The W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Company has a very rich history that began in 1889 when William Russell (“W.R.”), Jean, John, and Andrew Case began fashioning their knives and selling them along a wagon trail in upstate New York. The company has produced countless treasures and it continues to do so as one of the most collected brands in the world.
I am intrigued by this knife because I've been collecting 07 Mini Trappers for many years and this is the first XX era Stag 5207 I've ever seen. At first I thought it was probably a 6207 that had been re-handled in stag, but the third photo appears to show a 5207 pattern number.
Does anyone reading this happen to know if Case actually produced a 5207 in the XX era or is this a fake?
(Seller's pics are terrible, I requested some better/in-focus photos and he sent the three at the bottom )
Very interesting knife Q. Two of my reference books indicate they were made in stag during the tested era and then off and on during the 70's and 80's, but I can't find any indication they were made during the XX era. I will be interested to hear what the experts have to say. By the way, this seller has a lot of knives for sale, including over 100 Case, and I noticed an interesting 61165 "pocket hunter" listed as having ivory scales. I've never seen jigged ivory before, and this doesn't really look like ivory to me anyway, but I wonder how long it is going to take for the ebay ivory police to pounce on it.
In the 70's, counterfeiters would buy then-current Case knives and rehandle them in stag, stamping them CASE XX or Case Tested, and usually faking the pattern numbers as well.
I recall one time - this would be about 1976 - seeing one dealer with seven or eight XX stamped knives, all in stag, all with "5" pattern numbers, and all fake. There were several patterns like the 5250 and 5308 that were never made in stag in the XX stamp. They all looked great, but all fake.
Steve Pfeiffer, author of Collecting Case Knives: Identification and Price Guide published by Krause Publications.
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