Queen D2: I'm at a loss.

C

Charles Bronson

Joined
Apr 21, 2012
Messages
21
Hello everyone! Been lurking here for a long time, but this is one of my first posts.

I hope some experienced people are able to help me. Any advice is very much appreciated.

I own hundreds of knives (of all kinds of steels) and I sharpen and maintain them on my own. No problems so far.

Recently I got interested in Texas toothpicks and I bought two Queen Cutlery (small and big, both "Tool Steel" (D2)) ttps.

Out of the box the sharpness sucked. I spent hours after hours working on the small one with no result.

I tried my friend's Spyderco sharpmaker on the bigger one and got some improvement - but not enough. Tried to strop it after the SM and I think it got worse again.

Now, I'm not an expert sharpener, but I consider myself being pretty good at it. In general, I use different water stones, sand paper and an advanced stropping system. I always managed to get razor-sharp results with all kinds of steel (including Benchmade D2) and all kinds of grinds.

I just don't know what I'm doing wrong with these D2 Queen Cutlery blades! :indecisiveness:

I like the knives but if I can't reach at least a 'decent' (paper-cutting) sharpness, they are going to rot in some box. :grumpy:
 
Diamond is your friend. ;)

I feel your pain. Queen is well-known for shipping their D2 blades with very thick edges (wide angle). Almost by default, the 'solution' is to re-bevel to a narrower edge angle. Being D2, that takes a while, even on a relatively small, thin blade. And a small, thin and flexible blade (such as on a toothpick) can go even slower, because the flex in the blade makes it more difficult to get proper leverage/pressure on the hones. Guided systems were tailor-made for this, using diamond hones. I've used a Lansky diamond system to re-bevel my Queen folders. D2 is fantastic, once a decent edge is put on it. But it definitely takes patience (and diamond hones are a big, big help).
 
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I used my 1x30 belt grinder to re-profile my two queens. It took a while even with the speed of the grinder. I had to spend some time doing it without getting the blades hot.
 
Many thanks for your quick replies! :thumbup:

I somehow had the feeling diamond was the way to go since I got at least some improvement with my friend's sharpmaker.
I probably need much more time and patience to do it and I will also take the flexing issue into account.

Regardless of that issue Queens are darn beautiful knives. Still, the out of the box sharpness is just unacceptable.
You can't even peel fruits or cut a melon without swearing...
I found that the perfect use for the big queen ttp could be preparing melons: long thin and agile blade...
Refreshing and healthy snack at these temperatures... (Plus I always search for specific uses for my blades, I just like to use them :D)

Thank you guys!
 
The d2 and Queen's infamous grind issues is what prevents me from buying anymore Queens.
If i need a new slipjoint i'll buy more Case's. In my limited experience the Case stag/bone handles aren't as nice but the knife quality and quality control seems to be better.
I have two Mountain Man knives, love the pattern and the look/feel of Queens stag/bone handles but hate the thick edges and the blade play.
For such big folders they have very thin brass liners. Thinner than a lot of my much smaller slipjoints. Can't help but think if they thickened the liner the blade play problems would lessen or disappear.
I've reprofiled (with belt sander) one of the MM's to the point where its usable, haven't touched the other one.
Boker makes an import model (with wood instead of bone) that looks very similar to the MM, i might just pick one up.
 
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