All About Pocket Knives

Hi there

Trying to sharpen my beginner skills. Any chance a knife was made this way? I notice a long Tang first of all. Maybe the tang has been sanded? Stamps are one sons and one son, don't know if they would do that, I thought they would just add an S if using a leftover? Anyhow I value everyone's experience here. Thanks you for your input.

Chris

https://www.ebay.com/itm/277056999314

Who doesn't like a dogleg!? Now the knife . . .

Knife looks good to me. There was in fact a W.R. CASE & SON. That was the very first company (W.R. Case & Son Cutlery Company) started by Russ Case (the son) and named for his father W. R. Case, who was his primary financial backer. That version of the company existed from 1902-1905, and was a “jobber” with knives being made by PLATTS and Napanoch.

In 1905 Harvey N. Platts (son of Charles Platts), who was married to Debbie Case, became a partner in the company. Debbie Case was Russ Case’s sister, and daughter of W.R. Case. Making him (Harvey, aka H.N.) W.R. Case’s son-in-law. So an ‘s’ was added to the company name, and the stamp. (Harvey bought out his brothers’ share of Platts & Sons, the Platts equipment was moved to Bradford PA, and W.R. CASE & SONS could now manufacture their own knives instead of having someone else make them).

Cutleries are notoriously frugal. No point in throwing out perfectly good blades just because they were stamped W.R. CASE & SON. The knife pictured appears to be a “transition” with both stamps being used on alternate blades.

Here are pictures of the W.R. CASE & SON stamp, and the W.R. CASE & SONS stamp used on the knife, as shown in Counterfeiting Antique Cutlery by Gerald Witcher.

Ken

Thank you for this info. Maybe I'm too gun shy about fakes? I'm not super confident in my pattern to maker Identification. I do have that book and it's how I made the connection maybe it's possible to have the son and Son's but I'm 2nd guessing myself a bit. I am going to post a couple more today. I hope that is ok. I'm trying to learn obviously and detecting fakes wasn't something I was counting on too much when I started this new obsession. I collected when I was a kid and had some family pass downs stored away. Sadly in January I lost my house and business in the So.Cal. Wildfires and the knives my dad and Grandfather as well as my Step dad gave me were lost. I was able to find one fixed blade buck 102 my Step Dad gave me and trying to save it led me into this new obsession I hadn't thought about for many years. Thank you for your help.

Chris

You’re welcome. It is good to be cautious about fakes when collecting older knives. Your best defense is studying them. Study that book to learn what to watch out for. When contemplating buying any older knife do your homework. It also helps to learn the histories of cutleries - the early years of Case and Case-associated companies can be complicated and confusing. Fortunately there are several helpful resources.

Ken

Sorry to read about your home and knife collection, Chris.

Yeah.

It wasn't like a valuable collection. It was more sentimental. I am working on repairing the one Buck that I was able to find in the rubble. I never liked the knife much before haha. I'm pretty sure the buck will be my favorite now no matter how it looks when I'm done.

Chris

Yes, sorry about your losses to the fire. I can't imagine how I would deal with something like that.

I don't see anything wrong with the knife other than it has been well used as you might expect. The master blade falls very short in the frame and it looks to me like the master blade has been tipped and reprofiled at some point. Not really plusses but then again it is a very old knife.