How good is Queen's D-2 ?

R

ripoil

Joined
Nov 14, 2005
Messages
19
Just wondering how these knives stack up against other comparably priced options. They seem to be pretty good deals for the price, but I've never owned one.
 
I've got at least 6 at last count, love them all. The only Queen D2 knife I have ever sold was a Muskrat and only because I didn't like that pattern.

Holds an edge like crazy.
 
I've been using one of their Mountain Man lockbacks (#3L) for a short time now. This one was replaced by Queen as the (new) original had excess blade play and a sticky lock release. I wasn' t quite thrilled with this. But their CS dept is excellent as they took care of the problem pretty quickly. I reprofiled the edge to a slightly more narrow angle. Ad finished it off with a slight toothy feel. It can really slice and holds a pretty good edge. Just for testing purposes, I sliced up fruit on a regular bases and rinsed off the blade soon afterwards. No problems. I then decided to test the "stainless" characteristics of D2 by leaving the knife as is, after using it on some more fruit. A few hours later I wiped it with a moist rag. There was some light discoloring. I wasn' t quite surprised. Some elbow grease with some Flitz brand metal polish took it all off. So if you' re going to use D2 on organic/ food stuff, rinse and dry off soon afterwards, as you should with any knife steel rergardless. It' s good practice. I like my Mountain Man lockback.

BTW, I believe Queen is just about one of the last American blade companies that produces their products wholly from USA made parts and labor.

N.
 
Try it out, and I think you'll like it. Some think it's a little more difficult to sharpen than some of the other steels available, but I didn't notice that. It does hold an edge really well, and I don't think it's too tough to sharpen (although I haven't really needed to sharpen mine since I put the initial "Alex's preference" edge on it).
Again, I think you'll like it.

Peace.
Alex.
 
I have several Queen D2 slipjoints, and have used 2 of them pretty extensively. Overall, I'm very pleased with the D2. One of my users is a whittler, and in my experience it holds an edge longer than Schrade 1095 or Case CV.

I don't find it difficult to sharpen either, but then I reprofiled the edges to about 20 degrees inclusive, and maintain a microbevel that's simple to touch up on a Sharpmaker.

I recall a thread a while back in which someone expressed the opinion that Queen doesn't heat treat their D2 to optimum hardness (i.e. they run it softer). Even if it's true, it has worked well for me.
 
It's a good hard steel. I found it gets a light grey patina which stays pretty good, but certain things, like pickle juice can cause pitting. It's a steel that needs a rinse/wipe after use with corrosives and a little bit of oil on the blade every so often, but hey, its not really a stainless. Queen's edges always need thinning out as far as my taste. But once it's done, they're great.
 
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