A Classic Pocketknife for Your Modern Life

Welcome to the Esquire Endorsement. Heavily researched. Thoroughly vetted. These picks are the best way to spend your hard-earned cash.

At our big-city New York office, no one really understands why you’d write about pocket knives or buy them on sale at Amazon. But I’m the resident redneck here at Esquire, the Hank Williams Jr. character from “A Country Boy Can Survive.” I haven’t known a world where guys don’t have folding knives on them at all times. My dad has never left the house without one and has surrendered plenty to the TSA. Starting with both my grandfathers, as far back as we can trace, my family were farmers. Though they were not so adventurous as to be trappers, a knife was still an occupational tool, something a father gifts a son or a general gift for men to give each other.

I do not live that life. I’m as far removed from it as you can get. Having a knife on the street in New York isn’t illegal, but it’s certainly frowned upon. I still have a Case Trapper on my desk, but the closest it’s come to a harvest is opening a package with my Luccheses in it. I do, however, use it every day. Sometimes “use” is opening a package, cutting a thread, or fiddling with it while I think about quitting my job and getting serious about my garden. Point is, there’s still a place for a pocketknife in modern life. I’m here to make the case for my Case Trapper.

Florence Sullivan

Case Has Been to the Moon and Back

The first thing I would say to someone trying to sell me a Case is “Why not Opinel, which is cheaper and still has a storied history built in?” I’d say yes, get one of those as well, but a classic yellow synthetic Case Trapper is too beautiful, too iconically American not to be in rotation.

Case was started back in the late 1800s, when the Case brothers were selling their wares in a wagon across upstate New York. By 1905, the family settled down in Bradford, Pennsylvania, where everything still happens today. Case has been the knife maker on call when the United States does things we’re actually proud to talk about. In WWII, Case took on big contracts for combat knives and GI cutlery. Postwar, the company took off. When he ended up in the White House, President Eisenhower would often give Case knives as gifts. When we landed on the moon, Case made the machete-style “Astronaut Knife” that was carried on Apollo missions. Buying a Trapper is buying into that, all the stuff we can agree on being patriotic about. It’s a piece of American history.

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Florence Sullivan

Two Blades, Better Than One

Now here’s what really freaked out the Esquire offices. The Case Trapper (are you ready?) was originally made for trapping, harvesting hides from furry animals. The secondary spey blade is dull on the tip, meaning it’s made for long opening cuts when you don’t want to puncture what’s below the animal’s skin. The primary clip-point blade is for intricate work and anything else you’d use a knife for.

And like I said, that’s not the life I’m living at 26 in New York City. I use that spey blade as a beater, doing everything that dulls a knife without worrying about how often I have to sharpen it. The spey blade opens packages, cuts cheeses, tightens screws in a pinch (don’t comment on my knife safety). I use it to prune plants in the garden. My wife uses it to wedge out bowls and vases when she’s using plaster molds for her ceramics. I sharpen it once a month, if that, because the lightly used clip-point stays sharp for the actual knife jobs. And the form factor is no bigger than a typical knife’s. Still slips right into a pocket.

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Florence Sullivan

You Don’t Need Something #EDC

This goes back to a Case Trapper being an American icon. As good as modern knife brands are, you don’t need what’s being sold to you. When I carry a knife in tactical colors with a little minimalist logo made for Instagram, I feel like a tool, no disrespect. It’s the difference between two people, one carrying an $18 pen and the other carrying an $800 pen; one of us really wants to talk about the things in our pockets. The other is happy to use the thing and shut up about it.

Me? I’ll always side with the everyman choice, from my Parker Jotter to my Wrangler jeans to my Case Trapper. The extra stuff is nice, good for a gift or special-occasion carry; that’s what the kids will want when you’re dead. But a classic yellow synthetic Trapper is as useful as it’s ever been, and as long as you care for it, it’s as dignified as any knife worth triple its price.

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Photographs by Florence Sullivan