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Moore Maker Knives???
- Thread starter mrjed
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lambertiana
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Chuckle if you will, but it's true. I have several of the standard Queen D2 line, and the Queen-made Moore Maker is a step up in quality. Here's mine:
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I believe you, just not often that Queen grinds are a step above, usually that is the only thing wrong with them.
ea42
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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mrjed, I believe it's the white bone swell center, and the two blade trappers in osage orange (Boise d'Arc), mesquite, and smooth ram's horn. They also have a whitetail stag "pinch" single blade lockback, but I've never seen it on the website, might only be an "in store" item.
Eric
Just joined bladeforums - novice collector.
I wonder what the attraction is for knives such as "Moore Maker" - knives marketed by a company that are not made by that company? Perhaps I don't know enough about the business, so how much can a seller like Moore Maker alter the basic style of a Queen knife? Queen currently uses D2, so will they make a 1095 or 440C knife, pinch the bolsters, alter the liners from brass to nickle silver, etc. on a contract?
Same thing with Colonel Coon. The original Colonel Coon knives are no longer being made (SMKW owns the name, and the knives are jobbed out. What is the interest in these knives? I have an understanding of why a collector might want an "Ad" knife, such as a STIHL knife made by W.R. Case, or a Caterpillar ad knife made by Camillus. Just trying to get a grip on this area of knife collecting.
I wonder what the attraction is for knives such as "Moore Maker" - knives marketed by a company that are not made by that company? Perhaps I don't know enough about the business, so how much can a seller like Moore Maker alter the basic style of a Queen knife? Queen currently uses D2, so will they make a 1095 or 440C knife, pinch the bolsters, alter the liners from brass to nickle silver, etc. on a contract?
Same thing with Colonel Coon. The original Colonel Coon knives are no longer being made (SMKW owns the name, and the knives are jobbed out. What is the interest in these knives? I have an understanding of why a collector might want an "Ad" knife, such as a STIHL knife made by W.R. Case, or a Caterpillar ad knife made by Camillus. Just trying to get a grip on this area of knife collecting.
lambertiana
Gold Member
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Rüdemann - It is not so much the allure of collecting in this case, but the question was more in terms of the quality of the Moore Maker brand. I have knives from most major manufacturers, and the Moore Maker knives that I have (made by Queen) are high quality. I bought them with the intention to use them, not to sit in a collection.
You would be surprised to find out how many knife brands are actually contract made by others. Other examples of brands that are entirely contract made, besides Moore Maker, are Cold Steel, Becker, Eye Brand, Fällkniven, and Bradley. Spyderco makes some of their knives, but has some of them contract-made by several other makers. Even some of the Case knives have been made by others. As long as you order the minimum lot size (usually 500-1000 pieces) most major manufacturers with actual knife factory floor space will make whatever you want, to your quality and materials specifications.
You would be surprised to find out how many knife brands are actually contract made by others. Other examples of brands that are entirely contract made, besides Moore Maker, are Cold Steel, Becker, Eye Brand, Fällkniven, and Bradley. Spyderco makes some of their knives, but has some of them contract-made by several other makers. Even some of the Case knives have been made by others. As long as you order the minimum lot size (usually 500-1000 pieces) most major manufacturers with actual knife factory floor space will make whatever you want, to your quality and materials specifications.
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In addition to what John and Jason have already mentioned, some of the Moore Maker line are patterns that are not readily available elsewhere...for instance the Sowbelly Moose which is a classic old pattern that one finds in vintage catalogs like that of "John Primble" but I personally have not come across elsewhere currently.
Thanks, guys. I think I get it, now. I remember seeing something like a 5-blade folder at Shepherd Hills, and a behemoth Victorinox so big it could never be carried or used. Neither of these are for me, but are for somebody. I am a user/collector and probably like a lot of the folks here I do my own "field testing". I am intent on getting knives from the maker so I will use a "collector" knife if it has the steel I want to test. However, I was in your position, Blues with a fixed-blade in D2, but no folder - until I found Queen had moved "up" to D2. Like you, I would have bought a contract knife in D2 if I had found one before finding Queen, so I understand that if Moore Maker has a knife you are looking for that no one else makes, you get it where you can. Plus, I suppose that if Queen makes enough of your Sowbelly Moose for Moore Maker they will offer it in their own line.
