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you have the fabrication side where you know everything's blanked out like the
water room we'll cut the parts out there old water cut and Springs the
scales things have changed quite a bit yeah because I mean we got a lot of
computerized machineries that you know that do our grinding and everything and
when I started it was all done by hand by certain people sitting on top of a
big wheel bent over all day long you know work on one blade at a time
grinding then it goes to assembly which is on our side they put the knife
together unless you're there watching or doing you would never understand the
different steps it takes to get it where it is and then once it's together then
it comes to us the hefting part of it is basically the handcrafted-ness of the
knife we have a 16 inch wheel 4 inches wide and we put sandpaper on that
and we just shaped the knife and what people see we won't turn the covers we
do the profile of it turning the bolsters so all the like the design on
the knife that's what we do on the wheel I was a hefter for about 17 years at 43
years I've done just about everything here in the factory I picked it up here
this is case University my soul say you know it usually takes to learn hefting
the whole stage of every pattern and it takes about a year and a half to learn
you know when you when you see somebody doing that you're like wow that looks
easy but by no means is a I mean it's a it's it's years of practice and
you know a lot of scrap too I'm sure no way no you need to just it's easy to
ruin a knife on the process for around cuz that sandpaper you just grind it
down and done there were one-of-a-kind knives you know third I could I could do
two knives but I cannot make them both exactly alike
now you'll never get two identical and my look at what something's a little
different turned a little more here I think one of the greatest things I see
in every employee in here is the pride that they have in what they do no matter
what job it is I think most everybody has pride in whatever job they do if the
thing is you know it's just not a knife you know you think it is when you start
here and then you go and meet the people and it's not a knife to them and that's
the thing about the case I mean it's they're passed down I mean growing these
stories and these these people yeah this is my grandfather's knife and you know
my dad had it oh yeah you definitely think about the legacy of it when you're
as young as I am the wanted to keep going and just do the best you can and
try to pass it on you know you're having a bad day you're just like oh my gosh
you know this is the day's not going you know quick as you want it to and you
know but you know you got to have that quality because I go on the tours quite
a bit yeah maybe once or twice a year but I've been
doing that for like 15 years now and you're running through a lot of people
and you know they they have these knives for you know not just for their life but
they pass it down as generation and so you know you you you want that knife to
look good because when they open up that that box and unwrap the paper and and
see that knife you want them to be amazed you want them to have that wow
effect of saying you know that that's American quality right there and how
many years have you worked a case I have actually worked here 44 years 18 years
I've worked here for 43 years it 18 years now well I mean I just always
say where else can you go and have this much fun and get paid for it