Not sharpening a new and VERY Queen #9 Stockman

Quote: "Personally, I don't give a hoot if there's been any sharpening done at the factory,"
But, 99% of the knife buying public really do care and most of them cannot sharpen a blade themselves.
If Queen doesn't remedy this soon, there will be no Queen company for you to buy knives from.
Pure collectors and those who don't mind re-profiling, are a minority of the buyers; not a big enough group to keep the company going.
roland
 
puukkoman said:
Personally, I don't give a hoot if there's been any sharpening done at the factory, since I'm going to profile the edge to my preference anyway.
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Ordinarily, I wouldn't be too bothered either. But, in this case, these knives are marketed as 'using' knives, with special emphasis on the 'premium' steel. It seems pointless to send 'em out the door with something that barely even resembles a usable edge. If the intent was to let the user do all the initial sharpening, these knives should be marketed and priced accordingly.

At least if it had a decent bevel to begin with, it could still be 'touched up' relatively easily (or completely reprofiled, if that's your preference).
 
rprocter said:
Quote: "Personally, I don't give a hoot if there's been any sharpening done at the factory,"
But, 99% of the knife buying public really do care and most of them cannot sharpen a blade themselves.
If Queen doesn't remedy this soon, there will be no Queen company for you to buy knives from.
Pure collectors and those who don't mind re-profiling, are a minority of the buyers; not a big enough group to keep the company going.
roland
Click to expand...

Now aint this the truth!!

Queen are you listening?
 
rprocter said:
Quote: "Personally, I don't give a hoot if there's been any sharpening done at the factory,"
But, 99% of the knife buying public really do care and most of them cannot sharpen a blade themselves.
If Queen doesn't remedy this soon, there will be no Queen company for you to buy knives from.
Pure collectors and those who don't mind re-profiling, are a minority of the buyers; not a big enough group to keep the company going.
roland
Click to expand...

X3 on this. You summed it up Roland.
 
Heres the deal for me. The two I can't get sharp are the main blades on a whittler (purchased used from Mr. Pfeiffer who said he couldn't either) and a canoe. The thinner blades on both knives and both blades on a congress are fine. So it seems that it is the thick blades with obtuse bevels and thick edges that are the problem. Now as I said I have no diamonds but a coarse India changes the width of the bevel (my guide to angle) and the scratch pattern changes. Based on this and the resultant toothy edge I feel I'm done and move to finer stones. The scratch patterns change indicating I'm doing something but the edge is no good. On non super steels this ends up polished and nicely sharp.

What is this? Still too thick at edge? Am I rolling a burr around? What?

Like most of you I don't mind tuning up a factory edge and expect to do so (a Kershaw leek I can't improve on and Bucks are pretty nice out of the box) and at least polish up Case's factory edges. But this is ridiculous and it does a) interfere with my enjoyment of Queens and b) inhibit me from purchasing more.
 
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Mark, even if the blade is still thick just above the edge bevel, as long as your sharpening goes all the way to the edge, it should still cut well. if not you probably do have a burr.
i use a 10x loupe to examine edges as i sharpen. helps me a lot. if you don't have one, you can find them for $5 on ebay from sellers in Hong Kong.
i bought one and it works just as well as my $140 Zeiss loupe.
roland
 
rprocter said:
Quote: "Personally, I don't give a hoot if there's been any sharpening done at the factory,"
But, 99% of the knife buying public really do care and most of them cannot sharpen a blade themselves.
If Queen doesn't remedy this soon, there will be no Queen company for you to buy knives from.
Pure collectors and those who don't mind re-profiling, are a minority of the buyers; not a big enough group to keep the company going.
roland
Click to expand...

Dull knives from the factory aren't the only issues Queen has.
 
Thanks Roland. It's either that or I'm not getting down to the edge. With normal steels I don't have these problems but I guess Queens D2 and grinds not only challenge abrasives and patience but also ones ability to hold an angle. I do things like drag the edge (and push itU as well as light pressure high angle swipes to get rid of burrs so maybe I'm not getting down. I also look for the shadow under the edge on the stone to make sure angle is good.
 
Mark, I'm sure you already know this, but the best (easiest) way to know that you've gotten to the edge is to feel a burr along the entire edge. (Sometimes you may have a burr along most of the edge, but if you don't have it along the entire length you may have a spot or two that are a bit more obtuse from the original factory sharpening.)

Once you have the burr along the entire length, flip it over and achieve the same on the opposite side of the blade. Then you can concentrate on stepping up your grits and finally making sure you remove the burr. If the knife isn't sharp after that, it's possible that there is a problem with the steel, a large carbide, a piece of remaining burr or a faulty heat treat.

If I can be of any help feel free to contact me directly.
 
I don't want to dump on any brand but this is the honest truth. I have wanted a Queen for a long time and the only thing that has stopped me is the seemingly endless string of complaints from frustrated owners who receive dull blades from the factory. Hopefully either Queen or I will eventually get past this issue.:rolleyes:
 
I just spent 30 minutes reprofiling it. Soft whetstone coarse then fine, then the final 10 minutes on a hard arkansas stone with ample oil. She's mine now.
 
