All About Pocket Knives

I help my husband with his knife collection and he has acquired a 2022 Case XX blue pearl knife that has stumped us. The knife is an 8 dot (2022) tang stamp with a model 9254 stamped on the second blade. This appears to be a normal full size trapper knife. The handle is a beautiful blue pearl synthetic material. I initially believes that the knife had a Sparxx blue pearl kirinite handle but the model number is incorrect for that. Also, the shield is different than any I've been able to find. It's an oval shield with the CASE stamped in thick block letters. I've attached 2 pics. Any ideas?

There are some real case experts here that I'm sure can answer your question but in the meantime let me just say that those handles are gorgeous.

And welcome!

Where did you purchase the knife (an authorized Case dealer, online seller, or?). Is the box in the background the box it came in, and if so can we see a picture of the label from the box?

The reason I’m asking is that many (most) are not aware an entire aftermarket industry exists doing modifications to Case and other brands. Case has their own in-house line of knives with acrylic handle covers using a material they call Kirinite®. ALL of the knives having those handles that originated at the Case factory have pinned-on handle covers. However your knife has no pins - it appears the covers are glued on.

There is at least one line of knives (original Case knives) that are modified aftermarket. Those have covers made from a synthetic (acrylic) called Corelon® which is a trademark owned by Frost Cutlery. Frost buys knives from Case (and other makers like Buck) either sans covers, or removes the original covers, glues on their Corelon® covers, then boxes, labels and distributes them through their distributor network. Those knives typically have a 9 or 10 handle code in the pattern number (some of the earlier ones have a 3). Most buyers are unaware the knife has covers (and possibly other embellishments, such as blade etches) that are not originated from Case.

I suspect your knife may be one of those aftermarket re-worked knives. Nothing wrong with that. Some people collect them. Frost Cutlery has a licensing agreement with Case. The “tell” on Corelon® knives is the lack of pins. I believe some others (Yellowhorse, Santa Fe Stoneworks, etc) may have similar agreements with manufacturers for purchasing, reworking and rebranding knives. It’s complicated.

Ken

Glad someone knowledgeable came by to enlighten you and me, very pretty knife and welcome to the forum.

I thought I found a match, but it was your eBay listing. There was also a Worthpoint listing, did you buy this knife at an auction?

Thanks for all the information! Yes, my husband has decided to thin his collection some and placed a few knives on ebay. It was during the creation of the auctions that I realized that things didn’t make sense as far as the numbers, etc. I had to ask my husband about where it was purchased and he got it from an online seller, not a dealer. Also, the box that he received the knife in was an incorrect knife box. So the box doesn't help us at all. He was aware at the time of purchase that it was coming in the wrong box apparently.

I can't believe I didn’t even notice the lack of pins on the handle. That's a big tell. I imagine that's also the reason that the shield doesn't match up to anything we've been able to find either.

Thanks again for all of the information! This has helped tremendously!

The lack of any pins in the handle makes me think that it was rehandled by a third party.

Still, it's a great looking knife, hope it sells well for you.

Check out this thread- https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kn ... hp?t=12184

Specifically the post about Michael Prater's Corelon.

For those who are interested here’s more https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kn ... r#p1062466

And FWIW here’s the U.S. trademark registration showing Corelon registration belonging to Frost Cutlery.

Ken

Yours looks like my Aquarius Corelon (9254), not Blue Pearl (10254). Also, not sure about your shield. If these knives did not have the arrowhead shield, it seems they had the oval inside an oval - so that’s puzzling. You can ignore the blade etching. For some reason it’s on some and not others - and not all had the slant bolsters. This is a pic of mine.