Eye brand vs Queen Cutlery

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daedge804

Joined
Dec 28, 2009
Messages
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I'm in the market for single blade knife for general utility tasks such as general cutting tasks and an overall good slip joint to carry for years to come. I'm stuck between two knives, Queen Cutlery Utility Knife with birds eye maple handle and a German Eye Brand Single Blade Trapper with a jigged bone handle. I am wondering:

1. Which company has better knives
2. Which company's knives are sharper out of the box
3 Which is better knife when it comes to contruction and use
4. Which compnay has better qaulity control

Please tell me what you think. Thanks!
 
My main EDC for 3 years is an Eye Brand 4 5/8" folder with Sodbuster style blade and a saw blade. Excellent knife. sharpens up easily and edge holds very well. just about perfect balance of steel qualities.
i have about 20 Queens, all D2. never tried any of them as all are dull and i'm still hoping to find the time to get the D2 into cutting shape. i expect when i finally do, any of them will also work very well.
roland
 
I don't have those models, but I did recently buy an Eye Brand large stockman and I wasn't all that impressed with the build quality. Lots of blade wobble and the back-springs are not fitted well to the blade tangs. One blade even hits a rivet that sticks too far out on the inside of the frame.
My Queen stockman in amber bone is built much better. However neither was very sharp out of the box, but both sharpened up pretty easily after a few passes on a ceramic rod. The carbon steel on the Eye brand seems pretty good and I like the way the blades are swedged. The D2 on the Queen seems pretty good too.
 
I have a number of knives from both Queen and Eye Brand. Queen is a little more consistent with fit and finish, while the blade grinds on the Eye Brand are more consistent. Virtually all of the Eye Brand knives that I have are very well ground with nice thin edges that cut well. Both are good brands, though, you can't go wrong with either.
 
I am sure that Eye Brand knives are great. I just cannot get past that eyeball symbol they use. It is a deal breaker for me. I just do not like my knife lookin back at me. Maybe I need to find one where the tang stamp is buffed out so far, the eye looks like it is closed.
 
daedge804 said:
I'm in the market for single blade knife for general utility tasks such as general cutting tasks and an overall good slip joint to carry for years to come. I'm stuck between two knives, Queen Cutlery Utility Knife with birds eye maple handle and a German Eye Brand Single Blade Trapper with a jigged bone handle. I am wondering:

1. Which company has better knives
2. Which company's knives are sharper out of the box
3 Which is better knife when it comes to contruction and use
4. Which compnay has better qaulity control

Please tell me what you think. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I don't have a current Eyebrand. I have several Queens.

The Queens I have bought have been well built with excellent construction and quality for the price point.

However, they aren't known for being sharp OOB. All of mine have had edge angles of greater than 20° per side. Some have been reasonably sharp even at that oblique angle. Once sharpened, the D2 holds an edge for a gratifyingly long time.
 
rprocter said:
My main EDC for 3 years is an Eye Brand 4 5/8" folder with Sodbuster style blade and a saw blade. Excellent knife. sharpens up easily and edge holds very well. just about perfect balance of steel qualities.
i have about 20 Queens, all D2. never tried any of them as all are dull and i'm still hoping to find the time to get the D2 into cutting shape. i expect when i finally do, any of them will also work very well.
roland
Click to expand...
Same here. I have a couple of beautiful Queen Copperheads in D2 sittin on my desk. Both brand new and dull as doorknobs. Just never got around to sharpening them. My German Eye Canoe is holding down the fort till I get around to them.
 
The Queen Utility is well made and finished but they are usually blunt as has been said, well that's my experience too. It and the Slimline Trapper (from CASE and others)are very nice patterns but they are up for lighter tasks, first rate food prep though.

You might want to consider a GEC No.73 as an excellent alternative single blade knife that can handle more or less the lot.Well made,lot of scale choices, lock-back,liner lock or slipjoint,easy to sharpen!
 
willgoy is correct but staying in the post i have to say i collected eyes from starting in the 70s & they were issued in a top line which was mirror polished with sunk joints ,great fit & finish. the jim bowie & el gallo lines were much rougher. the steel was world class in cutting quality.after 1995 to 2000 the quality slipped a little but some of the top lines were still great . in general queen has risen in last 15 years to great fit & finish.if you can get the d2 sharp you have a great performer & a great looker.
 
Do the Queens usually have lots of blade play? I just got one in the mail that was so loose that I had to send it back to the dealer. There was just so much side play that it worried me. The blade was also bent.
The D2 is excellent steel. I have a belt sander, so I can make any blade sharp.
 
I have four and none has had any blade play.
 
willgoy said:
The Queen Utility is well made and finished but they are usually blunt as has been said, well that's my experience too. It and the Slimline Trapper (from CASE and others)are very nice patterns but they are up for lighter tasks, first rate food prep though.

You might want to consider a GEC No.73 as an excellent alternative single blade knife that can handle more or less the lot.Well made,lot of scale choices, lock-back,liner lock or slipjoint,easy to sharpen!
Click to expand...

The GEC #73 is really one of the nicest carry knives i have ever had.

Especially the single blade model.
 
I read over and over and over again that Queen's D2 blades come profiled like butter knives and, because of that hard steel, are a PITA to re-profile. I just had an idea, though ..... you can get a coarse diamond stone or sharpening rod on a popular internet auction site (I know - I just got a DMT for <$10). Assuming you have even a little bit of skill freehand sharpening, reprofiling the edge on one of those shouldn't be that much trouble.

It still chaps my arse that Queen sends out knives like this .... but even so, based purely on all the reading I've done on this forum over the past few years, I'd choose a new Queen over a new Eye Brand (vintage, that's a different story).
 
It IS NOT "that much trouble"! The continuing complaint about Queen's "blunt edges" has always fascinated me. I have found that even "sharp out of the box" knives by other makers most often have edges that are such garbage that I have to resharpen them, anyway. At least with a Queen one gets to start the necessary sharpening "with a clean slate".
 
rprocter said:
i have about 20 Queens, all D2. never tried any of them as all are dull and i'm still hoping to find the time to get the D2 into cutting shape. i expect when i finally do, any of them will also work very well.
roland
Click to expand...

Yes, Queen often comes with a poor obtuse factory edge.
But D2 can be sharpened easily and quickly

I use a DMT Aligner jig that comes with Course, Fine and Extra Fine.
I purchased an additional Extra Course

It takes me less than 1/4 hour per blade to go thru the four stones to get to shaving sharp.
The blade comes off the jig with excellent even angled bevels.

The cost of the Aligner with four stones is about $50


You can see the even bevel from the Aligner on this Queen D2 Utilty

picture.php
 
I agree with you, John. I've got 5 Queens. All came butter knife dull. Still, with a set of DMT diamonds, I got to shaving sharp fairly fast. In fact, it was my Congress with it's four blades to sharpen that finally induced me to go to diamonds. I'll never go back. I work all the way from X-coarse, coarse, fine, x-fine, and then I wrap sandpaper on the fine stone "rough side in" so that I can "strop" with the back of the paper. I've found that's a great recipe for sharp.

You guys should send me those poor Queens!!
 
D2 is great steel. It is close to stainless, harder and tougher than most stainless, and holds an edge once sharpened.
I keep a 400 grit belt on one of my belt sanders to sharpen knives. It will produce a shaving edge in just a few minutes, even with D2.
 
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