Mooremaker own all the tools and dies that are used to make their knives. They make knives to use on the ranches here in Texas, tough as nails, that is their market. If you need some questions answered call them. It's a family owned business they will answer any you have.
Not hardly. As explained above, MM is a retailer that contracts with large manufacturers to make knives for them. Moore Maker does not produce the knives they sell.
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Blues, thanks for the photo albums. You have a lot of great knives. I especially noticed the WWII Navy issue folder. Do you have any opinion on the old vs new can opener? It seems all but the new (2009) Remington release of the 1933 Scout knife (Bear & Son) have the new style can opener. I am thinking that the old style would work better (longer stroke). I am partial to my P-38 and haven't used the new style can opener found on all (as far as I can tell) current production knives either. I think that I ignored the new style can opener on my Victorinox Swiss Tool because I didn't look at it closely until recently. At casual glance it looks "straight", but the blade is actually offset enough to work.
I apologize if this off topic (Moore Maker) too far and should be addressed in another discussion. I'm new here and don't know how strict the forums are.
I apologize if this off topic (Moore Maker) too far and should be addressed in another discussion. I'm new here and don't know how strict the forums are.
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Rüdemann;9904079 said:
Thanks for the kind comment about my albums. I really can't comment about the opener on the vintage Imperial as it is a knife I won here in a giveaway a few years back and I've not used the opener on that knife. (And in truth rarely carried cans on my extended outings in the field.) Sorry I can't help more. If you need further info just shoot me an email so we don't sidetrack the ongoing discussion about Moore Maker knives.
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The question of who actually owns the tools might be essentially moot. I used to work in the semiconductor industry, and it was common practice for a particular manufacturer to contract out resources (tools, manufacturing space and people) to make products for other companies whose specialty was the design of products, but not manufacturing. It was also common for some of those design companies to eventually assume ownership (on paper) of the tools & hardware used to make their products. Assumption of ownership guarantees, to the design firm, that those tools will be exclusively dedicated to their products, which means they can reliably meet customer demand for product. Additionally, it takes much of the financial 'load' off of the manufacturer, who no longer has to worry about the cost of upkeep, depreciation, and other asset/tax-related issues.
Aside from the 'official' change of owner, the tools remained in the same production factory, operated by the very same people, and maintained by the same technicians & engineering staff. In the real-world, 'hands-on' manufacturing sense, nothing had changed. This is why the 'ownership of the tools' question may not necessarily reflect on the quality of the finished product.
I point this out, because part of my own job responsibilities were keeping track of the hardware 'assets' in our department. I all-of-a-sudden had to start making my asset reports to a completely different group of people, after the assets I'd been tracking were transferred (on paper only) to another company, for whom we were making products of their own design. Otherwise, it was business as usual. I was also part of the maintenance & engineering staff who maintained and upgraded the very same tools & hardware, and none of those responsibilities even skipped a beat, so the above scenario is all-too-familiar to me.
Aside from the 'official' change of owner, the tools remained in the same production factory, operated by the very same people, and maintained by the same technicians & engineering staff. In the real-world, 'hands-on' manufacturing sense, nothing had changed. This is why the 'ownership of the tools' question may not necessarily reflect on the quality of the finished product.
I point this out, because part of my own job responsibilities were keeping track of the hardware 'assets' in our department. I all-of-a-sudden had to start making my asset reports to a completely different group of people, after the assets I'd been tracking were transferred (on paper only) to another company, for whom we were making products of their own design. Otherwise, it was business as usual. I was also part of the maintenance & engineering staff who maintained and upgraded the very same tools & hardware, and none of those responsibilities even skipped a beat, so the above scenario is all-too-familiar to me.
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