Moore Maker

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pstetson

Joined
Mar 10, 2011
Messages
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I have a opprotunity to buy some Moore Maker knives...the 5301 and the 3305. What are your thoughts?? i know nothing of the brand.
 
I have a Moore Maker mountain man with ram horn scales that has up and down wobble in it. It is still a nice looking knife.
 
Moore Maker has their knives made for them.
All their knives have carbon steel blades.
I've never bought any, but below is information gleaned from a few years hanging out in the Traditional Forum.

Queen has always made a lot of their nice ones. And they are very nice.
IIRC Canal Street is now making some, also. CS makes very nice knives, too.

Camillus used to make their lower line.
Rumor has it that Bear and Son now make the lower end knives and that they are not the equal of the ones that Camillus made.

The 5301 is one of the higher end models.
The 3305 is one of the lower end models.
 
I don't own one, but have looked at more than a few. The quality was OK, but some knives better than others. I would suggest you only buy them if you can readily return them or seem them in advance.
 
moore makers are made by queen, so if you like queen, you are in luck. they don't actually manufacture knives, they outsource. i'm wondering about the origins of the 7102lb as it's not so traditional but, has a 1095 blade.
 
I'm a relative newbie to the hobby of knife collecting. I have, however, gathered a decent sampling of medium sized blades in the toothpick and trapperlock styles recently. My first knife was a gift, a Case trapperlock with thumb stud. I enjoyed it so much, I got a Boker Tree in the same style with Mother of Pearl. Both blades are a joy to play around with - they open with a flick and close easily, have great snap and are tight in the open position.

Last week I saw a Moore Maker #5102LLG 2010 new and mint in box on eBay and decided to add it to the others. 4 3/16 red bone sin bld trapper (upc 7-09149-00246-2). What I got in the mail yesterday was certainly a disappointment. I was at first excited by the smell of the oil still on the blade and knew it had never been used or handled. The first thing I noticed was the thumb stud, which had rotated out of position and was not flush with the blade. It can't rotate 90*, but there's a lot of movement there and my others have no movement at all. Second thing I noticed was the amount of play when the blade is fully extended. No side to side movement, but the liner doesn't sit flush and there's quite a bit of back and forth movement. The third issue, and the most severe, is the thickness of the liner. The blade is a little stiff opening so it doesn't open with a wrist flick, which I'm o.k. with, but the liner is so bent and thick that, once open, it's almost impossible to close! Both my other knives have linerlocks that bend over easily with the thumb and are a breeze to close. This knife I have to turn over and use both thumbs and press as hard as I can on the liner to release the blade. It's very difficult to do.

This is my first Moore Maker knife, so I have no idea whether these issues are common with these knives and par for the course, or if this was some reject knife that somehow got past inspection. Please let me know if these types of issues are common with this manufacturer and I'll be sure to avoid them in the future. I've seen a couple reviews on other types of Moore Maker knives and usually they're pretty positive. I don't know the ACTUAL manufacturer of these knives. I'll post some pics later.
 
I tried to state gently above that their quality is at best "spotty." I've never seen one that's been good enough for me to take home. Return it.
 
Too bad about your first one. I'm not familiar with that model, and I don't know who makes it or what quality you could expect from it.

Here is a typical Queen-made 5301
 
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