case knife/axe combo

[bjh]

the knife blade and axe are loose in the handle of by knife/axe combo. what's the best way to tighten them up?

[Mumbleypeg]

Are you sure you have them inserted properly? The blades will go into the handle both ways but will only lock up tight one way. Since yours is loose try turning it around and re-insert it.

Some pictures of it would help.

Ken

[btrwtr]

Tightening these up is not an easy task. Depending on how the blade and ax head are loose and what movement is involved (axial or lateral movement) would determine what would be needed to fix it. I believe all of the Case knife/ax combos were individually hand fit at the factory. As Ken stated be sure you are inserting the blade and ax correctly. The opening in the tang should be facing the moving locking spring when they are inserted.

[Gunsil]

I am wondering where you got the combo and if it has stag scales. Reason is that there was one at the Shenandoah show last spring and we tried several different knives and hatchets in that handle and all fit the same, really loose. We tried the knife and hatchet from the loose set in other handles and they fit fine. It got sold to a vendor from SC I think, and it went cheap because of the problem.

[Mumbleypeg]

Over the nearly 40 years that these were made there were two different versions of handle/blade interfaces. Occasionally people have mixed the sets. If the blade and/or axe are from an early set but the handle is a later model, or visa versa, they won't fit properly no matter what you do.

As Wayne said, these were hand ground and fit at the factory, so if the blades and handle were from a different original set they may not fit well. You could try contacting Case repair to see what they say and if they might be able to work on it. I doubt there is anyone there who worked on them - the last sets were made in 1970. But it never hurts to ask.

Ken

[bjh]

the blades are inserted the right way, I guess they are worn from use, the axe especially moves forward and back enough it would take a 1/16" or so to tighten it up. one more question, this is the model with the short locking lever and I can't open the lever without using a piece of metal to pull it out. are you supposed to open it with your thumb nail?

[Mumbleypeg]

So it sounds as though yours may just be worn. That would be unusual as most of them didn't get much hard use, but if yours has the short locking arm it's an early model. You should be able to open it without any tools.

If you're unsure, check the length of the tang on your blade. The old style which went with the short locking arm (which should not have a patent number stamped on it) also had a shorter tang, approximately 3/4 inch from the blade hilt to the end. The newer ones, which have a patent number on them are made to accept blade tangs approximately 7/8 inch long.

Ken

[Gunsil]

Just in the interest of accuracy the idea that all the Case (or anybody else's) knife/axe combos had both knife and axe specifically ground to fit each handle is preposterous. I have interchanged both blades in a half dozen Case combos just to see how they fit and all fit fine in all handles. These were all made in the age of modern manufacturing, there would be no need to "fit" each blade to each handle. They also have chrome plated blades. Does anybody mean to say they hand ground or fitted each blade to each handle and THEN chromed the blades? Preposterous. Case did not do the plating in house, all blades were sent out for that purpose. No way did they number or somehow keep each blade alotted to each handle so they would know which handle it went to after getting chromed. Just the idea of having to hand fit each blade even if they weren't chrome would make such items too expensive to sell.

[btrwtr]

Gene I can tell you that I have owned and do own a good number of Case knife ax combos and in my experience they seldom fit up well if the parts are interchanged. Pieces that work well in one handle will be loose with little tension and lots of play while others will fit too tight and over tension the spring. The spring latches will often bind or stop short of closed due to different dimensions. I am pretty sure the tangs are on these were not chrome plated as the plating stops before the tangs on all the examples I currently own.

[Mumbleypeg]

FWIW, here’s some information from the Case Collector’s Club site regarding the case KnifeAx combo sets. The question was, where were the KnifeAx combos made and were all pieces (handle, axe, and knife blades) marked.

A 2013 post from the Case Historian Katie Shonts Saar:

The knife/ax combos and the hatchets that I have seen and have in the archives are marked with Case (on the hatchet, blade, and axe).

We used to grind these years ago in house, which leads me to believe that we made them here. When we researched (about 10 years ago) the possibility of recreating these, we were missing some of the fixtures, but we still had staff in house that had worked on them. So, again, this leads me to believe that we did do them here.

I could not find any written evidence of anything different. If anyone else has something to add to this, please feel free.

And a subsequent post in the same thread by Steve Pfieffer.

As far as I know, and as Katie said, the Knife Ax combos were made at the Case factory. As to the other axes/hatchets, there were stamped models and forged models. It may have made sense for Case to outsource the forged axe heads, but Case did have a forge shop so its very possible that they were made in house as well.

Gene’s statement regarding chrome plating being outsourced makes sense too, but I’m not sure how/if that affects whether or not there was any “hand fitting” or adjustment made at the factory after the plating was finished. In which case there would be no necessity to maintain any matching of the sets’ pieces. Most sets probably required little to no adjustments, but if they were hand ground/forged as some say, then some pieces may have had to be “tweaked”. JMO

Ken