Hands-On: W.R. Case’s Red CV Pocket Knives
By Chuck CageSummary/Conclusion
Sean: “On the whole, mine was a very positve experience. The CV blades are shiny and durable. Though I picked up a few scuffs on the casing and bolsters from carrying other crap in my pocket with the knife, the blades still look great — especially when you consider what I’ve been doing with them. They do seem to gather more fingerprints than my other knives, but that might just be my imagination. It’s a fine example of a Case knife: Sold, sturdy, and pretty.”
My experiences we the same: very positive. I love the size, shape, and utility of the Medium Stockman, and my blades held up even better than Seans. Hell, this knife would easily last me twenty years.
Sadly, we’ll soon be returning these to Case. Hey, maybe I’ll add mine to the Christmas list.
Street pricing for both knives starts around $44.
The Red CV Line (Multiple Patterns) [W.R. Case]
November 18th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
[…] Hands-On: W.R. Case’s Red CV Pocket Knives With a little goading we put aside our daily-carry pocket knives to try out a couple from Case’s new Red CV series. Their covers are made of red-tinted bone, and they feature blades made of chrome vanadium — an alloy near to any Toolmonger’s heart. We carried ‘em, used ‘em, and abused ‘em for two weeks straight and report our findings. […]
November 19th, 2006 at 1:47 am
If you want to start talking about newer blade steels, I’d suggest you head over to bladeforums.com. The stuff used in the Case knives is nothing special compared to the newer cutlery steels out these days. For example, ZDP-189 has a working hardness of up to 67rc, resulting in amazing edge retention.
As for the opinion of your professional sharpener, the sharpening (or polishing rather, they’re one in the same with these swords) of traditional japanese swords is an art form in and of itself. Having a real sword polished by a non-specialist will pretty much ruin it. A “Hanzo Kantana” sounds like one of the cheap replicas styled after the Kill Bill movies.
November 19th, 2006 at 5:21 pm
NarcolepticDoc: It’s funny; He suggested that we not mention the Hanzos because we’d immediately see comments on how they’re fakes.
The short take: We did, anyway. He was right. They’re not fake. He is a “specialist” in a number of areas of sharpening. That’s why we go to him. That’s why we mentioned the Hanzos — real ones are rare and difficult to sharpen, and it’s the kind of thing he does — and that helps others to understand why we value his opinion.
Chuck
November 19th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
The simple fact of the matter is that there is NO such thing as a ‘real’ Hanzo katana, because the swordsmith in the movie is a fictional character. There is a historical record of a real ‘Hatori Hanzo, but he wasn’t a swordsmith.
http://www.shopusmore.com/articles/hattori_hanzo.html
The very fact that you’re even talking about ‘Hanzo Katanas’ speaks volumes about the likelihood of those being real japanese swords (as opposed to ’sword like objects’) or of your sharpener being somebody who’s qualified to properly polish a valuable sword (of which there are very few westerners).
http://www.bigempire.com/sake/sword.html
“Working 10 to 12 hours a day, the entire polish could take a couple weeks. A typical charge, including the polish, a new sheath, and any adjustments needed to the handle, is roughly 400,000 yen.” That’s about $4000 USD for a polish on a single sword.
Either way ‘Chrome Vanadium’ is hardly a unique combination of alloys in a stainless, nor is it even a valid descriptor of a particular steel.
November 19th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
Great information!
re: swords — The correct term, I suppose, would be “Hanzo-style” as the swords in question were made by a master bladesmith in Japan using the same methodology. Make sense?
re: CV — As we’re primarily a tool site, the CV knives caught our attention not because the alloy was particularly “original” as much as because we figured the composition would strike a chord with other toolaholics.
Thanks for the great comments. You sound like you’re pretty seriously into blades! Have you done some work in the field?
January 6th, 2007 at 9:00 am
Thank for the excellent review on Case knives as actual tools. Case knives with CV blades are great!. They are handcrafted so no two are exactly alike (bone handles mainly) and CV can be easily brought to a razor edge with a regular sharpening stone. They are not stainless so they can rust, but I don’t work around a lot of water and it’s not a real problem.
Some comments on a prior post: ZDP-189 I understand is a great steel. I’m guessing it is harder to sharpen and one will need a diamond sharpener (which makes life easier in the shop anyway). Plus, I don’t know of a stockman pattern made in ZDP-189. I like traditional knives. Lastly, if a stockman was made in ZDP-189 it would probably cost 2-3 times as much. I am prone to abusing my working knives. Browning I think offers a stockman (or did) in AUS-8 which is a very nice stainless. It is no ZDP-189, but still very nice. The CV will still be easier to sharpen.
April 27th, 2007 at 9:36 am
I have no problem keeping my Case CV pocketknife rust free. I just make sure to keep it clean and dry, that’s it. I don’t even oil the blades other than every once in a blue moon. A dry blade won’t rust, not even a carbon steel blade. And man o man do these knives take a great edge.
September 29th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
I’d sharpen and polish a katana myself with a belt sander, Arkansas stones, and a buffing wheel, and it would take maybe half a day. But then again I’m not personally involved in the production or maintenance of museum pieces, as you can probably tell from a glance at my website..
As for rust, I live in a dry climate and yet find it necessary to leave a light coat of pharmaceutical mineral oil on my 10xx carbon blades. Any humidity is enough to get annoying red rust started. And it’s weird– one knife will spontaneously rust next to five others that don’t. So I keep the water away with a little oil.
Love Case knives, this review, and old slipjoints in general.
November 16th, 2007 at 11:09 am
[…] And we carried Case’s Red CV pocket knives for a month and reported our findings. In short: they’re nice knives. […]