All About Pocket Knives

Just looking for confirmation on the age of this knife. I was told it was pre ww1. From what I have looked up based on the tang stamps I’m thinking it’s from 1905-1914. If anyone could confirm that and maybe a rough idea of value I would be very appreciative.

Look under "Knife related Q & A."/ "Tang Stamp Charts". You'll see the circle "Tested XX" as 1914-1920. I have the small stockman pattern from the same period with the gold glitter celluloid. Lucky you. Welcome to the site. J.O'.

I would say pre-1920, looks like it's in great condition too.

Very interesting knife. The Tested XX trademark was owned initially by Case Brothers. W.R. Case & Sons was a different company, owned by Russell Case who was the nephew of the owners of Case Brothers. They were competing companies. The W. R. Case & Sons stamp, which appears to be on the mark side tang of the master blade, is believed to have been used 1905-1914. At that time W.R. Case & Sons did not have the rights to the Tested XX trademark - it was owned by the competitor Case Brothers Cutlery.

When Case Brothers Cutlery went bankrupt, in 1915 W.R. Case & Sons acquired the rights to the Tested XX trademark. They began using it ASAP but also at the time changed their primary stamp from “W.R. Case & Sons” to “Case Bradford”. All this background to say it’s very unusual to see an old knife stamped W.R. Case & Sons AND Tested XX. In fact I’ve never seen one before.

The knife seems a conundrum. The W.R. Case & Sons stamp dates to 1905-1914. The Tested XX in a circle dates from 1915-1919. (Case Brothers never used Tested XX in a circle - putting the trademark in a circle was a W.R. Case innovation). I’m not necessarily questioning the knife’s authenticity - it’s possibly a very early use of the Tested XX trademark, on a W.R. Case blade. If so, it probably narrows the manufacturing date to ~ 1915. JMO.

BTW the 81 pattern is a 3-3/4 inch (closed length) “bowed” physician’s knife pattern. Your knife should have a slightly “bowed” or curved frame, which I can’t tell from the angle of your picture. It should also have a significantly larger cap bolster than your knife has. Your knife has been buffed a good bit.
Maybe one of the experts on older Case knives will give an opinion.

Thanks for showing it and welcome to AAPK.

Ken

Here's my little Bradford stockman. It has the oval, "CASE TESTED XX" stamp on the main blade pile side.(1914-1920) It's a SS233 pattern stamped on the pen, so I'm guessing late teens to '20 on the stainless. The pile side scale was gassing pretty badly. It appears the scales are just clear celluloid over a strip of white, covered with glitter. The glitter strip is very tightly bonded, hard to remove.

That bottom photo looks like it's gassing up real bad.

It is. I'm going to rehandle it next winter when fishing season is over. O'.