All About Pocket Knives

Just picked up this ole beauty this week. I am far from an expert but know just enough to spend a pocket full of money when the opportunity presents itself. I always turn to this forum when I need help with a knife. I have always been confused about the old Trappers. Which ones have the “Tested” frame, which have Muskrat blades and “first model” whatever that means. This one appears to me to have a muskrat blade. The front looks like second cut red stag maybe and the backside looks like red stag. Any and all opinions are really appreciated. Not for sale. Thanks in advance. [attachment=5]41C992E6-F079-4DC1-8207-0C4E5588AC23.jpeg[/attachment][attachment=4]814235F3-6ECE-4DD0-9DAD-1C6AD18C69C1.jpeg[/attachment][attachment=3]4C85F7DB-9F5C-4F29-9114-2C7567674E0F.jpeg[/attachment][attachment=2]C612EF21-A0F1-4CB5-BC72-14A4FFBF9BA7.jpeg[/attachment][attachment=1]785C9E6A-89E3-4A38-BBBF-A8DB729EA3E2.jpeg[/attachment][attachment=0]A49ECDE3-A592-4EC8-9EA3-4B2646428913.jpeg[/attachment]

Ctaylorman, I am by no means a Case expert, and I cannot tell one era Case from another just by looking at it, but there are a couple of things about that knife that do not look right to me.
The tang stamp looks like it might have been cold stamped, and it looks like it is sitting up too high on the tang. It also looks strange where the blade meets the tang. Perhaps there was just some pitting from rust that was not polished away, but it looks almost like it could have been welded together.
Finally, the shield looks wrong for that era knife.
I hope that I am wrong on all of these points, but I would be uncomfortable owning that knife unless someone who knows more assured me of it's authenticity.

I appreciate the info, the high tang stamp stood out to me as well but I am not convinced yet either way. I will have to dig deeper and hopefully a few more people on AAPK will give me some feedback also. Oh well wouldn’t be the first time if it’s not right. Thanks again!

Either way it is beautiful stag!

Possibly the blade has been welded on top of the tang. It doesn't look just right. Some amazing weld jobs popping up.

Don’t know about blade weld, shield and other things talked about, but looks to me to be a first model frame. The first model stag is fairly easy to find. Harold

Bottom knife is 1st model. You can see longer handle material, and shorter bolster. Both knives XX. Harold

In my opinion the knife is fine, probably just over cleaned which might explain the top of the stamp. Shield and everything else looks ok to me. Nice knife in my opinion. I agree that it is a 1st model. It is not second cut stag on either side, but does appear to have quite a bit of red in it so you could call it Red Stag and a lot would in my opinion.

Tom

Thank each of you more knowledgeable fellows for correcting my mistakes. Ctaylorman, I apologize for thinking that your knife was not correct.
I am not a Case collector, mainly because I don't know enough yet!
I am glad to know that you have a fine, legitimate Case. Now, to study up some more before I post more "advice"...

I appreciate all the info. I feel better now knowing it’s most likely legit. Not a problem either pointing out imperfections, like I said I was not 100% sure myself which is why I always turn to this forum to get some advise from other collectors with more knowledge than myself. I’ve been doing it a while now and still learn something new often. As far as the knife it is a really nice one, someone cleaned it up a little too much but that’s ok.
I just picked up another one I am gonna ask about soon. It’s a single blade slick black Lg Gunstock, Case Bradford era. Not sure about it, will post it soon. Thanks again!

If it were Red Stag wouldn't it have "R5254" as the pattern number, or did the use of a letter prefix only appear on later model Case knives?

QTCut5 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 29, 2022 1:16 am If it were Red Stag wouldn't it have "R5254" as the pattern number, or did the use of a letter prefix only appear on later model Case knives?

Later andnot all had them then.

For what it's worth I just looked at dozens of CASE XX stamps. NONE had the little kick up on the bottom of the "E" like this one. NONE had the cross bar on the "A" sitting so low. That's two strikes. For what it's worth, your results may vary.

Tang stamp lettering looks to be somewhat different...The "C" seems to be located just a little too close to the A and has some problems as to shape also. But as with old knives and old men parts tend to become some what distorted after some years. Knife looks good enough for me...just one problem...I don't own it. Please ignore my sentence structure and grammar?

Here is a first model that I have for purpose of comparison.

I’am no expert. I think the knife was well over-buffed..
( that is why the tang stamp is weird)
Nice knife though, especially the handles.


Bob

The position of the stamp on the tang makes me think that either the knife was agressively cleaned to remove metal up to the stamp or that there has been some welding. The fact that the blade looks to have some corrosion or porosity in the shoulder on the mark side tang doesn't jive with the thought that metal has been removed to this point as you would expect the metal to been clean here. The back side of the master kick also looks like there could have been some metal added. Could be just a bad blade grind from the factory but unusual to see a stamp located into the blade grind like this.