My First Queen came in today

FLymon

FLymon

Gold Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2006
Messages
4,655
I recently bought a Queen Cutlery Amber Carved Stag Bone Mini-Trapper
with the D2 blades and it came in today.
First the good. The scales are really nice, very rich color, and good depth. The fit between bolsters and scales is excellent, better than I expected :)
Now the bad. The blades are bent, and warped and twisted. They both rub against their "outer" liner :mad::
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Here is the main blade opened. I dont know if you can get a feel for the twist, but you can definitely see the bend:
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Here are both open:
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Here you can see that the Spey blade actually is warped so that only the middle of the blade touches the liner:
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Is this normal for Queen? I mean they don't cost a fortune, but they aren't cheap either.
Do you think the dealer I bought it from might be selling seconds? If so how can you tell?
The dealer has offered to swap it, but if this is Queens typical quality I will just sell it. I don't carry crap like this.
I will call Queen on Monday to see what they think, but I know I will get an unbiased opinion here ;)
 
Thats some kinda got by the QC reject Send that back,they will get U a good one
-Vince
 
Now I hate to do this to ya' FLymon,but here's one they nailed,older one in SS & winterbottom style bone . I would not scrap Queen just yet,the knife you got is not what you should expect . I've sent cracked bone knives back to them & had them back within 3 weeks time.Those were S&M's,and they were ltd productions,so they did repairs,well done,too But on yours,they'll probably send U a good knife as a replacement
-Vince

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I don't know if Queen sells 2nds into a secondary market or not; but that looks like a factory 2nd to me. Not at all typical... They are not custom, but one with a warped blade like that should never leave the factory as a 1st. If it were me, I would take the replacement and re-evaluate.

Mike Latham
CollectorKnives.Net
 
Yeah, now that's a beauty. It's pics like those that sold this one.

I doubt mine is typical but I believe I could do a better job. On the blades anyway.
 
It's amazing that the assembler didn't notice those messed up blades, and two on the same knife!!
 
PB Wilson said:
It's amazing that the assembler didn't notice those messed up blades, and two on the same knife!!
Click to expand...

That's what makes me think it might be a blem, or second that maybe wasn't supposed to go to the dealer I bought it from. You would have to try to match up two gems like that, wouldn't you think?
I don't think I will say who the dealer was. I had not bought from them before, and I wouldn't want to blame them for something they PROBABLY had no control over. I will ask Queen on Monday when I call them about the dealer.
 
I just bought a queen cattle king from an online dealer and the main blade is warped similar to yours. About an inch from the tip the blade hits the liner but the tip bends back to the center away from it. The other two blades are fine however. I just got the knife for my birthday and I wasn't sure if queen would take it back. I will have to call them and see what they do after reading this. This is my second queen knife, the first is a canoe everything about that knife is good except the shield is upside down from the normal position. No biggie on that though I suppose.
 
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Great pics from the OP. I would bet dollars to donuts the dealer or the manufacturer should take care of this for you.
 
There is no reason you should put up with warped blades. Let Queen take care of it under warranty. They make some very nice knives. I'm sure they would not want something like that out and around with their company name on it.
 
I don't mind if you don't name the store, but if they don't help you out in getting a good-as-new knife, I'd let everyone know.
 
I'm not trying to hijack the OP's thread so I apologize. But in my case I haven't contacted the dealer as when I ordered the knife it was the last one he had in stock. I ordered it for my birthday and when it came in I was able to give it a quick once over, and I guess I didn't really notice the blade, the wife then took it and hid it away until my bday. I keep thinking I could live with it but I know it would bug me whenever I carried the knife. The curve on my knifes blade is more subtle than the OP's but it's there. Not to mention that where it hits the liner it has marked the blade lengthwise and from just the few times I have opened it and closed it there are marks or scratches running down towards the edge of the blade now as well. I'm going to contact queen on monday.
 
Follow up:
I sent the knife back to the dealer, I don't know if I am allowed to say who so let me just say they have knives that ship free. I received my replacement today and this one is OK. I did have to pay the return shipping. I will let you be the judge weather that should be expected or not. All in all though I am happy with the knife. I haven't written Queen off or anything.
I deleted the other pics by mistake but here are the new ones:

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Still not the straightest blades in the world, but no rubs. Are the blades on these Queens hand ground? That might explain the slightly imperfect "wander" to them. I have only been carrying Case slipjoints for the last decade or so and am just starting to look at other brands, so I don't really know.
 
I have a queen city mini trapper with SUPER thin blades and the spey one has a bit of curve to it. Doesn't rub on the liners and doesn't bother me at all. Everything else is perfect and it has amazing walk and talk. Your blades look pretty straight to me.
 
Queen do some very decent scales indeed,but I have to say that my experience with the other aspects of their knives has been a bit variable too. A BEM Teardop I got from a reputable dealer has the nail nick sunk so low that it's hard to open it,the shield is proud and has a glue smear and the blade edge has a chip to it. A Utility knife that I otherwise like a lot has considerable gaps on it and after a year the scales seem to be parting from the liner.

When you get a good one (my Amber Bone Liner lock is fab)they are very good but I feel that consistency is not there unfortunately. This applies to their Schatt&Morgan subsidiary too,3 flawed knives out of 3...CASE seems to currently put out a more consistently finished knife and GEC still better.
 
Capt. Carl said:
I have a queen city mini trapper with SUPER thin blades and the spey one has a bit of curve to it. Doesn't rub on the liners and doesn't bother me at all. Everything else is perfect and it has amazing walk and talk. Your blades look pretty straight to me.
Click to expand...

I am fine with it, in fact I am looking at it right now and it has it's first good scratch on one of the bolsters from being carried and used a little today. It's a keeper for sure.

The blades are pretty straight. You can still see a bow in that Spey blade, but it does not rub, and is only noticable when closed, so I don't mind. I bought it to carry and use, not as a museum peice.
I am curious though why these blades almost looked like they were forged or something. They don't look "clean cut" like you would expect a stamped blade to look. The grinds, or swedges?, on the spine of the clip blade are uneven and even thoough it is straight when you look down the spine it looks a little bent. It just looks more hand made than a Case for example. Not necessarily a bad thing at all, gives it character.

Both blades Walk and Talk real nice. The pull is medium to medium-light and I like that. The springs are not flush on the half stop though, is that typical?
 
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