Case's Trapper Lock series is a fun one to collect. Shown here is a John Deere edition. It comes with a nicely logo'd tin and a spiffy leather pouch.

Again, one of the things that I struggle with when collecting Case knives is the inconsistency in quality. I have roughly a half-dozen Trapper Lock knives. The quality varies on each one. That said, of the lot, this one has the least "quality". The blade rubs against the shield-side liner and doesn't seat completely when in the closed position. At the rear bolster, the tip of the blade sits just proud enough that you can catch things on it. You'd think that the blockheads at Case would take the head of their QC department and bust their chops. Nope. Just another mass-produced knife. The ironic part is that their logo says "Hand-Crafted in the USA". Truth in advertising should require them to say:

* Partially hand-crafted.
* Our QC Department needs seeing-eye dogs to guide them.
* We have cool designs, though.
* We'd pin our shields, but we just don't want to spend the $5 in production labor that it'd take to do this.

Obviously, those above points are me being very critical. I don't hate Case and I will keep buying their knives. Why?

* To help employ fellow Americans (even though, I'd like for those Americans to put more pride into their work).
* I do like their designs.
* At least "most" of the money stays within this country. Or maybe I should revise this to say "ish". If the workers at Case shop at Wal-Mart, they are largely supporting the Great Wall of CHINA. I actually don't have anything against China or it's people. I give them an A+ for being competitive and recognizing what really is a very obvious business opportunity and capitalizing on it. After all, it's not their fault that our politicians and business environment is so broken.