All About Pocket Knives

Here's another one of my Case canoes.

Here's something else I found on another forum posted by someone using the screen name "knifeaholic". I'm not sure about the accuracy of the information but the guy seems to know what he's talking about.

"Prior to the modern "collector" era, the canoe was not a widely produced pattern.

If we look back to the "golden age" era of late 1800's up to WWII, very few companies made the pattern. The three that producrd it the most were Case Brothers Cutlery Comapny, their arch-rival WR Case & Sons, and Union Cutlery Company, which later became KABAR.

Actually, Case Brothers and Union cutlery mainly produced the large canoe or "gunboat" pattern. I have never seen a Case Brothers "standard" size canoe (3-5/8"). Union Cutlery listed the smaller canoe in their catalogs in the early 1900's, but I have never seen one. Union did produce a lot of the bigger gunboats, though.

The only two other companies that I know of that made either canoes or gunboats in that era were Boker USA and Utica Cutlery....but neither company widely produced the patter and canoes or gunboats with these markings are super rare.

In the Pre-WWII era, WR Case & Sons was the highest volume producer of the "standard" size canoe - they made the 2-blade version (52131) and the very rare 3 blade version (53131).

After WWII, Case was the only company to keep the canoe in their product line, in the 2 blade version only.

An intersting factoid about the Case canoe....it was ONLY offered in genuine stag (52131) from the Case Tested era up to late 1964. In 1964 Case did a pilot run of the canoe in bone (62131)...and these had the CASE XX tang stamping. They did not put the 62131 into regular production until the following year (1965)...and all of the regular production models had the CASE XX USA tang stamp. This makes the CASE XX marked 62131 SUPER SUPER RARE. Beware as a lot of them have been counterfeitedout of newer 62131 patterns.

Case continued production of the 52131 along with the 62131 until genuine stag was discontinued in 1970.

As far as what company originated the pattern, if you count the gunboat as a canoe, I would say that Case Brothers probably originated the pattern. Just a guess. "

http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showt ... /last/m/1/

An FYI Charlie.....knifeaholic is a member here as well....

This is his info:
Steve Pfeiffer, author of Collecting Case Knives: Identification and Price Guide released October 1, 2009.

I knew there was a "knifeaholic" posting here but couldn't be sure it was the same person. So, my impression that the guy knows what he's talking about is correct. Thanks for the info.

Come on guys! Where are all the canoes??? I'm starting to feel a bit foolish here posting all by myself! Here's a brand new acquisition that just arrived this evening. Being Irish and a canoe collector I just couldn't pass up a clover green canoe!

I've a bit of Irish in me too, and that is an awsome knife!

timgreene48 wrote:I've a bit of Irish in me too, and that is an awsome knife!

Erin Go Bragh!

Here's another one from my collection. I can't keep this show going forever by myself. Let's see some canoes from others collections!

Squatch, you are a beast indeed! Your canoe collection is vast and varied, thanks so much for sharing!
Mike

Thanks my friend. The last one was a double post! I seem to be losing track of which ones I've shown so far. I might be starting to suffer from a bit of oldtimers disease! So here's one I'm reasonably certain I haven't shown here yet.........I hope!

FYI Beechtree, I finally got around to purchasing a Goins Encyclopedia Of Cutlery Markings (it was long overdue) and it also lists Case Brothers as introducing the canoe pattern @ 1900.

Great to hear it Squach, Goin's is a wonderful source. Thanks for the info, its much appreciated. The canoe style is older than I anticipated, very nice. These are some beautiful knives, that "Luck Of The Irish" is great.

Thanks Beechtree. Being of Irish descent I really like that too. Here's another one of my canoes.

Hey guys, greetings from Oklahoma.

I've carried a pocket knife basically my entire life. I got my first, a Schrade Old Timer from my grandpa when I was 10 or 12. Still have it. I am now 44 years old and it saddens me that kids today (those in their 20's) don't carry a pocket knife.

