All About Pocket Knives

In the newest edition of knife magazine there is a excellent article on Case Brothers. On page 10 there is a picture of a pearl handled Case Brothers senator pocketknife with concealed handle pins. I cannot remember ever seeing any like that from that era. How were they made?

I'm not sure how those were done back in the day. I doubt it was an epoxy, which is how modern handles are affixed if not pinned. It is nice to see some of Roger's knives pictured for that article. Maybe he knows a bit about their construction.

In Steve Pfeiffer’s book Collecting Case Knives Volume 2, he says on the 8271 pattern the pearl handle covers were dovetailed under the nickel silver bolsters, eliminating the need for handle pins. I interpret that to mean there were no handle pins, period. He does not give any further descriptions regarding how the dovetailing was done. He goes on to say in 1981 Case began glueing on pearl handles.

BTW I found the Knife Magazine article quite interesting. In addition to several pictures from Roger there are also several from Jerry, aka Ralph Alsip. Beautiful old knives! Looking forward to part 2 of the article next month.

Ken