Great looking knives. Queen keeps impressing me with their new ones.

I had a great time at the Titusville Queen knife show this past weekend.  Lots of familiar faces, and a nice crowd turnout.  Ken even gave my daughter a free knife for attending the show, he's a true class act.  Thanks again to everyone that put on the show, and to the employees/management of Queen Cutlery.

I have been AWOL for a while working on the Queen  Catalog project, which was unveiled at the Queen Show last weekend.  With catalogs digitized and loaded on the Queen historical document website, you can look at original catalog pages going back to 1947 - first catalog known..  The database now has over 7,250 knives entered and gives you a lot of information by model # or Series.  It makes no attempt to enumerate SFO knives, but it give the best detail available on regularly offered knives.  For example history of both amber and pearl handled knives shows huge production over the years - Queen could easily be called the pearl knife company!   Please check out the hisotridcal documents page and comment back to us - always looking to make this amore useful resource.

Thanks,

Dan

I had a little free time today and some of us in the chat were talking about how companies keep up their web sites.  I am so impressed with the Queen Historical Guys!!  

Did you know you can go to the historical page and click on a report of whatever series you can think of...THEN you can click back and go see what was offered in the catalog!

I checked out the rawhide series

Congrats, Carl!

I've been waiting for this Schatt & Morgan 033043-1/2 Jumbo Carpenter's Whittler ever since they announced the limited run early this year.  She's a BEAST !! Awesome slab stag handles, beautiful heavy duty blades an sweet etches on 2 of the blades. Shout our to Greg at TSA Knives for procuring this "pick of the litter" for me (thanks to my advance order).

Jon,

It is indeed a heavy duty knife and they made sure the stag on this one matches the stoutness of the frame!  Congrats and I am glad it made it to a good home

Congrats, Jon! That's a real sweet lookin' whittler you got there! Enjoy!

I think you could whittle totem poles with that heavy duty whittler, Jon.  A beautiful knife.

I looked at one of those at the Wilmington, OH show.  Very nice looking knife!

Thanks to all who have taken the time to comment on my new S & M whittler - I'm really stoked about this knife, probably due somewhat to the fact that I had been anticipating its arrival for so many months ! (In addition to the superb quality of the knife). Best to all

Why Collect Queen?

by Bob Welch Author’s note:

October 1, 2015. This article was originally published in the quarterly newsletter of Queen Cutlery Collectors, LLC., (QCC) Volume 2, 2000. The original publication date was November, 2000. 

read about it here

I started my Queen Cutlery 'journey' with a Mountain Man but recently I have had a thing for Barlows

Very happy with these two beauties !

Opps tried to load two Pics at the same time 

Derek,

Both the S&M and Queen knives are beauties. But only the Schatt is a Barlow. The Queen would be a Swell End Jack pattern. 

Like I said, though...they are both sweet looking knives! Just different patterns, that's all.

Hard to pass up a "Barlow" looking knife.  Queen makes some great knives.  Such a classic pattern that has a main blade robust enough for average tasks, and then a nice little blade to shave off a bit of plug tobacco, clean your fingernails, sharpen a carpenter's pencil, or whittle a stick while sitting on your quarter horse waiting for the cattle to be graded through the clover-leaf corral.

Ron an dHoward, Queen's standard barlow, and swell end jack use the same frame.  The only difference is the set up of the scales and bolsters.  Compare the knives in the photos below.  One is the iKC Barlow the other a Queen Proto-type that was an SFO for SMKW.

In the case of these two knives, even the main blade is from the same blank.

Thanks, Tobias.

I was wondering if anybody here knew of a Queen harness jack that was made in D2.  Depending on the configuration a cattle knife with a punch would work as well.  I'm specifically looking for a spear main blade that I can pinch open with a punch secondary made in D2.

Thanks for any help anybody can offer.

yes, but look for Queen City with a punch for the D2.  Queen has made some in 1095 and S&M in 440.  But I believe only Queen City did the D2 versions

and a camp knife version was done also

I think the first one is an old #37 with imitation winter bottom

Thanks for the response.  I have eyed the 99s in the past, but am now thinking that I might just need to pick one up and remove the mark side spring and two tools leaving just the spear and punch.  Should work perfectly.

This is not a punch jack but an old Queen City utility scout – circa 1928. This is the only Queen City four blade I have seen. I do have the smaller three blade scout however. This knife is in poor shape but all blades snap well. Early Winterbotton bone handles.

The new catalog is here!!

I'm really excited to check out the Queen City easy open teardrop jack.  Looks like a winner to me.  I'm also interested in hearing about the fossilized bone and finding out how similar it is to GEC's primitive bone.

That teardrop jack does look like a winner and I like the choice of blade steels that are available .

Was just going through all my ebay purchases for the last year and it's been 9 months since I bought a Queen or Schatt & Morgan knife.  I better get on the stick!  I kind of specialize in PA made cutlery.  With Case, Queen and a couple of others in the state there is no shortage to choose from.  I don't let is stop me from buying a choice Buck or other knife though.

Several years ago I found this knife at a yard sale. This is the smallest of my queen knifes. The handle material is jigged bone. Both blades have very strong snap. I'm not sure when this was made...maybe someone can tell me what model this was called and approximately when it was made. Would this be a "collectible" knife or just considered a common knife. Thank you all.

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.

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).

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

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-...

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.

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?

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

This is my little queen knife...anyone familiar with this tiny bone handled gem?

Here is another one of my Queen knifes that is bone handled. Handles appear to have a green cast color, linings are brass, both blades are single snap. Would like knife be considered scarce. It has old sharpening marks on both blades but not cracks or missing bone pieces on handles.

How long are those 2 knives when closed?  And is there more to the tang stamp on the equal-end pen knife other than the Q logo?  It's hard to tell for sure from the photo.

Carl- the little knife is 2 1/2 inch closed,Don told me. It is a Queen #5 Senator pen knife in winterbottom bone circa 1932 -1955

Don- I'm guessing the Queen City knife is 37/8"closed?? It appears to be a Queen City 2 blade jack in Winterbottom bone (circa 1922-1932)  It was valued at $125 back in 1999 in Jim Sargent's  " American Premium Guide to Knives & Razors". Add 17 years to the present time, $125 ++

Here is another one of my older queen knifes, it measures about 3-3/4th in length and has strong double snaps on both blades...appears to have been used very little. I really appreciate you guys/gals helping me in learning about the knifes I have. Thanks to all.

Don,Thanks for sharing. These are a lot like a Queen #10, but they were not so labeled till after WWII. There is a new resource added to the Queen Historical Documents website that shows color photographs of Queen Knives before 1980 - They are from the 7th (and final) Sargent book referenced above and they are WONDERFUL, Very excited.  Here is a link showing an old Queen City heavy Jack  - looks like yours but with bone.

http://www.queencutlery.com/Queen_City_2.php

. 

Lots of great items on the Queen site!

Dan

Well, according to the latest version of Sargent's book from 2008, this is what a mint version of each would bring (although I think Sargent's values are a tad on the high side of realistic prices).  The best way to see what the knife is worth is to watch Ebay auctions and see what a knife in similar condition to yours is bringing.
Queen # 5 Senator Pen with Winterbottom bone. mint = $30-$40

(I think) Queen City, #10 Jack, with Winterbottom bone. mint = $80-$90 (this exact knife with this shield isn't listed in Sargent's book)

Queen City, Heavy Jack, black composition handles. mint = $50-$60

this is not a Queen but it came out of the same building. It's been used but no abused. No chips or cracks and it measures 5-3/4" closed..I think this would be illegal in some states to even carry.

Love the toothpick pattern! This is a nice one!