AK-47 | Blue Laminate (Well-Worn)

Well-Worn (WW) is the lowest wear that exists on the AK-47 | Blue Laminate: the skin has no Battle-Scarred, because its scale breaks off at 0.40. That leaves Well-Worn a tiny stretch, just 0.02 out of 0.38, or about five percent of the range. The skin has Restricted rank and comes from the eSports 2013 Winter Collection; the rifle drops from the eSports 2013 Winter Case.

What the AK-47 | Blue Laminate looks like in Well-Worn

The blue is found on the wood alone: handguard, the guard above it, grip and stock, with a layered plywood pattern and brown-orange streaks. The metal from the gas tube to the receiver stays dark gray, and the magazine is black. Apart from the layer texture, nothing else is on the body, neither lettering nor figures.

Wear is fixed at the drop and in this wear it is at its highest. On this finish it gathers along the edges of the wooden parts: the stock corners, the front cut of the handguard and the guard at the gas block. On the sides of the stock the blue holds, and the contrast between wood and bare metal is noticeable here too.

Where the AK-47 | Blue Laminate came from

The author of the AK-47 | Blue Laminate is Valve itself, and the finish has no outside artist. The skin came out on December 18, 2013, with the winter package of the eSports tournament series, and its number in Valve's catalog is 226.

What to check before buying

The difference between listings comes down to this:

• float: this wear is allotted the stretch from 0.38 to 0.40;


• stickers and a name tag left on the listing by the previous owner.

There is no choosing the Blue Laminate by pattern, since it is identical on every listing. Inside 0.38 to 0.40 there is no best copy to find.

What the AK-47 | Blue Laminate costs in Well-Worn

The price order on this skin is atypical: the most worn wear is not the cheapest.

• Factory New costs only seven percent more than Well-Worn;


• Minimal Wear is cheaper by a factor of one and a half;


• Field-Tested costs 1.56 times less.

The reason is the width of the bands: 0.38 to 0.40 is a narrow tail of the scale, and copies with that wear are rarer than in any other wear. Among Restricted AK-47 skins in this wear the skin is third from the top of nine. AK-47 | Orbit Mk01 and AK-47 | First Class stand above it, and the other six below. AK-47 | Rat Rod, AK-47 | Slate and AK-47 | Safety Net are noticeably cheaper.

Getting the AK-47 | Blue Laminate

The case source is the eSports 2013 Winter Case. The alternative to buying is a trade-up. If the ten skins one rank down come from the same set, the chance of the AK-47 | Blue Laminate is one in two. That is because the set holds two Restricted skins.

StatTrak and Souvenir

The AK-47 | Blue Laminate has a StatTrak version, and a Souvenir copy can be built through the Souvenir-O-Matic: there are no Souvenir packages for the skin.

Stickers and craft on the AK-47 | Blue Laminate

For stickers there is the gray metal receiver and the magazine. Bright stickers read better there than on the wood, where the plywood layers break up the design. Orange and white stickers suit the streaks in the wood.

Who this wear suits

Well-Worn on the AK-47 | Blue Laminate makes sense if:

• you want exactly the heaviest wear this skin offers, since there is no more worn grade;


• it matters that the price sits closer to Factory New than to Field-Tested, and that the float of 0.38 to 0.40 is known in advance;


• you take the rifle for CS2 by its narrow wear band, with no choosing between copies.