All About Pocket Knives

I am perplexed with these two knives. They are both stamped 6380. I personally would think these knives are second cut stag and should be stamped 5380. One is a 1975 5 dot and the other a 1976 4 dot. My question is . Have the blades been changed? I am guessing yes but would like someone more knowledgeable that I to confirm one way or the other. I certainly don't want to misrepresent them.
Thanks in advance.

Tom

Tom,I believe Case used #5 or #6 to mark second cut stag.Nice whittlers! Bill

Bill, I knew that they did during the USA timeframe 65-69 These being newer whittlers is what threw me. I have never seen the knives with handles like these marked with a 6.

Tom

Tom,I don`t find any listing for a 5380 in Tony Fosters price guide thru the 70`s,I would think they are bone,although the top knife looks to be second cut.Their appearance does look like a lot of second cut stags look. From the pictures the blades don`t appear to have been changed! Bill

Thanks, Bill
They appear to have not had the blades changed, maybe they are bone. I was thinking maybe they were later knives that had the master blade replaced but with both of them having a 6, I began to wonder.

Tom

Tom, from what I can see it appears the bottom knife in the pictures has a clip and a pen for secondary blades. All the 8380 patterns I have seen have a clip and a coping for secondary blades. Am I seeing this correctly or does it just look that way in the pictures? The top knife looks to have a coping blade. Also, are the blades stainless? If I'm reading it correctly, Steve Pfeiffer's book says Case made some SFO 6380's in early 1980s in second cut stag with stainless steel blades. Other than that blades were always CV and until then the pattern was made only in bone, except during 1970s when Delrin was substituted for bone on a random basis.

Hope this helps. Maybe if Steve sees this he will clarify, or correct me.

Ken

Tom , I think that both knives are 2nd cut stag . That being the case , they should have 1984 stainless blades . I agree with you that the blades have been changed , however , it has apparently been done by a very talented individual . Do the secondary blades appear to be stainless ?
Bob

None of the blades are marked SS, not sure whether they are stainless. One of the knives does have a pen blade. Hard to tell what happened but having a hard time thinking the blades are right with those handles.

Tom

I agree that the bone sure as hell look exactly like color and jigging of the 1984 second cut series.

I had the same reaction Tom,when Upnorth sent me a scan of his '80s. The bottom one sure looks like it's related to yours. I asked him if it was 2nd cut stag ,and he said it was bone. I respect his opinion.

Lyle, it does look like a relative, still not sure. Thanks for posting those. If the blades have been replaced, kind of wondering what happened to the original blades.

Tom

olderdogs1 wrote:Lyle, it does look like a relative, still not sure. Thanks for posting those. If the blades have been replaced, kind of wondering what happened to the original blades.

Tom

Those could be "lunch box" knives . I saw several renditions of 70's & 80's "lunch box" knives at the last Bradford show . Employees and former employees were carrying them in by the roll full (mostly converted from factory seconds) .

robinetn wrote:

olderdogs1 wrote:Lyle, it does look like a relative, still not sure. Thanks for posting those. If the blades have been replaced, kind of wondering what happened to the original blades.

Tom

Those could be "lunch box" knives . I saw several renditions of 70's & 80's "lunch box" knives at the last Bradford show . Employees and former employees were carrying them in by the roll full (mostly converted from factory seconds) .

Kind of like Johnny Cash's Cadillac, hauled out one piece at a time, lol

Tom

Bob, Did the employees call the knives "lunch box" knives? I have heard the term for years but never knew they actually existed per say.
I always thought they were just a term for a knife that had an odd blade that wasn't factory. Would Case approve of the employees making them? Very interesting to me.

Tom

I don`t think Case would approve of employees doing that,although it probably has always happened!

olderdogs1 wrote:Bob, Did the employees call the knives "lunch box" knives? I have heard the term for years but never knew they actually existed per say.
I always thought they were just a term for a knife that had an odd blade that wasn't factory. Would Case approve of the employees making them? Very interesting to me.

Tom

They just called them factory seconds that they " merged " together to create good everyday users , however , a few of them didn't volunteer any information and only admitted what they had after they realized that the prospective buyer knew that the knives were not original .

Thanks, Bob,
I'd like to go up there someday.

Tom

olderdogs1 wrote:Bob, Did the employees call the knives "lunch box" knives? I have heard the term for years but never knew they actually existed per say.
I always thought they were just a term for a knife that had an odd blade that wasn't factory. Would Case approve of the employees making them? Very interesting to me.

Tom

I think that the term "lunch box knives" (a knife that had to be smuggled out in an employee lunch box) pretty strongly implies that the manufacturer didn't approve of their manufacture.

A good rule of thumb is...Case NEVER made an 80 pattern whittler in stag and CV. Period. Case closed.

The few stag 80 patterns that were made were SS and were made in the early to mid 1980's as limited factory releases or as SFO's for other companies.

Case never made the 80 pattern with a pen blade.

I would have to see more pics of the two posted knives, but I would say possibly rehandled rather than rebladed. Most likely someone took delrin handled 6380s and put those handles on with the bone shields replacing the delrin shields.

The handles on the top knife do not look like any Case factory handles. They look lilke some sort of homemade attempt. The lower knife the handles do look like the 80's second cut stag.

Thanks Steve, really appreciate the information. Thanks to everyone that commented. great folks here on AAPK.

Tom