I have all of the books listed below and two of Jim Sargents. His addition of a PDF CD for your computer that is instantly searchable to pattern numbers, key words, manufacturers, collectable FSO, is great for an eBayer. The Pocket Guide is a must too. Ron Stewarts books “Knife Collectors Guide” is a great book for the beginner to understand the history of the brand names and manufactures out there but his data in his price guide this year was a cut and paste from last.

New on the scene and no where do I see mentioned here is Steve Pheiffer’s “Collecting Case Knives – identification and price guide”. From the editors of Blade Magazine this book is not a price guide to thumb through to check on a pattern’s value. It’s an historical and well documented explanation of how and where Case knives values are supported and why. It’s detailed, documented, and well resourced. It has abundant color photos – far more than any other similar book I have seen and made from high quality glossy stock paper surely to serve as a superb reference guide but with the class of a coffee table book. In content and in its presentation Steve has done what he said in his introduction was that he wanted to create a different type of reference guide that will detail the “knives themselves…” …the “DNA” so-to-speak.
I think along with those already mentioned in this forum, Steve’s guide is a must have complement to the those and will stand for year too come as a cornerstone to any Case collector library.