New knife from Queen?

JohnDF said:
Now I'm sorry I might have spent my money on a Bear knife, not an actual Queen Start-up.
I'm also sorry I spent my money with company that isn't up-front about their products.
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In their ad, I see little that is not correct.... it's a queen knife. Made in USA. Normally retailers don't say... this knife was made by GEC, Case or whatever but labeled "Queen". Just depends on who owns the trademark. I bought a GEC made knife at their store, it was special ordered by them from GEC but there is nothing on the knife that says "GEC" as I recall. This was early when GEC was starting out.
 
Rookie82 said:
If this is the first knife released from the brand new resurrected Queen out of their new factory, I thought a special limited run would be a nice touch for the Queen collectors. I would like more concrete details though. I'll message Gilbert Cooper and get the information straight from the horses mouth.
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Yeah , that would probably be cool for the queen collectors if the knife turns out to be more than just a name and the company doesn't do loads of " special edition " knives like is commonly seen when the rights to a name are purchased.
I'd expect better in this situation seeing as tooling and such is also owned.
 
JohnDF said:
Now I'm sorry I might have spent my money on a Bear knife, not an actual Queen Start-up.
I'm also sorry I spent my money with company that isn't up-front about their products.
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If you just bought it today, you might be able to cancel the order before the knife ships.
 
mbkr said:
I received a response to my email. Here it is verbatim (I left out the responder's name.)

"There seems to be some as yet unrevealed secrets around the new Queen Mini Trapper Pilot Test Run. I think you are probably right that we, SMKW, own that brand now. Or maybe just a share of it. Who makes them? Some evidence points toward Bear & Son Cutlery, Alabama, U.S.A.. More Queen models should be coming.

I could be wrong.

Thank you for asking."

So there y'all are. Clears that up, eh? o_O
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22-rimfire said:
In their ad, I see little that is not correct.... it's a queen knife. Made in USA. Normally retailers don't say... this knife was made by GEC, Case or whatever but labeled "Queen". Just depends on who owns the trademark. I bought a GEC made knife at their store, it was special ordered by them from GEC but there is nothing on the knife that says "GEC" as I recall. This was early when GEC was starting out.
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I was referencing their "clear as mud" response posted above.

If they own the name... If asked, say so!
If they are made by Bear... If asked, say so!
I'm not saying they have to make it obvious in adverts.
This Secret Squirrel stuff doesn't sit well with me and always makes me go Hmmmm...
I'm sure if I asked Charlie who made one of his Harness Jacks, he'd tell me right up front and be proud of it.
 
One last time, let me make it clear...
I'm not against buying a Bear made knife.
I was completely interested in trying the new Queen release, no matter who made it or owns it.
What I don't like is when a company beats around the bush with their facts like they have something to hide.
It's not a sales technique I appreciate, it reminds me of used car salesmen and doesn't make me want to give them money.
 
JohnDF said:
I was referencing their "clear as mud" response posted above.

If they own the name... If asked, say so!
If they are made by Bear... If asked, say so!
I'm not saying they have to make it obvious in adverts.
This Secret Squirrel stuff doesn't sit well with me and always makes me go Hmmmm...
I'm sure if I asked Charlie who made one of his Harness Jacks, he'd tell me right up front and be proud of it.
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Charlie is proud of his knives. No question. The person responding to the email query probably didn't know. So, I sort of thought... hmmm too. I thought Bluegrass Cutlery bought the trademark?? Time will tell the story of the new Queens.
 
From what I understand is that Bluegrass bought the Schatt and Morgan name, without the mention of the Queen name. We will find out as time goes on but from the original post it seems it maybe a SMKW production for the Queen knives.
 
