Looking at getting first traditional blade,

KrisNZ

KrisNZ

Joined
Aug 28, 2012
Messages
12,136
Hi all, traditional blades have just caught my eye, now I find that I want to buy one, I've been looking at a Queen Mountain Man lockback.
Is Queen a good brand to start off with? Your opinions and experiences would be much appreciated. Kris
 
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Hey Kris,
Good to see more people getting interested on traditionals.
I don't know what are your uses for a knife, but the mountain man is a heavy folder, too heavy for me to carry it everyday, is more like an outdoors belt seath working folder. So, if your are thinking in carrying it everyday I'll recomend you something shorter than 4" closed.
For what I read Queen quality could vary a lot, and the grinds are quite thick out of the box, but nothing a good sharpening wouldn't fix anyway. I'll recomend you that with traditionals try to handle the knife in person before buying.
Hope it helps,
regards
Mateo
hope it helps
 
Hello, Kris. Welcome to the wonderful world of traditionally patterned knives.

You will get a lot of opinions (including mine!) about which knife to get, and the poster's take on the manufacturer. I would suggest that you take a minute and search this sub forum as the question of "which first traditional knife" seems to come up fairly often.

As far as the Queen knives go, I have had great luck with them, but I buy from a great vendor. I can never remember if it is OK to post a name or not, but he is a registered dealer/member here. As with seemingly all knives today, you are better off if you can actually handle them, and the Queen line is no exception.

I have found their knives to be well built, strong, and needing a good sharpening when I get them. I love the D2 and their designs. Specifically, that Mountain Man seems to be a great work/camp/hunting knife and has been around long enough to build a good following.

If you are looking for a larger knife (this one isn't too pocket friendly!) that will handle just about anything you throw at it, this is a great knife.

Robert
 
Thanks, sorry guys I should have said that I'm sort of looking a classy type EDC with a single locking blade, 3+ inch blade length, I don't mind something with a bit of heft to it. Is the Mountain Man of a similar size/weight to a Buck 110?
 
Kris,

The single blade lockback hunter is (at this point) a classic design with many manufacturers making their interpretation of the design. Most offer the tradition version with a roughly 3 3/4" blade (and a belt holster) and many offer a more pocket friendly with a blade in the 3" range. With Buck, the originator or the design, that would be the 110 Hunter and 112 Ranger respectively. For this reason, I think it makes sense to pick based on brand loyalty and blade and scale material.

Some brands to look at are: Buck (the first: the rest are knock offs), Queen, GEC, Boker, Utica, Bear and Sons and Moore Maker.

Be sure to check out Bucks web site which allows you to custom design your own 110 from their custom shop.
 
I don't think of the Mountain Man as a Buck knockoff. However the Buck 110 & 112 are very good knives at easily affordable prices. I do think the Mountain Man to be a somewhat different pattern than the Buck 110. I have a Camillus twin blade folder (not lockback), but since I don't have a Mountain Man, I can't compare the two directly. The Queen Mountain Man would be similar to the GEC 72 pattern I believe.

Welcome to traditional folders. If you get a Queen, I know you will like their D2 blades.

Ed J
 
Welcome to the world of traditional pocket knives :)
I agree with Ed: I see the Buck 110/112 as a totally different thing from Queen Mountain Man.
The closest to the Queen, to my eyes, would probably be the GEC #42 Missouri Trader (just adding another option).
I can't speak directly about any of these three knives, but others here will give you all the feedback that you need...and in the end, your eye will choose, and that's how it should be.
Obviously, whatever knife you will get, pictures and a review are always appreciated around here :)

Fausto
:cool:
 
Look at the case large copperlock. Many different handle materials, 4 1/4 closed, 3 inch plus blade, slender, light, and very pocket friendly. I carried one for a time and it was a great user. Great feel in the hand.
 
Thanks guys, you all seem like a very friendly and welcoming bunch. You've given me much to research. I didn't realize that there were so many very cool traditional style knives out there ( no pocket clipped, jimped G10 tacticool's among them, yay!). But now I think that I'll have to get a second job. Please let me apologise in advance for any future grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors.( don't know if the grammar police patrol this forum:)) Kris
 
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