MarkPinTx said:
Heres the deal for me. The two I can't get sharp are the main blades on a whittler (purchased used from Mr. Pfeiffer who said he couldn't either) and a canoe. The thinner blades on both knives and both blades on a congress are fine. So it seems that it is the thick blades with obtuse bevels and thick edges that are the problem. Now as I said I have no diamonds but a coarse India changes the width of the bevel (my guide to angle) and the scratch pattern changes. Based on this and the resultant toothy edge I feel I'm done and move to finer stones. The scratch patterns change indicating I'm doing something but the edge is no good. On non super steels this ends up polished and nicely sharp.

What is this? Still too thick at edge? Am I rolling a burr around? What?

Like most of you I don't mind tuning up a factory edge and expect to do so (a Kershaw leek I can't improve on and Bucks are pretty nice out of the box) and at least polish up Case's factory edges. But this is ridiculous and it does a) interfere with my enjoyment of Queens and b) inhibit me from purchasing more.
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yobbos1 said:
I don't want to dump on any brand but this is the honest truth. I have wanted a Queen for a long time and the only thing that has stopped me is the seemingly endless string of complaints from frustrated owners who receive dull blades from the factory. Hopefully either Queen or I will eventually get past this issue.:rolleyes:
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I'll make you both a deal. PM your addresses to me, and I'll send you both a couple of Queens that are nicely thinned out and sharpened, so you can see what they should be like. IMO, of course. :D I'm really busy at work right now, so it might be a couple of weeks before I can get them off. Use them, play with them just agree on 2 things: 1. You have to eventually send them back in 6 months or so, and 2. You have to do an honest review in this forum of the knives. That's it.

I've got whittlers, stockmans, folding hunters, canoes, congress patterns, and others. I love Queen's D2. Name yer poison!

Once you use these babies, and I tell you the secret (Edgepro), you'll probably be calling Ben Dale shortly thereafter.... :thumbup:
 
I think Willgoy has a very important point in regards to dealers. I am sure not all care about my point of view. However, if a dealer is spending alot of time sending knives back and forth due to unhappy customers who want a sharp knife out of the box, it is bad for business. Most manufacturers need scalability through dealers, and without dealer support, they stagnate.
 
As an observation

Queen lost two of their top men who formed GEC.
Look how at the success of GEC and their marketing model

I could be that Queen does not have a strong marketing model, hence their unresponsiveness to blunt blades
 
neeman said:
As an observation

Queen lost two of their top men who formed GEC.
Look how at the success of GEC and their marketing model

I could be that Queen does not have a strong marketing model, hence their unresponsiveness to blunt blades
Click to expand...

I agree to a point. Losing those guys didn't do Queen any favors- they lost some real talent, and gained a powerful competitor. However, GEC is more of a "boutique" maker, Queen is a larger, less flexible, higher volume company. I don't think Queen could do the things GEC does without scaling way back. Fixing blunt blades is not a marketing issue, however. It is a QC issue, and should be fairly easy to correct.
 
moonwilson said:
I agree to a point. Losing those guys didn't do Queen any favors- they lost some real talent, and gained a powerful competitor. However, GEC is more of a "boutique" maker, Queen is a larger, less flexible, higher volume company. I don't think Queen could do the things GEC does without scaling way back. Fixing blunt blades is not a marketing issue, however. It is a QC issue, and should be fairly easy to correct.
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Queen put out S&M with the yearly series 600 only, and the File & Wire.

They could up the ante with SFOs they do.
The SFOs ate 100 runs in 5 different bolsters
They have an big inventory of different patterns that could be very collectable

Look at Case and see how they have created collectalbe by changing the bolster material on the knives and selling them as series!

They have not updated their website in years!!

Blunt blades is also tied into marketing and the image you project.
How many time do we hear, "I will not buy a knife with a blunt blade"
That is bad marketing......
 
neeman said:
As an observation

Queen lost two of their top men who formed GEC.
Look how at the success of GEC and their marketing model

It could be that Queen does not have a strong marketing model, hence their unresponsiveness to blunt blades
Click to expand...

Except that the GEC's I've seen and handled also have come with blunt blades. Maybe they took that trait over with them from Queen. :eek:
 
People have been bellyaching about queen edges for at least the 13 years I have been reading on-line knife discussions. The "dull edge problem" hasn't hurt the company yet, no matter how much forumites think they know about the knife business.

With queen knives you've got four options.

First, don't buy the knife on the internet, buy it in person so you can get the edge you want. Many knife stores will sharpen your knife as part of the purchase price.

Second, if you buy it sight unseen and it isn't sharp then send the knife back to queen for them to sharpen; they have good customer service.

Third, LEARN HOW TO SHARPEN AND USE THE RIGHT TYPE OF STONE!! You can sharpen a butter knife if you know the basics and have reasonable equiupment. Now if the knife doesn't stay sharp, then you know you have a steel/heat treatment problem.

Fourth, if one, two and three are not possible for you...then don't buy queen.

Oh wait, there is a fifth option, bring it to your friendly knife sharpening store and let them hog on a new edge with their belt or grinder. Mine charges $6 for a pocket knife, but the guy at the gun show charges $5.
 
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