★ Flip Knife | Case Hardened (Minimal Wear)

Skin overview

This Flip Knife carries the Case Hardened finish: a mottled patina where golden metal is broken up by patches of blue and purple. At Minimal Wear the colours stay rich, and any marks are faint and limited to the edge and tip. In normal play it is very hard to tell apart from a cleaner copy.

Item type: knife. Covert is the top weapon rarity: usually the most prominent items of a collection or case.

Patina: an aged metal surface; wear is part of the design, so the gap between qualities is less visible.

Appearance in Minimal Wear

The back-swept blade carries the whole finish: a heat-treated patina where gold and bronze metal is mixed with patches of blue and purple. The spine near the guard has a serrated section, and the coloured patches flow across it as well as over the flat of the blade.

Very fine marks may appear at the tip and along the cutting edge. The colour on the flat of the blade remains practically as rich as on a Factory New copy. At normal distance the difference is barely noticeable, even during inspect. The serrations and handle still look clean.

Minimal Wear wear: float 0.07–0.15

The whole float range of ★ Flip Knife | Case Hardened is 0–1; Minimal Wear takes the 0.07–0.15 segment (8% of the scale). Within the range, copies with a lower float look cleaner and are valued higher.

Origin of the skin

It drops as a rare special item from:

• CS:GO Weapon Case (on sale since Sep 20, 2013)
• CS:GO Weapon Case 2 (on sale since Sep 20, 2013)
• CS:GO Weapon Case 3 (on sale since Sep 20, 2013)
• Operation Bravo Case (on sale since Sep 20, 2013)
• Winter Offensive Weapon Case (on sale since Dec 18, 2013)
• eSports 2013 Case (on sale since Jul 9, 2014)

And 5 more — souvenir packages and other sources.

What it costs in each quality

Compared with the Minimal Wear quality, the others go like this:

• Factory New — 1.8× dearer
• Field-Tested — 15% cheaper
• Well-Worn — 13% cheaper
• Battle-Scarred — 18% cheaper

The comparison uses our cheapest listing of each quality; where there is none, the market reference.

Among 23 skins of the Flip Knife in the Covert grade and this quality, this skin ranks 10th by price, counting from the dearest.

StatTrak™ version

There is also a the StatTrak™ version: the counter on the weapon tracks kills. Right now it is 37% dearer than the regular one.

What to look at before you buy

• Look at the pattern on the actual copy, since the amount and placement of blue differ between blades.
• Check both sides of the blade in inspect, because the pattern on one side does not predict the other.
• Note where the float sits within the wear grade, as copies at the cleaner end show more saturated colour.
• Look at the tip and cutting edge first, as these show wear earliest.

Who the Minimal Wear quality suits

• Players who want a near-clean blade without paying for the top grade.
• Pattern hunters, since the colours stay rich here.
• Conclusion: a practical balance of clean look and cost.