How Old Is My Case XX Pocket Knife?

Everyone wants to know how old there Case knife is.  Well, luckily, Case Cutlery has marked their knives since the beginning.  Case uses a unique tang stamp to date their knives.  You can find this tang stamp on the base on the main blade, next to the handle.  Years ago, Case would use a unique tang stamp for a 10-20 year period.  Starting in 1970,  they used a tang stamp for a 10 year period, plus added a dotting system to mark the individual year.  The first year they added 10 dots, then as each year passed they removed 1 dot.  So in 1970 there were 10 dots, in 1971 there were 9 dots, 8 dots in 1972, and so on.  In 1980 they started using a new tang stamp, plus started over with 10 dots.  They have continued to use this dotting system since 1970 with a couple of exceptions.  From 1990 to 1993, instead of the dots they put the actual year in with the stamp.  They then decided to go back to the dotting system again in 1993 due to popular demand.  Another exception, in 2000, instead of using 10 dots, they instead used 5 dots and 5 X's.  But the system of removing one each year worked the same.  They first removed the 5 dots one at a time, then the 5 X's.  So if your knife is a 1970 or newer all you have to do is identify which decade your tang stamp belongs to, and then count the dots.  If your knife is older than 1970, you might have to settle with a time frame rather than an exact year.  We will soon be posting some pictures of the tang stamps here on our website to help you date your Case XX pocket knife.