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As you all know, David is a member here and he helps us quite a bit!  Just thought it would be a good time to actually introduce him to you all

David Clark was born in the Ozark Mountains of north Arkansas; he graduated from the University of Arkansas, and settled in Georgia following military service. He practiced architecture in Atlanta until retiring in 2009. As a child he used his father’s pocket knife to carve the soft bark of the pine tree and thus began his affection for pocket cutlery. Saving his money and buying his first pocket knife while in elementary school, he promptly broke a blade, and returned it to Lewis Brothers Hardware Store in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The knife was replaced. It was a Ka-bar jack. Then he did what most kids did – he lost it. So as he grew up he always had a knife to carry and one or two to fish and hunt with. He began buying some new knives to collect and hold in the early 1980s, mostly Case and some German. He started attending some of the knife shows and became acquainted with a broader range of knives, both new and antique. At one of these shows he bought a few of the new Schatt & Morgan pocket knives made in the early 1990s, bone and stag handled beauties. He also invested in some of the Case Classics and the Winchester reproduction knives produced around that same time. All were beautifully made. David was always interested in history and learned that these knives were made in the Queen Cutlery factory in Titusville, Pa., in a building dating to 1902. He attended one of the first Queen Cutlery factory tours and knife shows. There he met Fred Fisher, probably the most knowledgeable collector of Queen cutlery, and that is where his real education began with some of the antique Queen knives.  Clark met David Krauss, who at that time was writing his book about Queen and Schatt & Morgan, “American Pocketknives” and he contributed some research and information for the Dollar Knife Chapter. His education of antique cutlery and cutlery manufacturing continued with many discussions with Joe and Betty Dial of Alabama, who were collectors of Queen Cutlery for many years; and with Pete Cohan, Jim Sargent, Mark Zalesky and Bruce Voyles. David discovered that he not only loved cutlery history, particularly Shatt & Morgan and Queen, but also the research of the early men who started these factories and the cutlers that made the knives. Occasionally, he has contributed articles to Knife World Magazine focusing on these subjects. In addition he has reproduced two antique Schatt & Morgan Catalogs.

Tags: Clark, David, queen-historian

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if you are going to collect vintage QUEEN and especially vintage Schatt and Morgan- MR.Clark's book is a must have!

Attacked by a Shark But Saved by a Queen

By David Clark
February 2014



Queen Cutlery has been known over the years for its innovation in knife design and use of materials. They are documented as one of the first cutleries to use stainless steel for blades and springs starting in the early 1920s. Of course they also offered carbon steel in their knives during these early years also. After WWII Queen Cutlery made a major commitment to stainless in their knives. E. C. Erickson was elected president of Queen City Cutlery in 1940. He was a creative manager and cutlery designer and it was he that led to company through war years. In 1946, Queen City Cutlery, incorporated in 1922 in Delaware, was dissolved as a Corporation and re-incorporated in Pennsylvania as Queen Cutlery Company.
This is a short story of the use of one of Erickson’s inventions, the Big Chief, Queen Cutlery Pattern #45. Below are the patent documents, a news paper article about three men attacked in a raft by a shark in the Atlantic and the use of a Big Chief to fight off the shark. The Big Chief was patented in 1955 and the knife was produced for many years ending production in 2008. The patented design was also used of several Queen Barlow patterns also show below.

Queen Pattern #45, Easy Open Big Chief

The Big Chief was sold by the thousands all across America and found it home in many tackle boxes. It was especially popular in the southeast and particularly near salt water environments. Having only four parts, cast aluminum housing, a stainless blade and spring and one pin, it was a simple knife; and in the easy open pattern could be opened
readily with a gloved hand. The following information was provided by Robert Siple of Meadville, PA. Bob was sales
manager at Queen for many years and it was during his time there that the shark incident occurred.

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