All About Pocket Knives

I may be involved in a trade for some knives. Can you guys look at the photos and tell me what you see? there is a fourth knife but the pic is bad. It might be a green bone case. Thanks
Bruce

Those pics stink.....what are you risking?

Bruce I can't recall ever seeing that pattern on the first knife. I don't know about #2 but #3 Looks ok from what I can see in the pics.

The first knife looks like a Case 046 Humpback Stockman but I can't read the tang stamp. They were discontinued long ago and then Case began making them again in 2008 I believe it was. If I'm not mistaken, the 046 has been discontinued again but I'm not sure about that.

Pictures are so poor it's difficult to tell much about them. They may be great, or they may be fakes. If you're making the trade based on these pictures alone I wouldn't risk much. If you can get some clear, in-focus close up pictures we could tell you more.

Ken

What everyone else is saying is correct. In order for any of us to assist you, we would need clear, precise close-ups of all knives involved. We also need to know what you have to trade and what you're trading for.

It sounds as though you haven't committed to a trade yet so please provide us with what we need, and then we can point you in the right direction based on the information provided.

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Mike

This may or may not help. You can't improve too much on garbage.

I'm not risking too much If we do make a deal. I put a couple of lures up for trade on a fishing tackle web site. Total retail maybe 400 bucks, my investment, a whole lot less. I've been going to this site for several years. It's kind of like doing a trade with one of you guys. That said, he's not a knife guy, and he's trusting me to be straight with him.
What I can see by really expanding the photos is; a mystery pattern that may have the tang stamped, CASE xx, a kinda' chewed up celluloid with no visible maker stamp, and a "tested" whittler. But I'm still a beginner
The fourth knife is a 2 blade delrin handle with 2 dots.
I'll try to get better pics or at least more info. Thanks for the help.
Bruce

The 2 slick black handled knives you are asking about are Case knives. The thicker one is a Case Tested XX 23046 which, in my experience, is an uncommon (this is not to say valuable) pattern. The thinner one is, I believe, is a Case Tested XX 2383. i don't collect either of these patterns so I can't comment on value. They look authentic to me, although the size of the tangs on the 2383 look odd to me (probably because I'm unfamiliar with the pattern). The blades look full. As everyone else has mentioned the pictures are miserable for trying to evaluate a knife. The metal surfaces appear very scratched and seem to have various types of residue. If the handles were natural (green bone or stag) it would be preferable over the slick black.

Thanks for clearing that up Ralph.

Here's a modern day example of the 046 Humpback Stockman that I mentioned above. This one is a 63046 pattern (6 denotes bone) and is one of the Quality Test Run knives that Case produced before reintroducing the 046 pattern to the general public. Before this reintroduction the pattern had been discontinued for several decades.

When Case brought these back they made some minor changes like a nail nick instead of a long pull, a different spey blade, and of course stainless steel blades but it's generally the same pattern.

Ralph A is correct...both knives are genuine Case Tested, and in desirable patterns. 23046 humpback stockman and 2383 whittler. Bot are the real deal as far as I can tell. The 23046 is indeed a rare pattern.