Add a Comment

Comment by Howard P Reynolds on April 4, 2016 at 17:07

Plenty of scrap in the small quarry.  Left a message.  Waiting for his return call.

Comment by Jan Carter on April 4, 2016 at 11:50

WOW!  Howard that may indeed be a great cottage industry.  I wonder if your brother has a piece of it laying around to be analyzed?

Comment by Howard P Reynolds on April 4, 2016 at 8:16

Thanks, Jan.  Great information, especially for me.  My father-in-law purchased some Potter County Pennsylvania mountain property back in the '60s.  It is a mountainous area by eastern standards.  Most of Potter county is up and down with relatively few flat areas.  The property was intended as a "hunting camp" as there were/are plenty of deer and turkey. 

However, early inspection of the property showed signs of quarrying - shallow, almost insignificant quarrying of flagstone.  One of my brothers-in-law, along with a local native of Potter Co. got interested in trying to sell this "Pennsylvania Bluestone flagstone in the late '90s, as it is harder than the Arizona type of flagstone.  So they bought a stone cutter and worked the quarry for a time until the bottom fell out of the flagstone market.  

So, this article says that some nice hard (and soft) flagstone (sandstone) was found in the 1800s in the UP of MI (Grindstone City) that made excellent grindstones when cut and shaped into wheels for grinding knife blades.

I am wondering if the guys working the quarry on the property ever had the flagstone analyzed for content of silica, etc.  It is a very fine-grained sandstone, and might make excellent benchstones - since carborundum ruined the grindstone business.  Now, there doesn't seem to be any of that hard Arkansas stone for fine work, but maybe a coarse or medium benchstone material might be just lying there waiting to become a natural benchstone.  It won't compete with Norton benchstones, but might be a "cottage" industry to make a buck here and there.

Comment by Jan Carter on April 3, 2016 at 21:32

Well Historian David Clarke has done it again!  Check out the early Grindstone information and enjoy! http://www.queencutlery.com/uploads/Early_Cutlery_Grindstones_3-25-...

Comment by Steve Pfeiffer on March 22, 2016 at 17:52

Q78 is the tang stamp with the year made - 1978.

Comment by Tobias Gibson on March 22, 2016 at 10:29

Q78 would be the model number. 1994 would be the Ontario era of Queen.

Comment by Richard Schuchman on March 22, 2016 at 10:21

I bought them maybe 2 years ago, but that has no bearing on their age. The Mountain Man has Q78 on the base of the blade, but I'm not sure if that refers to a model number or a year. The KKCA is from 1994 (obviously).

Comment by Tobias Gibson on March 22, 2016 at 10:00

Richard, I'm far from an expert on Queen knives but I believe their stainless steel is normally 420HC. If nothing else, my comment will generate a discussion. How long ago was a few years ago. Was this back when Ontario owned Queen?

Comment by Richard Schuchman on March 22, 2016 at 9:48

Hello, second post! I already posted this in the general discussion area, but thought this group may have a better insight.

Like most people, I'm looking for some info from an expert. I used to collect traditionals and have recently turned to more modern knives. My collector half would like to keep everything, but my practical financial half (read: the wife) wants me to fund my recent acquisitions by selling off a few dust collectors.

SO, having purchased these a few years ago, one on the Bay and one from a collector on AAPK and needing to sell them, I realize I know NOTHING about them and I can't find anything online about either of them; not the type of steel, not the type of handle, nada. I think the Mountain Man is delrin and it says "stainless" on the blade, but that could mean anything. The KKCA handle "looks" like it could be jigged bone, but I could be wrong.

Lastly, I don't know if this forum has a thing about estimated values. If so, just don't comment. I know other forums do. But if it's not taboo, a general range would be nice since I can't find anything to compare them to.

Thanks for any info!

Comment by Carl Bradshaw on March 12, 2016 at 7:29

Most people refer to those as an "Equal End Pen Knife" or a "Senator" pattern, I think for Queen that would be a #5 pattern.  I'm not a Queen expert, so I'm sure someone with more knowledge will correct me if I'm not accurate.  To date the knife, you need to look at the tang stamp, and compare it to this chart, it will help narrow it down.

The knife looks in nice shape, as long as the handles on both sides are not cracked.  The blades look in good condition, main blade looks like it was sharpened a bit. If the knife is earlier (mid-50's or before) the handles would be winterbottom bone.  If the knife is after that, the handles are likely Delrin plastic made to look like bone.  It's hard to tell from just one picture, you really need to hold it in your hand to get all the info from the knife. Nice catch either way.  I would call it collectible.  Book value on a mint condition knife would be about $40 or so.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 29
• 30
• 31
• 32
• 33
• …
• 132
• Next ›
• Page