The company originated in Little Valley, New York, around the turn of the 20th century, before relocating to its current home, Bradford, Pennsylvania, in 1905.

[1] The company's roots extend back to 1889, when the Case brothers – William Russell (W.R.), Jean, John and Andrew Case, formerly of the Cattaraugus Cutlery Company – began selling cutlery from the back of a wagon in various small western New York villages.

By the time the company moved to Pennsylvania in 1905, the four Case brothers had established their brands.

[2] Beginning with World War I, Case has made military knives for U.S. servicemen including the M3 Fighting Knife and the V-42 stiletto (the latter, for the Devil's Brigade).

During the 1965 flight of the Molly Brown, astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young used special Case knives on a NASA space mission.

This practice arose from the unique tang stamp dating systems employed by the company beginning in the late 19th century.

Some of these include: The SlimLock, Trapper, Tiny Trapper, Baby Doc, Tribal-Lock, CopperLock, RussLock, Baby Butterbean, Cheetah, Cheetah Cub, Hobo, Sod Buster, Mako, Mini-Blackhorn and XX-Changer.

The handle splits apart revealing a separate knife, fork, spoon and bottle opener.

These were made with two to four utensil implements using a can opener, soup spoon, three-pronged fork, and knife blade.

Each knife carries a "JRC" (John Russell Case) tang stamp and a liner that locks.

Some of the more recent knives are stamped with an "L" after the pattern number, which signifies that the blade locks when opened.

This pattern features a liner lock and a gimped lever for convenient one-hand opening.

[6] Case has regularly manufactured knives under licenses with American icons like Elvis Presley Enterprises, Ford Motor Company, Coca-Cola Company, Boy Scouts of America, Ducks Unlimited, John Deere, Sturm, Ruger & Co., National Wild Turkey Federation, John Wayne, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Johnny Cash and Brooks & Dunn.

[8] In 2008 Case won "Collaboration Knife of the Year" at the Blade Show in Atlanta, GA with a Tony Bose designed piece named the "Arkansas Hunter".

A newsletter was introduced in March of that year to formalize communications between Case and its club members.