★ Shadow Daggers | Case Hardened (Factory New)

Skin overview

★ Shadow Daggers | Case Hardened is a pair of push daggers with a heat-treated patina of blue, gold and violet patches over bare steel. In Factory New the colour fields stay crisp and the steel between them keeps an even polish, so the pattern reads exactly as it was laid down. This is the grade for buyers who want the finish with no visible handling marks.

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

Both daggers share one finish: the double-edged blades and the T-shaped handles with their finger cut-outs are covered in a case-hardened patina over silver steel. Gold and pale yellow tones fill much of the blades, broken by patches of blue and violet that spread across the flats and run onto the handle frames. The central area of each blade near the guard carries a small dark stamp, and the steel colour shows through between the coloured zones. The exact balance of blue and gold depends on the pattern of each copy, so two daggers of the same wear can look quite different. On worn copies the blade tips, cutting edges and the outer rims of the handle cut-outs lose colour first, followed by scratches across the flats.

The patina is fully intact on both blades and handles, with sharp borders between gold, blue and violet zones. The polished steel shows no scratches or dulling. In game the colours read bright and saturated during inspect and draw animations. Everything, including tips and handle rims, looks clean.

Factory New quality — float range 0–0.07

The float of ★ Shadow Daggers | Case Hardened ranges from 0 to 1; the Factory New quality covers 0–0.07 — 7% of this skin’s scale. The lower the float within the range, the cleaner the surface looks and the higher a copy is usually priced.

Where the skin comes from: collection and case

It is the rare special item of Shadow Case (on sale since Sep 15, 2015) — knives and gloves drop far less often than the regular contents.

Price by quality

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

• Minimal Wear — 2.1× cheaper
• Field-Tested — 2.6× cheaper
• Well-Worn — 2.6× cheaper
• Battle-Scarred — 2.6× cheaper

Based on the cheapest SkinOut.gg listing of each quality, otherwise on the market reference.

Among 23 skins of the Shadow Daggers in the Covert grade and this quality, this skin ranks 3rd by price, counting from the dearest.

StatTrak™ version

This skin has a the StatTrak™ version with a kill counter. Right now it is 1.6× dearer than the regular one.

What to check before buying

• Compare the amount of blue and gold on both blades, since the pattern defines the look of each copy as much as the wear does.
• Check the blade tips and the rims of the handle cut-outs, as these lose colour first.
• Look at where the float sits within the wear grade, because copies near the cleaner end show noticeably less scuffing.
• Make sure the visible side in the inspect animation carries the colours you want, as the two daggers can differ.

Who the Factory New quality suits

• Collectors who want the patina with no handling marks at all.
• Players who inspect their knife often and want the colours at full brightness.
• The cleanest choice for those who value condition above price.