Case Brothers/Challenge?

[Bret888]

In "Images of America: W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Company". By John Sullivan and Shirley Boser, there is a picture of a Case Bros. knife, that looks a lot like a Challenge I have. In Brad Lockwoods book, he says when the Brothers went bankrupt, they owed money to Challenge, and Weibush & Hilger(who owned Challenge). There are slight differences, but I think both are Challenge made knives?

[Owd Wullie]

Fascinating.

Other than the sheepfoot vs the spey blades they look like twin sisters to me.

What about the possibility that Challenge took over the Case Brother's inventory on hand and stamped them Challenge?

[knifegirl888]

Willie,
I figured that extra spay blade was originally a sheepsfoot?
I supposed the could have given Challenge some leftover parts toward the debt. But it sounds to me, like they never made as many knives as they sold. John did some design work, but Jean and Andrew were good salesmen. Their men worked in the shop that was Job Cases barn, hand forging at 6 forges, without any trip hammers. They had been involved in jobbing knives ever since their sister married J.B.Champlin. I would have thought the source of their extra knives would have been the Platts, Browns or Champlin relatives, and it surprised me to see that they owed money to Challenge.
I would recommend that anyone who hasn't read Brad Lockwood's book "The Case Cutlery Dynasty Tested XX" get one.

This is Bret, I didn't realize Knifegirl was logged in, sorry.....