With so many new knife designs and ideas now on the market it’s easy to forget that the most popular is still the one that’s most familiar–the classic American folding pocket knife. The Baby Butterbean series from the famous American knife manufacturer W. H. Case is a fine example of what that company calls a fine gentleman’s pocket knife.
This particular model, with its green bone handle slabs, grooved and styled to mimic the weather worn look and feel of old barn wood, is no longer in production. The baby butterbean family of knives, however, is very much alive and well, with variations numbering in the dozens. The broad and strong handle, wide for a pocket style, features nickel silver bolsters and stout, wide surgical stainless steel spear and pen point blades in a folded length of only 2 3/4 inches. The Butterbean name derives from that variety of broad bean, wide and stout as the character of this knife.
As do most of the oldest American knife companies, the Case Company has a fine lifetime warranty as well as a fine product. These knives in their endless variations have been around long enough that all the bugs have been worked out, and it’s a rare event when anyone has reason to use that lifetime guarantee. When I was a kid and we were hanging around swapping stories and bragging about who had the best knife, whoever pulled the Case knife out of his pocket drew a hush over the crowd. The reputation remains.
Find this Case Butterbean Knife:
