Saturday, March 02, 2013

Arrival

Case Jr. Scout:

This is Case's scaled-down version of the Boy Scout knife pattern. It's actually the same size as the old Cub Scout knife, but packs in 4 miniature-sized tools instead of the Cub Scout's 3 full-sized tools. It's actually a little less sturdy than the Cub Scout; slimmer, less weight. It's almost a pen knife with pretensions of grandeur. For the details, it features stainless blades/tools, blaze orange G-10 handle scales, brass pins and nickel silver bolsters. It also has a bail for clipping on a key ring, adding a lanyard, or wearing on a belt with one of the old-fashioned belt clips.

The main blade, which in the full-sized Boy Scout knife is a spear pattern, here is an oversized pen blade. Case is shipping these razor-sharp these days, so be wary when opening and closing it. Fit and finish is excellent. The bail, rather than being riveted on as with the old Boy Scout knives, here is simply squeezed into a pierced rivet that goes all the way through the bolster. Not sure if that's an improvement or not.

Case introduced these about 10 years ago, and prices them like they're made out of solid gold. The MSRP on these is $120, and I've rarely seen them for less than $80. Waaaaay overpriced. This one was on sale at Shepherd Hills Cutlery for $49.99. Still overpriced, but not exorbitantly so.

Frankly this knife fits in the same niche as the Swiss Army knife, and does so while being of lower overall quality and much higher price. Sort of a metaphor for current US manufacturing standards, isn't it?

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