Well I guess not exactly my first since I have a SAK. But I recently got a northwoods stockman made by queen. I returned it due to some cosmetic issues with the stag on one side. But I had it around for a couple of days. I was surprised how difficult it was to open. The smaller spey blade was particularly stubborn, broke a nail. My modern folding knives are definitely a lot smoother and easier to open.
I may give them another try because I'm drawn to them aesthetically. But I think I've taken a side in the traditional vs. modern pocket knife debate
.
Its my feeling that there is a tendincy of some knife manufacturers to make the springs too strong and over do the walk and talk thing. If you handle some of the old knives there is good walk and talk without breaking a nail. If a knife is a nail breaker, then something is wrong.
When I was a kid and I had the good fortune to handle some of the knives of my grandad and his quail hunting cronies, there was a mixture of barlows, stockmen, and simple jack's of various brands, and none of them were too hard for my 6 year old fingers to open. Look at a modern Victorinox made pocket knife, and they are so well polished and fit, that they open smoothly with no nail breaking. I'm not sure how they do it, but for the first 1/4 to 1/3 of the way open they are very easy to pull out of the handle, then get a progressive feeling resistance for the last half of the way when they have that good final snap to fully opened. Its almost like they use a different radius on the opposite corners of the tang. I bought a new Buck stockman (most likely a Camillus) in 1967 at an army PX, and over the course of 25 years it felt the same as the day I bought it. It walked and talked just fine and still does. It was never a hard to open knife.
The very physics of the forces at work when cutting with a slip joint keeps the knife open, overly strong springs are not needed. I don't know why Queen does this, but they seem to make alot of their knives that are in that type. Most of the Case pocket knives I've seen don't have springs that are nail breakers, nor are most of the Schrade Old Timers that were the standby of working folks for many years. Heck, some of the European shepards knives and penny knives don't even have a backspring, yet they have been popular for centuries.
If your Queen was a nail breaker it should have been sent back, something was not done right. I think alot of modern makers have lost the art of making the spring tempered and adjusted right. Alot of the old cutlers who knew how to fit a pocket knife are gone, and thats the pity of it.
Just for the heck of it, go to smoky mountain knifeworks and get a Victorinox Pioneer settler. Its a good sleeveboard pattern two blade jack with the alox handles. You will see what a nicely fitted and adjusted pocket knife should feel like. Use that as a benchmark to compare others to. Also, Buck still makes their 301 stockman and 303 cadet here in the U.S.A., and Paul Bos does their heat treat. Very good servicable knives for a good price. No nail breakers there.
Of course you can get a Case peanut to try out a slip joint, but thats risky, they can get addictive. There's the bone stag, the red bone, the amber bone....
