Case tested with hour bomb shield

steve99f · Post by **steve99f** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 11:06 am

This thread just made my day, thanks guys, those are some fine knives!

knife7knut · Post by **knife7knut** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 1:55 pm

Interesting thread and some really beautiful knives displayed here.
Although I have quite a few Case knives I haven't really studied all the nuances associated with the brand so I cannot claim to know a whole lot about them. That being said I offer this up: Somewhere in this forum I seem to recall reading that the plain bomb shield could possibly have been just a regular shield that had been mounted upside down for whatever reason. Has anyone ever removed one of them to see if this were the case?
I also offer up my one and only bomb shield knife: a 5165 that has a bail attached. I have also read that Case never offered a bail on these knives and that it must have been an aftermarket installation. Well this is the story of this particular knife and I will leave it to your judgement as to whether this was the case or not.
I received this knife along with several others from an acquaintance in exchange for some repair work I had performed on a hundred year old draftsman's case that was covered with ray skin. This knife had belonged to his father-in-law and they had found it and the others in his cellar while cleaning it out after he had passed away. It apparently had been submerged in water for a period of time as the knife was rusted shut and was only able to be opened after soaking for several weeks in penetrating oil. When I finally did manage to pry it open I tried cleaning it to see what the tang stamp was but to no avail. The prolonged soaking had also darkened the stag considerably. I managed to clean the corrosion from the blade and put a decent edge on it.
As a collector piece I doubt it has much value but I like the story behind it and it will be included in the book I have been trying to write for the past several years.
Many Case collectors have said that the bail is not original to the knife but it was on there when I got it over 30 years ago and it doesn't look like someone had added it. So that is the story and I'm sticking to it!

Berryb · Post by **Berryb** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 3:46 pm

K7K: thats a really nice knife. But I gotta ask; how did you clean it up so much without it looking "cleaned"?
Bruce

gsmith7158 · Post by **gsmith7158** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 4:57 pm

Ray I believe Case would ad bails on special orders. There is a pic in Sargents 7th of a case with about 27 patterns with bails also Steve confirms that in this thread.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=46841&p=481082&hil ... ls#p481082

knife7knut · Post by **knife7knut** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 5:07 pm

Berryb wrote:K7K: thats a really nice knife. But I gotta ask; how did you clean it up so much without it looking "cleaned"?

Bruce

There is an incredible amount of pitting in the blade and I basically just started sanding it out using 220 grit wet or dry paper on a flat surface using 3-in-1 oil for a lubricant.After removing as much of the pitted steel as possible without seriously compromising the shape(it still has a lot removed)I switched to 320 grit and then to 400 grit to finish it up. There is still a lot of pitting that cannot be removed but it makes a nice carry knife. The stag is in beautiful shape and the color is perfect for my tastes.
EDIT: Here are some close up pictures of the blade and handles.