★ Flip Knife | Stained (Factory New)

Skin overview

★ Flip Knife | Stained puts a forced patina on the Persian-style back-swept blade: grey-blue steel covered with darker, uneven blotches. In Factory New the mottling is crisp and the steel between the stains keeps its full sheen. The olive textured handle stays plain, so all the attention goes to the blade.

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.

How the skin looks in Factory New

The whole blade is covered in a forced patina: grey and blue-grey steel with darker cloudy blotches and streaks spread unevenly from the base to the acute point. The serrated section near the pivot carries the same mottled finish, which makes the teeth look darker and more textured. The handle keeps the stock olive-green look with diagonal grooves, a grippy texture, a metal pivot screw and a lock slot, and the finish does not change it. On worn copies the patina fades first along the cutting edge, at the tip and on the serrations, then light scratches spread across the flat of the blade.

The patina is complete, with sharp borders between the dark blotches and the lighter steel. The cutting edge, tip and serrations show no scratches. At normal distance the blade reads as a clean, deliberately stained steel surface. The handle looks as it does on every copy.

Factory New quality — float range 0–0.07

The float of ★ Flip Knife | Stained ranges from 0 to 1; the Factory New quality covers 0–0.07 — 7% of this skin’s scale. Within the range, copies with a lower float look cleaner and are valued higher.

Where the skin comes from: collection and case

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.

Price by quality

Compared with the Factory New quality, the others go like this:

• Minimal Wear — 1.8× cheaper
• Field-Tested — 1.9× cheaper
• Well-Worn — 1.9× cheaper
• Battle-Scarred — 1.9× cheaper

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

By price this skin is 16th of 23 skins Covert Flip Knife in this quality (the first being the dearest).

StatTrak™ version

This skin has a the StatTrak™ version with a kill counter. Right now it is 1.5× dearer than the regular one.

What to look at before you buy

• Check the float position within the wear grade, since copies near the top of a range look cleaner.
• Look at the placement of the dark blotches, as the pattern differs from copy to copy and some layouts look darker or more balanced.
• Inspect the tip, cutting edge and serrations, where wear appears first.
• Make sure a name tag, if present, suits your taste.

Who should buy Factory New

• Collectors who want the patina with the sharpest contrast.
• Players who inspect their knife often and want a clean blade.
• Conclusion: the reference version of this finish.