dlr110 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 7:26 pm
Honestly, I wouldn't know if a knife was rare or not unless it was documented somewhere or one of you guys told me....
This is kind of an interesting thread in that the question posed in the thread title is subjective. In one sense, if you only have one Case knife, it could be said that it’s the “rarest Case knife you have”, even though it might be a very common and popular pattern!
I doubt that was the intent of the OP though.
“Rare” can be interpreted many ways, in different contexts. I typically think of it as an old survivor knife, probably from the Tested XX era or even older, and probably one that wasn’t a big seller at the time it was made. In other words there were probably not a lot of them made to begin with, and not many survived in a time when pocket knives were purchased to be used, not collected, and disposed of when no longer deemed useful. Therefore there are not many survivors still around today.
But to some collectors “rare” could mean a knife that was made last week - there were only a limited number like it made. It might be a very common pattern like a 54 pattern Trapper, but it has some unique handle material, unique scroll work on the bolsters, unique blade etch, or a combination of those or other embellishments. Made with the purpose of it being “rare” and collectable to someone.
So “rare” is in the mind of the collector, and examples of both types can be found in the posts in this thread. JMO!
Ken