Identify? 1980 Limited Imperial?

D

DeadPuppy

Joined
Nov 7, 2010
Messages
224
Hi, I recently aquired a knife from my Grandparents and I was wondering if anybody could help give me some info on it. I'm fairly knowledgeable when it comes to balisongs, but I don't really know anything about vintage folding knives. Since my meager collection is slowly growing I hoped maybe I could get a wider base of knowledge.

Here's all I know about the knife. I was told that it is a limited edition Imperial from 1980; #119 of 150. On the blade it's marked "Nat Hardware Show 1980 1 of 150. On one of the bolsters it is marked 119. The tang has U.S.A. stamped on it but you can only see that when the blade is halfway open. I don't really recognize the marking on it either. It's like a Q with a crown on it and the number 80 next to it.

So what is it? Is it Imperial? I don't recognize the tang stamp, so if it isn't Imperial, what do I have? I don't really know anything else about it. I'm not worried about the value of the knife so much, I don't plan on selling it. I just want to know what I have, because I know tons about all of my other knives (mostly balisongs). Other than scratches, it seems to be in relatively good condition. Lockup is very very solid. When closed the blade is nearly dead center. There is no rust that I can see anywhere on the knife. I don't know what the blade steel is. The liners appear to be brass? The inserts are stag, and I think the bolsters are just stainless steal.

Here are some pictures. Any help is appreciated!

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I'm not too up on it either , but obviously a Queen manufactured knife for Imperial, and in my opinion ( which really counts for 1/10th's of bugger all ) it will be a very nicely built knife.
Being Queen, Im surprised to see the gap between the Bolster and Stag, but we dont know the humid/ambient conditions that it was kept in to make the scales shrink.
I personally think that any Queen knife is a sound structured knife that will last for many generations if looked after ( simply oil your joints my friend )
 
Ah that would explain why I didn't recognize the stamp...and the Q. I'd never heard of Queen, thanks for the info! And yeah I'll be oiling it asap.

Edit: so is it a Queen knife or is it made by Queen for Imperial?
 
Theres nothing on the knife to suggest it was Imperial, my apologies for putting you wrong, I followed your suggestion that it had a relationship with Imperial, Vanguard is bang on, it seems to be Queen only.
Unless you are seeing some other form of stamping on the knife that we cannnot see in the photos.
 
Nope there are no other markings on the knife. I have a number of smaller Imperials so I'm a little familiar with those markings but there were none of those on this knife. The man who gave this knife is usually very knowledgable about all of his collections, be it knives, guns, marbles, fishing equipment etc... He usually knows what he's talking about which is what made me believe this was Imperial. That said, he has waaay to many collections to know everything on and he probably just made a mistake.

Thanks a lot for the info, I had never even heard of Queen so I learned something new! I'm going to look into them so I can find out more. Thank you!
 
If you punch in queen knives in the search column up on the top right hand side of this forum, or Google the name, you will have about a years worth of reading in front of you :)
 
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