Wow! Case "Transition" Congress

[toomanyknives]

Is it just me or is this two dot tang stamp all kinds of wrong.
"Transition" model with blades that are 3 years apart?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394881574056?h ... R6T23MaCYw

[C-WADE7]

Looks funny to me. The pattern number stamp looks almost engraved to my untrained eye and on the tang stamp it looks like U8A not S but maybe it’s just bad photography. I’m not studied enough to say but I wouldn’t have bid just from gut feelings.

[toomanyknives]

Looks funny to me. The pattern number stamp looks almost engraved to my untrained eye and on the tang stamp it looks like U8A not S but maybe it’s just bad photography. I’m not studied enough to say but I wouldn’t have bid just from gut feelings.

If you enlarge it, it really looks funky. And a '78 and '81 blade sure seems more like a repair than a "transition". I can't believe it sold for over $300.00!
Thanks for the response C-Wade..

[knifeaholic]

IMO, nothing wrong with the knife. I have seen transition knives with several years difference between the blades. Not uncommon. Any number of explanations for that.

As to the pattern numbers, all Case pattern numbers used to be "cold stamped" after heat treat, as opposed to the tang stamps, which were stamped prior to heat treat. Gradually after about 1980 they started stamping the pattern numbers prior to heat treat as well.

[Mumbleypeg]

The knife is probably okay. I’ve seen larger gaps in years than that.

Sometimes Case stamps out blades and if there’s an over run (more of that blade stamped than needed for a particular production run) the excess is put into inventory. The Case factory term for this is “bunked”.

Those who’ve ever worked in manufacturing know it’s not an exact process - if the order calls for 1000 finished products, when making (or buying) the “piece parts” needed to assemble and finish 1000, we make or buy a few extras, to allow for manufacturing mishaps. If in this case they only stamp exactly 1000 blades, and one is damaged by a manufacturing operation (or misplaced, etc) then we can only make 999 finished products. So we make a few extra of each of the required piece parts. That is insurance that in the end we can produce enough finished products to complete the order for 1000.

Case doesn’t scrap the excess blades. Instead they “bunk” them. Next time they need a blade of that type for production, they take the excess “bunked” parts from inventory and issue them to the production line. Whether the tang stamp is from a prior year, or several years is not a concern to the factory. As long as it fits they’re going to use what is issued to production regardless when it was made. In most cases the year in which the part was made is not obvious as it is on master blades, which are tang stamped.

Which explains why in some instances we see patterns having more than one master blade (congress, muskrat) having mismatched tang stamps, sometimes by several years. Some of those patterns are not made every year.

Ken

Oops, looks like Steve posted his reply while I was typing mine.

[toomanyknives]

Well, you learn something every day. Thanks for the replies. That tang really looked messy with the 1978 stamp.