With Jim Parker in control of Case, the decision was made to give the tang stamps an actual year date and drop the dotting
method. Some of these were changed to Roman numerals, while most showed the date as Arabic numbers. The lightning S was
used to designate stainless blades, while a round S showed a non-stainless blade.
1990-1993
At this time, Case released a series of knives called "Case Classics". These were generally remakes of old patterns. The
stamps on these knives were made to resemble the historical stamps (with the addition of a date). "Classic" knives with the
years numerically stamped can be found thru 1997.
Although there were no dotted knives made from 1990 thru 1993, a series of knives called the lost dots was made in 1994. Four
patterns were made with ten dot tang stamps for 1990. The same four knives (with the handles swapped) was then made with 9
dots, 8 dots and 7 dots. All these knives were made in 1994.
One of 4 knives with 10 dots
1993 and 1995 Roman numeral tang stamps typical of the 1990's.
The Case factory had decided to return regular production knives to the dotting system during 1993, and so the first real dotted
knives of the 90's have 7 dots and are not also part of the lost dots set. By 1994, the regular production knives had six dots.
