Bear & Son Knives.

[otis66]

I bought a few of these from my MAC tools dealer a while back. What do you guys think of Bear & Son Cutlerly. The Bear and Son is the lockback in the middle. I've always bought Case knives.

 

[buzp]

I have a Bear trapper and a peanut that I bought over 20 years ago. They are decent knives but I prefer Case or Queen. I don't know what steel they use, but they are pretty hard to sharpen. I carried the trapper every day for a number of years and the scales became loose. Sent it back to Bear and they tightened the scales, but after a while they were loose again. I think the single pin design is what causes this, so I just removed the scales and epoxied them back in place. Since then, I mainly carry a Queen and find it a little better made and much easier to keep sharp. Not saying Bear is a bad knife, just think that, for me, there are better choices available.

 

[brets-ftw]

Bear isn't bad bto their current line up is not even close to being on par with case, queen, canal street etc. They steels they currently use are 440a, damscus and 1095. I've been wanting to try the 1095 and see how the heat treat is, but I know that they skimpy on the damscus and 440a ht so i wouldnt bother with them

 

[Pug-butter]

Necrobump for interest.

Bear isn't bad but their current line up is not even close to being on par with case, queen, canal street etc. The steels they currently use are 440a, damascus and 1095. I've been wanting to try the 1095 and see how the heat treat is, but I know that they skimpy on the damascus and 440a ht so I wouldn't bother with them.

Did you ever get around to testing their 1095? I recently learned they produce an imitation Western W49 out of that steel. The traditional design, along with a decent heat-treat would give the knife what it needs to really scratch my itch.