I inherited my parents place which is about 85 miles from the knife store in Sevierville. I've been there several times and have always had a positive experience so I was a little surprised at the response. I should have posted what I asked, so for the record here's the email I sent that prompted the response above:

Hello
Saw this Queen and knowing that they are out of business, I wondered who makes this one?
Did SMKW obtain the rights to the Queen name?
Will SMKW bring out other Queens?
Thanks

I carried a Bear stockman daily for a decade and it served its purpose well, so I have nothing against Bear. I also have a Moore Maker stockman that I think is a Bear and its a well made knife. That said, they are not on par with GEC, S&M or Queen of old. The problem with Bear is the quality is hit or miss.

And based on the response to my email, SMKW may or may not own all or part of the rights to the name. The gentleman responding to me either didn't know and couldn't find out in a timely manner, or he was being coy for some unfathomable reason.

Looking forward to owner reports View attachment 1330828
 
So it sounds like Bluegrass bought the Queen and S&M trademarks in the auction, mainly to just focus on the S&M line. They then sold the Queen name only to SMKW.
 
One thing is certain, they're not using an old Queen pattern for this pilot test run. Here's an old Queen mini-trapper for comparison.

13562786943_ec72fd7942_c.jpg


13562786253_20d49f8769_c.jpg
 
I don't know whether this will be a good knife. It seems like the indications are that it is a Bear & Son, read the knife not the tang and all, and I've only had a couple of those through my hands. That said, I can say that I find the tang and blade etch to be extremely poor font choices and lacking any kind of artfulness.

I might still get one. IDK. The pictures show gaps on both sides of both springs, albeit small and not unusual on recent Case knives in my experience.


Half/Stop said:
Half the people in the country probably got that same email. :eek: I hope someone can resurrect the Queen and S&M trademarks. I just hope they are a quality product. Since I live in Tennessee I normally don’t order from this retailer because I get hit with sales tax. Of course I can drive there in a couple of hours and examine what I buy. I still have to pay tax of course, but it’s nice to be able to handpick a knife! I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing some actually photos and comments. I might be up for a drive to the mountains this weekend! :) :thumbsup:
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Please let us in on any insight into the quality you can garner, if you make the trip. I'm sure we'd all be extremely appreciative.

mbkr said:
I received a response to my email. Here it is verbatim (I left out the responder's name.)

"There seems to be some as yet unrevealed secrets around the new Queen Mini Trapper Pilot Test Run. I think you are probably right that we, SMKW, own that brand now. Or maybe just a share of it. Who makes them? Some evidence points toward Bear & Son Cutlery, Alabama, U.S.A.. More Queen models should be coming.

I could be wrong.

Thank you for asking."

So there y'all are. Clears that up, eh? o_O
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Strikingly unclear. Sometimes, from a PR / CS standpoint, it's better to wait and respond a little late than to respond without the pertinent info. In my opinion at least, that is.

knifeswapper said:
Looks like nothing Queen had made in the last couple decades (stamp or knife). My guess is Bear as well. It would be nice to discover how SMKW came about the name.....
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I'm wondering about that as well. I had heard from several places that Bluegrass cutlery had bought the trademarks and were planning to reintroduce Schatt & Morgan. This isn't something I heard specifically, but it sounded like they wanted to make high quality (GEC type) knives. That isn't what this looks like.

JohnDF said:
I was referencing their "clear as mud" response posted above.

If they own the name... If asked, say so!
If they are made by Bear... If asked, say so!
I'm not saying they have to make it obvious in adverts.
This Secret Squirrel stuff doesn't sit well with me and always makes me go Hmmmm...
I'm sure if I asked Charlie who made one of his Harness Jacks, he'd tell me right up front and be proud of it.
Click to expand...

I agree. If you're not proud of who made the knife, enough so that you're happy to tell when asked, then maybe that's a problem...

kamagong said:
One thing is certain, they're not using an old Queen pattern for this pilot test run. Here's an old Queen mini-trapper for comparison.

13562786943_ec72fd7942_c.jpg


13562786253_20d49f8769_c.jpg
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What a beauty!
 
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