Poll: Best Current Overall Traditional between Case, GEC, Queen

Best Current Overall Traditional between Case, GEC, and Queen

  • Case Cutlery

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Great Eastern Cutlery

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Queen Cutlery

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
  • Poll closed .
I've got at least 20 or 30 GEC's and Cases. At least 10 Queens. A good representative sample.

Case has the usual fit and finish issues, as does Queen. I'd rate them both about the same on average. GEC is light years ahead of both GEC and Queen in this department, from my experience.

Queen has the far superior D2 steel. Case gives me some 154CM here and there, but I'm usually stuck with softly heat treated Tru-Sharp or CV. GEC gives me the occasional 440C, but I usually have to settle for their well heat treated 1095. It's good, but I prefer D2 for most knife duties.

Queen also has much nicer bone than Case. That light dyed bone that Case sends out is definitely not to my liking. GEC has good bone, sometimes great bone.

I personally am not blown away by most Case patterns. They often seem uninspired to me. No risks taken. Queen has a good basic line, with some cool stuff thrown in. GEC takes lots of risks, and spits out beautiful and thought provoking designs. Their designs are pure artistry, and not merely production efforts.

I can only order Queen online, and I have a 50/50 chance of getting the fit and finish that is acceptable to me. Case has the same odds, but at least I can hand pick one from a local store. I'd probably own far more Queen than Cases if I were in a position to hand pick the Queens.

All in all, GEC gets my nod. I can order one online, and be 95% sure that I'll get a great knife. The steel will be good, as will the covers. I know that I won't be disappointed.

Note that the Case Bose stuff is not in my price range, so I don't even go there.
 
Voted for GEC. 15 pattern size is just about perfect for light carry yet sizable enough to tackle the vast majority of daily tasks.
 
Voted! I started with Case then later tried Queen and settled on Great Eastern Cutlery, but I'll get a Case if something piques my interest. GEC fits my preference and use as I can be a bit picky regarding fit and finish which GEC does well at a reasonable price with plenty of variety to choose.
 
My vote is in for GEC even though I have no problem buying a Case when they have what I want . I only have one S&M and one Tuna Valley and have read too many horror stories to take more chances . I have enough GEC's and Cases to firmly believe that GEC makes a better knife but I also know that Case will do an acceptable job for most people .

Harry
 
Heres my .02... Based solely on QC and F&F its GEC hands down. I've had to return a lot of Case knives for poor quality (a couple of them had covers that weren't even the same size). I've purchased 5 modern Queens, and 4 got returned. The one I kept was pretty good, a small stockman that was nearly perfect other than a slight coping blade wobble, which doesn't bother me. I don't consider myself overly picky either. Not meaning to bash either one, thats just how it is. I carry a lot of Case knives, my SBJ and Canoe are never far from my pocket and that queen gets a fair bit of pocket time. Theres just a wide variance in F&F in my opinion.

GEC also uses primarily carbon steel, which is my favorite in a traditional blade. I wish case used more CV! I'll also echo that Queen's use of D2 is nice, but I do really love a good ol 1095 or 01.
 
Take the "work" aspect out of the equation and it's GEC for me, no contest. The one nod I'll give to Case in this poll is their availability. Can't imagine what it would be like to stop by the hardware store on the way home and linger over a glass display of dozens of GEC models, then choose whatever strikes your fancy that day! 😀
 
I think what is best is going to depend on your criteria. For fit and finish, GEC really goes the extra mile, so I voted for them. However, being a little older with a touch of arthritis in my hands, I find that the stiffer springs and abrupt half-stop on most GECs don't appeal to me. They are superb knives, but I'm back to carrying Case and S&M. Very good quality, a bit gentler springs, but still plenty firm to get the job done, and the steels they use do fine for what I need them to do.

When I think about it, I'm just happy that we have so many nice options to choose from and great dealers like yourself to buy from.
 
