace and heat them all up to cherry red. Then you have to take them out, handle each individual blade blank (while still red hot), put each one into a stamping machine (while still red hot), get the blade blank precisely aligned and stamp the tang stamp. Then again (while still red hot) get all of these stamped blade blanks back into the heat treat furnace to keep them red hot to continue the heat treating process, hoping that the process of taking them out and putting them back in did not alter the proper blade hardening in the heat treat process.
The above would be a real challenge even with today's automated equipment let alone with the manual methods of yesteryear.
I have toured the Case plant and I can assure you that the tang stamps are stamped on to the blade blanks as part of the blanking process, long before the blades even get to the heat treat ovens. And Case (and other knife companies, at least the traditional manufacturers) have always done it that way. This is verified by looking at the Case sequence of manufacturing boards and by sequence of manufacturing descriptions in the catalogs of other early knife companies.
The term "cold stamped" is actually a misnomer. It does mean that the stamp was done with the metal at room temperature, but done on a finished blade after it has been hardened and tempered. So the "cold stamped" stamp will have a different appearance than the same stamp that was done at the factory (also with the blade blank at room temperature) prior to the blade being heat hardened and tempered.