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Wow Herb nice work. And what is not to love about a classic Case Stockman.herbva wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 10:45 pm Another Case with celluloid scales turned to corn flakes recently came my way. This 47 is my favorite of the stockman patterns and, of course, I had to dress it in fat stag. Yet another one with no outgassing damage to the metal parts, but I could pry the wrinkled-up old scales off in pieces with my fingernail.
Thanks Ken. I was wondering if that material was some other kind of celluloid or some other material from the 60's. I've seen a lot of these. No sign of outgassing damage, but the material had basically "dried up", and left a green, powdery deposit on the outside of both liners. I even remember one seller who maintained that the knife had just been left in the sunlight for too long.Mumbleypeg wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 2:13 am Nice job Herb!
I don’t see signs of outgassing on it. What was evident however is the shrinking seen on many yellow handle Case’s from that era. There was a period, post-celluloid and pre-Delrin, when Case used a different synthetic (not celluloid) for yellow covers. Not sure if that knife is celluloid or some other synthetic composition but I seem to see more that shrink and not as many that outgas.
Ken
I have thinned stag from the bottom for smaller knives, but recently have just gotten into a fling of leaving the stag a bit fatter, particularly for larger knives. Maybe it's just my extra large hands. One thing I've never understood is the practice of sanding off the bark, or outside part of a stag scale. I love all the irregular patterns in stag, particularly the "popcorn" look.Walleye wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 2:54 pm I recognize that this is a matter of personal taste, but I prefer stag handles that are much thinner.
When you look at how they used stag on penknives in the Tested era and earlier knives, or even British-made knives from the 1850’s - 1920’s, you will see that the stag blanks were thinned down from the bottom till they were only slightly taller than the bolsters. This left very minimal areas where the gnarly grain of the stag needed to be sanded away. The result was a thinner handle, more figure and color in the stag and little to no exposure of the “pith” in the antler.
Sometime in the 70’s-80’s it became more common for companies (including Case) to put oversized chunks of stag on the handles, grind away most of the natural texture and color and then dye or burn what was left to darken it. It seems easier to take the stag blank and thin it out on a belt sander from the bottom before assembly, doesn’t it? I know some people like heavy stag handles, but I’m not sure why that would be preferred on a pocketknife. No other handle materials are left that heavy, so why stag?