Case Fishtail/Bowtie (or Fish Tale)

[herbva]

So I bid on this auction for the Case pattern 28 (top of the first picture), won, and along with it came the pattern 051 " fishtail" or "bowtie", and a spare Case Tested blade. I stupidly started tinkering around with the fishtail without taking a picture, so the first picture, which is a screen shot from the auction, will have to do. The knife was badly abused, with a broken blade tip, rough gouges where someone had apparently tried to turn it into an "easy opener", missing scales, and although I couldn't see it in the auction pics, a badly bent frame. But, I thought I noticed what might be an early Case Bradford tang stamp on the blade. The remaining pics are the finished product (or at least finished for now). I reprofiled the broken blade, put on nutmeg catalina jigged bone from Culpepper, patched the messed up liners and tried to straighten everything out. As you can see from the picture of the back, I didn't get everything straightened out as well as I would have liked. I've done some research on this knife, and since there are no holes in the mark side liner for pinning a shield, I think this one might have had either the candystripe or tortoise shell celluloid scales, which were popular at the time. Unfortunately, I can't do anything about the blade, which is about 3/4" short. Well, at least now think I have an early Case Bradford in my collection. Now, I can't wait to start on the 6228. Sorry for the long tale. P.S. if anyone is familiar with these, I would like to know if the tang stamp looks authentic.

[orvet]

Nice save Herb!
I know nothing about Case knives, especially the older ones, but I am confident someone will be along and verify the authenticity of your knife.

[Doc B]

Turned out nice! Looks like the blade has nice proportions, when open, despite being a bit short.

[herbva]

Thanks Dale. I wish I could figure out how to do a better job on those bent liners, particularly on these oldies. I think I've gotten them straightened out, but when I put the knife back together and peen the pins down, those unsightly gaps along the springs show up.

[XX Case XX]

For a knife in that state of disrepair, I'd say you did a stellar job. Depending on the condition of a knife when it arrives, sometimes, there is only so much you can do. I think this is one of those instances.

That being said, I feel you did a fantastic job with what you had to work with. Nicely done.

____________
Mike

[doglegg]

Very knice herbva, nice warm handles.

[Jeffinn]

Looks good, nice save!
Jeff

[TripleF]

Very knice Herb!!!!

[Meridian_Mike]

Man..... that is really nice work! Good save!

2 thumbs up!!

[Reverand]

Good choice on those handles!
I have not tried to patch liners like that before, but that is a good save! I probably woukd have cut new liners for it, which doesn't always work out as well as I would like.
You should proudly add this one to your collection!

[herbva]

Thanks for all the kind words. Yup, this was my first try at patching liners and the first time I recall ever having to do it. I trimmed up those gnawed out areas into small rectangles and then luckily found a "donor" liner of exactly the same thickness in my parts bin. Then all I had to do was epoxy the new pieces in when I epoxied the new scales on before sanding an pinning. And yes, this one will reside in my "permanent" collection unless someone makes me a really good offer for it!

[glennbad]

Looks nice! You have more ambition than I do, that would've went right into my junker pile. Good save!

[herbva]

LOL, it actually was headed for my parts collection, but I started tinkering with it and couldn't stop!