All About Pocket Knives

Just bought this 1980 CASE Texas Lock Horn. It's not been carried, and is in 'as new' condition except as noted below.

It's unused, but blemished by the shadow of a sticker on one of the Micarta scales; known before purchase, and not a serious issue for me.

The two ends are essentially identical, each blade having a short lock-back.

But one of the blades hasn't been properly fitted during manufacture so as to correctly bypass the other in folded position.

The blade at fault is not adequately offset away from the liner on it's side, and hangs up during the fold; it can be eased in.

I have seen, somewhere, the term 'krink' for the technique used to assure proper folded blade clearances.

I'm considering sending it to Case for repair, even if I have to pay for the effort, but thought to ask here for comments before mailing.

Thanks for your help, all. wlw

Nice knife, too bad it has this problem. Looks like it probably came off a board from a Case retailer's display case. I have dealt with Case factory repair service in the past, although not recently, with good results. Be aware Case doesn't stock old parts. Repairs requiring parts are made using current manufacturing parts. The Lockhorn pattern is discontinued so my recommendation is to call or email Case factory repair first, explain what you have, and ask what they can do to repair it. You can get contact info from the Case web site http://www.wrcase.com.

There are also some good knife mechanics on this forum, so some of them may be able to tell you more about how this knife can be fixed.

Ken

Ken...Good counsel, on both counts. The email, accompanied with pics (if allowed) will go out tomorrow, and Thanks for that link!

I'll bet that the knife mechanics here on AAPK will be my final resource; can't see CASE disassembling the Lock Horn to tweak that blade, but I'm admittedly ignorant about such arcana.

Again, my gratitude! Warren

Hello Warren,

Hard to tell without knife in hand and from the pics but are you sure the blades are falling into the proper location? Correct side, I mean.

I have seen a single backspring CASE double ended jack or pen where the blades got "crossed", if you understand what I am describing. I assume this could happen even on a two spring knife also.

Just a thought.

Regards, Jerry

The correctly aligned blade lays exactly as it should, and clears the liner on it's side by about .015" with the other opened. Thanks!

wlwhittier wrote:The correctly aligned blade lays exactly as it should, and clears the liner on it's side by about .015" with the other opened. Thanks!

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OK, thanks. Just trying to help out. I had a small pen do that to me once and it was kinda of a bear to get undone. Now that I recall the experience and look closer at your knife, if they were "crossed", the nail nicks would be partially covered. My bad.

Jerry

wlwhittier wrote:
I can't see CASE disassembling the Lock Horn to tweak that blade,

Disassembling the knife to tweak the blade won't be any problem for the folks at Case - hopefully that's all it needs. Concern would be that it requires a new blade, which they may not have since it's a discontinued pattern. But if they have a new blade available that fits your knife it likely won't be of the same vintage as your knife, which could affect the collector value of the knife. You didn't say if you care about that or not, but that's one of the things you need to tell Case ( or anyone else that works on it).

Ken

Case has corrected the blade-fall on a "Tested Era" knife for me at no charge, so I have no doubts they can do it without changing the blade. I'd send it to them with a brief explaination of the problem and you should get it back in a few weeks as good as new.

Great! It'll go tomorrow, quick as I can find a wee box for mailing.

I'm heartened by your experience, and will trust the folks who made the blade to fix the problem.

Pics showing improvement, and follow-up comments, right here when I get it back from Case.

Thanks, again...all of you! wlw