I blame our country and society as a whole. I can remember when I was a kid in school (in the 80's) when a teacher needed to cut something, she would ask the class, "who has a pocket knife?" And three or four of us would approach her desk, knives in hand and she would just grab whichever one was closest to her. She would then open the knife (yes, she knew how because her husband showed her how) cut whatever she needed to cut, close the knife (again, an oddity today) and return it to the owner.

Same went with the principal and superintendant. They both carried pocket knives as well. Hell, during bird seaon or deer season, they would also have a shotgun or rifle in their cars because they either went hunting the previous day or they were gonna go hunting after school that day. A pocket knife was just something a man carried back then. And here's the funny part...nobody got hurt with 'em! Oh sure, you might hurt yourself with your knife, but we didn't stab each other with 'em!

Anyway...I'm rambling on about the past.

Like I said, I've always carried a pocket knife, but could never afford a Case. Well, I found one a couple of weeks ago and since then, I've bought three more! The knife I purchased was a Case Canoe. Part of their "Pocket Worn" series. I'm no photographer, so here's a stolen internet pic...



I know what you're thinking and no, this isn't exactly like mine. My Canoe is the standard, pocket worn model without the fancy engraving here and there and no, it did not come with the Zippo.

It also didn''t come with a box. Is there anybody out there that has a Case Pocket Worn Canoe box they are willing to sell? I collect boxes as bad as I do knives!

Anyway, I also have an Uncle Henry Canoe and a Buck Canoe. Yes, the Canoe is my very favorite style.

I have just ONE canoe at the moment, looks like this:


I have been bitten by the bug and have a few CASE canoes on the way. Will post up when they arrive. One of them is a pretty limited run of only 100 made. Expensive for me! To be continued....

Welcome to AAPK. That's a fine looking canoe to get started on.

Thanks for the welcome!

Not a big fan of the CV blades so it just sits.

I just ordered same with SS blades for my EDC. The SS version is slightly more difficult to find.

Actually have 3 other Case canoes arriving today!

Welcome titanNV!!!

Beautiful canoes all!

I know what you mean Glock 'em, when I was a kid in grammar school it was the odd boy who didn't have a pocket knife on him. Now-a-days a kid will be expelled for having a nail clipper on him!!! Damn shame, isn't it? My Grandpa carried a canoe but I believe my very first pocket knife was a Colonial single blade jack with jigged black painted metal handles that I won at a local carnival when I was 9 or 10. There were many more to come, needless to say.

Here's my most recent acquisition for the collection :

Here is a Case canoe in my EDC rotation:

Custom engraved with my initials on the bolsters.

Also full name engraved on the blade.

That is one outstanding canoe, Titan! I have one almost like it without the custom engraving. Was it a gift? If so, someone thought a great deal of you.

Here's a pic of my William Russel Case canoe and a pic of my latest acquisition.

I actually did the engraving to see what it would look like to have engraved bolsters!!

Cool WR Case yourself - 1st run. Your resale value is much higher than mine - unless my buyer's initials are WB!

Like that second canoe as well! What's the story on that?

Here is one of my latest:

"Vintage Stag" with "anthracite" PVD coating.

(All of my Case knives are recent productions.)

It's a SFO, 1 of 300. It's serialized on the oval shield. When I saw the traditional etching that usually graces the master blade done on the orange bone handle.....I just had to have one! It would've been even better if they had etched the blade as well! This one is #76.

I had some custom work done to this one, the handles and the bolsters. I posted it earlier on this thread but just in case you haven't read back, here it is again.



I wanted at least one knife in my collection that was personalized just for me.

That stag anthracite canoe is another outstanding canoe!! I grabbed one of them when they first came out, they are beautiful.

Here's another stag canoe I'm fond of:

I've seen that last one several times before - none of the pics looked nearly as nice as your pic so I never pulled the trigger on one.

The custom knife - are you kidding? Of course I went from the beginning to see all of the canoes posted! You are just proud of that thing with good reason - one of kind and personalized! Sure is a beaut!

I will need to post more pics time permitting.

Here's another one, Case Limited Edition Series V. I always liked the blue bone!