Case Knife Collecting 101 Chapter 2

Now that you have selected a Case pattern or patterns,this is how you identify patterns and year of manufacture from 2000 to 2010.
Example Pattern #6254 SS
First Number indicates handle material Material Keys are:
1 - Solid Hardwoods
2 - Smooth Black Synthetic Thermoplastic Rubber [example Case Sodbuster]
3 - Smooth Yellow Synthetic
4 - Smooth Synthetic [Various Colors]
5 - Genunine Stag Bone [Most Recent Release Sanbar Stag]
6- Jigged Bone[various Colors] Jigged Brown Synthetic, Jigged Laminated Hardwood [Most Case knives are Jigged Bone]
6.5- Bone Stag [6 means Bone 5 for its Stag Appearance]
7/P - Curly Maple,Oak,Rosewood,Lacewood and Smooth Laminated Hardwoods
8 - Genunine Mother of Pearl
9 - Imitation Mother of Pearl
10 - Micarta, G 10
I - Ivory
EX - Exotic Materials [example: Arizona Jade] EX gees before the the Blade Number example: EX220SS= Exotic Material,2 Blades,20Peanut PatternNumber.
Note: Case places a 9 Before the Item Numberto indicate Scrolled Bolisters.
Second Number indicates number of Blades
Third,Fourth,Fifth Indicates Case Pattern Number
6254 SS = 6Bone 2 Blade and54 is the Case Pattern number SS indicates Stainless Steel Blades. This knife is a Trapper with Bone Handles.
NOTE : SOME CASE KNIVES DON'T HAVE PATTERN NUMBERSthe Muskrat pocket Folder is one Muskrat is the Casepattern.Case Hunting and other Special Knives don't have pattern numbers.
It all can be a bit confusing Case even puts lettersafter the pattern number,Here are a fewSome are gemonothers are not.
1/2 - Master Blade is Clip Style
D - DamascusSteel Blades
E - Etched Blade
ENS - Etched Blade,Numbered,Scrolled Bolisters
L - Locking Blade [Slim Lock, Russlock,Lockback and Chettah]
LC - Lady Case Blade Etch- Special Factory Order Knife
MC - Miss Case - Special Factory Order Knife
N - Indicates numbered knife onblade or bolister[ for example 6 of 100 produced]
S - Scrolled Bolisters
RAZ - RazorStyle Blade and Knife
SP - Spear and Spatula Blades - Baby Doc's
W - Wharncliff Blade
WH - Whittler
Note: Most Scrolled Bolistered Knives are Numbered if very limited amount produced ie: 1/100the pattern number would end with NS
Case knives from 2000 to 2010 usethe 5x's 5dot Tang stamp toindicateyear of manufacture.Case took away one dot each year starting 2001 x removal begins this year example: 5x's 3 dots indicates 2002 knife dot was taken away 2001 and 2002 another example 5x's no dots indicates 2005 knife dots removed 2001,2,3,4,5, A 2006 knife has 4x's 1 x was removed this year.
I hope I have shed some light on Case Patterns and most recent Tang Stamp year of manufacture marking system.I will be doing some more on Case Knife Collecting 101 guides.
Thanks for Viewing Don......sharp_edgeknives