Of those three, I voted for GEC as being the best.
But I have more Case knives and have more Queen knives than I have GEC knives. And that's unlikely to change.

Why?
Availability, price point, and the lack of desirable designs in 440C.
 
I didn't vote because I don't have a "current" knife from any of those companies..

I don't even have a GEC or a Queen - my newest Case was made in 1972

every GEC I've handled was too much of a nail breaker for me.

and Queens are just too thick behind the edge IMO
 
I voted from the choices offered. Queen is a nonexistent brand in eastern NC - couldn't find one if I wanted it (just like GEC). The two well distributed brands are Case and Buck - they are everywhere in the 42 counties I travel in my building materials sales job. Just curious, why did you leave out the second biggest brand - Buck? OH
 
GEC is a pretty easy one to choose it seems, for many of the reasons already listed here, while being a bit more expensive I think they put a bit more into making their knives.

G2
 
I would have to agree with GEC making the nicest out of the three, but they don't really suit my environment. Thin carbon blades are nice when I'm hanging out around the house on Sunday, but it's not really what I want at work (which is where I spend most of my time unfortunately).
 
I voted Case and yes, I admit that a lot of what my vote hinged on was loyalty. After all, I've been using Case Knives since 1948 - my first was a Case Barlow.

GEC makes a great knife. I have several. The one I carry the most is the #71.

Queen has really gone down hill since Daniels took over. The grinds are terrible. D2, no matter how great it is, cannot overcome a bad grind.
 
GEC's website is the only knife manufacturers website that routinely check to see what is coming out next or soon. I don't do that with Case or Queen, but i do routinely visit Case and Queen reseller websites to see what is newly in stock. The difference is I plan my knife spending budget around GEC product release and react to case/queen releases around available funds.
 
Old Hunter said:
I voted from the choices offered. Queen is a nonexistent brand in eastern NC - couldn't find one if I wanted it (just like GEC). The two well distributed brands are Case and Buck - they are everywhere in the 42 counties I travel in my building materials sales job. Just curious, why did you leave out the second biggest brand - Buck? OH
Click to expand...

He doesn't sell Buck. For slipjoints, he's primarily a GEC dealer with limited Queen and Case for sale.
 
Old Hunter said:
I voted from the choices offered. Queen is a nonexistent brand in eastern NC - couldn't find one if I wanted it (just like GEC). The two well distributed brands are Case and Buck - they are everywhere in the 42 counties I travel in my building materials sales job. Just curious, why did you leave out the second biggest brand - Buck? OH
Click to expand...

The reason Case and Buck seem like the most popular brands is because it appears you do most of your shopping in stores. Case and Buck both have policies to only sell at their best price points to store fronts. Thus big and small stores alike can get displays in house and buy at the best pricing tier; whereas online retailers have to go through a wholesaler. This eliminates our ability to be competitive, especially when places like Wal-Mart and Amazon get crazy pricing and many times ignore the MAP selling pricing. I have sold Buck in the past, and quite honestly, the demand was not significant enough to inventory it. But there are many brands that I could have put on the survey, some I even personally consider to be better built knives than all three. But I limited it to what, for me at least, is the vast majority of traditional demand today.

I don't try to carry everything, and even those brands I do carry I many times limit inventory to those models / variants in higher demand. It is not easy being a small business and trying to inventory a good selection of 10-15 brands; but I do the best I can.
 
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This was a tough one. If I had three buckets in front of me and I had to reach in and grab a knife to keep at random I'd choose the GEC bucket. They're just so consistent in their quality. If I could pick through the buckets and choose the knife of my liking I'd choose a Queen. I just think that Queen puts out the best knife you can buy, if you get a good one. In both of these regards I think that Case comes in second place for me, though I have to admit to having much less experience with their knives than either of the other two companies. Really, I'd have no problem recommending any of these companies to somebody that's looking for a quality knife. In the end GEC wins out simply because the vast majority of the time I know what I'm getting when I open that tube.
 
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