Shepherd Hills Case Celebration Returns to Lebanon September 12

What do a woolly mammoth, a Corvette, a deep-sea oyster and a herd of cattle have in common?

They have all provided materials used to create handles for Case knives.

Those unusual materials are just part of what visitors will discover when the 2026 Case Celebration in the Ozarks returns to Shepherd Hills Cutlery in Lebanon on Saturday, September 12.

The event runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is expected to bring more than 3,000 people to Lebanon for what organizers describe as the largest Case knife gathering in the nation.

Representatives from the Case factory will be on hand along with knife makers, collectors and enthusiasts from across the country for a full day of special products, demonstrations, contests, live music and some extremely rare Case collectibles.

A Knife Handle More Than 12,000 Years in the Making

Ahead of this year’s celebration, Becky Reid with Shepherd Hills offered a look at one of the most unusual materials Case uses for knife handles: genuine woolly mammoth teeth.

Adult woolly mammoths went through several sets of teeth during their lifetimes as the massive grinding surfaces wore down from their plant-based diets. Today, fossilized mammoth teeth can be sliced into slabs and transformed into handles for collectible knives.

“They’re at least 12,000 years old because the last woolly mammoth died out 12,000 years ago,” Reid explained.

Shepherd Hills showed both a complete mammoth tooth and a smaller tooth that had been sliced, revealing the patterns inside the fossilized material.

The slabs can also be dyed different colors, creating dramatically different appearances while maintaining the natural patterns of the mammoth tooth.

“It’s a very unique handle material, highly sought after,” Reid said.

Mammoth tusk is also used for knife handles and produces a completely different appearance than mammoth tooth.

Shepherd Hills works with Case on special factory orders using materials like these, developing ideas for limited and unusual knives for collectors.

From the Corvette Factory to a Case Knife

Another unusual knife headed to this year’s celebration incorporates a piece of American automotive history.

One of the knives scheduled for the live auction September 12 features Corvette paint as part of its handle.

The material comes from layers of automotive paint that accumulated over the years on equipment used during the Corvette manufacturing process. Layer after layer of overspray eventually created thick pieces of hardened paint.

When those pieces are sliced and polished, the individual layers reveal colorful and completely unpredictable patterns.

The material is also limited. Modern manufacturing and painting processes no longer allow the same type of buildup, meaning the existing pieces represent a piece of automotive history that cannot simply be recreated.

The auction knife combines the Corvette paint material on one side with museum gem-grade mammoth ivory on the other, bringing together two very different pieces of history in a single Case knife.

A Full Day at Shepherd Hills

The unusual knives are only part of what is planned for the 2026 Case Celebration in the Ozarks.

Throughout the day, visitors will find super savings on Case knives, free knife sharpening, hourly drawings, live bluegrass music, contests and lunch on the grounds.

A live auction will feature one-of-a-kind Case collectibles, giving collectors an opportunity to bid on knives and pieces they are unlikely to find anywhere else.

Special guests scheduled to appear include Brian Yellowhorse, Bill Ruple and Alva Hazell.

One of the biggest prizes of the day will come through the Grand Prize Drawing for an incredibly rare Mother-of-Pearl and Abalone Case Stockman. Only two of the knives were made.

Lebanon Now Live From the Celebration

Lebanon Now will also be at Shepherd Hills throughout the day bringing the Case Celebration to viewers live.

Mike Morris and Ron Reid will host live coverage from the event, talking with special guests and showcasing the knives, people and activities that have made the Case Celebration one of Lebanon’s signature annual events.

For Shepherd Hills, the celebration is an opportunity to show that a pocketknife can be much more than a tool.

A handle might begin as the tooth of a woolly mammoth from thousands of years ago, layers of paint from a Corvette factory or another unexpected material transformed into something completely different by Case.

Those stories, along with thousands of knives and the people who collect them, will come together from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, September 12, at Shepherd Hills Cutlery in Lebanon for the 2026 Case Celebration in the Ozarks.