Hi guys I'm new here and to knives. Anyway I was looking at these Hen@Rooster knives, does anyone know what quality they are and I see that they genuine stag and have Solingen stainless steel, is this steel any good? I know these are from Solingen Germany which seems to be the center for making knives. I do have a number of Henckles ( sp?) kitchen knives that are very high quality.
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Hen@Rooster
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JPD1998
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They're not what they used to be....
Frost Cutlery owns Hen & Rooster. Originally Frost was going to keep it as a premium brand, but in my experience the last few I've bought were lacking in fit and finish.
If you want a traditional style knife go with Case Cutlery or if you want to spend a little more, go with Great Eastern Cutlery. Great Eastern's stag is incredible.
Frost Cutlery owns Hen & Rooster. Originally Frost was going to keep it as a premium brand, but in my experience the last few I've bought were lacking in fit and finish.
If you want a traditional style knife go with Case Cutlery or if you want to spend a little more, go with Great Eastern Cutlery. Great Eastern's stag is incredible.
Thanks for your reply. I was looking at Case but read some threads here that seemed to be up/down on the steel that Case uses for the blade and as I understand some of the materials are less than genuine. I liked a number of Case knives especially the slimline Trapper but put it on the back burner until I checked out other Mfg.s that produce knives similar to the above, I think they are referred to as traditional knives. I'm going to check out your recammedation of GEC. Thanks Jim
JPD1998
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Case uses either stainless steel or chrome vanadium. The product description will usually say which steel it is. CV is a tool steel and is not stainless. Some prefer CV, others like stainless steel. I prefer their stainless, it's not high end steel , but it works for most applications.
The handle materials they use are both organic and synthetic, the product description will list handle material.
I'm not a fan of their stag, but they make a bone stag ( cow bone carved to look like stage) which looks great.
I do have a slimline trapper in brown delrin, it's a pretty good knife for the price. It's a perfect size and weight to carry in dress pants.
IMO , GEC is a more premium knife, they're constructed the way a knife was produced years ago, lots of hand finishing on those. This is only my perception, others might disagree.
Most GECS are not stainless, they have some... most of the knives with the acorn shield are stainless.
If you like stag, their stag handles are the best (IMO)
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GEC are great, there's also case, queen, and a few others putting out decent traditionals. Check out the traditional section of this forum, http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/773-Traditional-Folders-and-Fixed-Blades, there's loads of info there. Just be careful, buying traditionals is kind of addicting.
Thanks for the reply, I looked at GEC, I like some of their knives. I did look up the properties of the 1095 steel and as you said it's not Stainless steel. As you, I like Stainless S. The maintenance for 1095 is to apply oil often, in fact they say weekly, well I wouldn't buy a knife that needed maintenance weekly especially when I will have many knives, so it just doesn't work for me. I'll have to go back and look for the acorn shield ones you mention that are SS. I'll visit the traditional knife section as you say.
I'm going to go back to the Case slimline trapper that I liked and that you have. I handled that knife a Bass Pro and I thought it would be easy to carry around. Thanks Jim
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You only need to oil them that often if you live at the beach (or if you sweat heavily). The majority of my knives are carbon and I barely ever have to oil them, once they develop a patina they become fairly corrosion resistant. Heck, I'm still using the same small 2$ bottle of mineral oil I bought 6ish years ago. The biggest thing you have to be concerned with is making sure to clean and dry them after using them for food or anything else acidic.
What's hilarious is even when people complained about carbon steel blades and said 'I have to have stainless'...somewhat redundant back then with a Camillus or Uncle Henry.Aside from having to oil the joints? the backsprings on a stainless steel bladed slipjoint were made with carbon steel.Most people are aware that stainless isn't 'rust proof' but the best thing for protecting from any corrosion on stainless steel is a light coat of oil.People only seem to be benefit going with stainless based on climate or getting chemicals on the blades.
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