Queen D2 Whittler (initial impressions)

The Magician

The Magician

Illusionist
Joined
Jan 19, 2000
Messages
1,580
I am not sure what I think about this knife yet. My wife was horribly disappointed in the knife for the price. In fact she even wanted to post about it here. Let me tell you about this little slippie and see what everyone else thinks.

The finish on this knife is not good. There are grind marks, and tooling marks. The back springs holding the main blade are not flush. The Queen "Q" inset into the Cocobolo is in deeper one one side. Lopsided counter sink? The scales, on the other hand, are fantatsic. The Cocobolo mates with the bolsters seamlessly. The fit of the wood to the handle is perfect. Very nice wood. The walk and talk is good, with little or no half stop. When closed the knife rides well in the pocket, the size appears good.
When closed, the tang of the three blades are well above the handle and are very sharp! I do not like this at all. After checking knives from Camillus, Buck, Schrade, and Case, and now Queen I am sorry to say Queen shows the least best fit and finish. Of course the D2 kicks all the other knives off the scale. My whittler was sharp enough to cut, but not "knifeknut" sharp. It refused to shave, but this is the custom with slipjoints as the owner is expected to add his own personal edge. I like the idea of that, though I am afraid these days many so called men wouldn't know how to sharpen a pencil. I have used a ceramic rod for about ten minutes and that helped a little. Diamonds work best. Overall, I like the knife, I like the style. I am still a bit disappointed. I am used to fit and finish to be much better.

I have some questions for you other D2 Queen owners. Is your F&F the same? Was you expecting better? Did I get a bad one? Also the "coping" blade is a strange thing. Like a sharpened on the back sheepsfoot. With the main blade open, you have a sharp edge pressing into your palm. I think I will file it down like a sheeps foot, I don't actually whittle, I just wanted this knife for EDC.

I welcome all comments, I am trying to decide to keep or trade this thing.
 
Got my Queen D2 Trapper in the mail yesterday. Says it's "carved stag bone" whatever that's supposed to be! Doesn't look or feel like any stag I've ever seen.

Anyway, I haven't had a chance to really give it a thorough inspection and test, but will report here when I do :)

BTW..I paid $48.00 for it..not sure if this average, a good deal, or if I overpaid!!

Don
 
Let me first comment the post of Don.
Carved stag bone is not stag, it is a cattle shin bone carved to imitate stag. I have seen several of the new Queen D2 stag bones: some are fantastically close to the appearence of the real stag, others are less successful in this approach.
Your price seems to me a good deal, it is definitely below the retail.

Magician: all Queen knives I have seen have very sharp tang ends. This is quite common among slipjoints, American and European alike.
One brand with nicely (slightly) rounded edges at the tang area, of which I am aware of, is the German Eye brand. But it has other problems with fit & finish.
I have a cocobolo large stockman of the new D2 series, the shield on it is protruding from the wood scales too. Mine has very slight grind marks on the tang area but not (at least not large) tooling marks.
I think for a user knife and for the price, the F & F is acceptable, even nice.
 
I have two 4" stockmans; one cocobolo and the other bone-stag. The fit and finish was very nice for both, but I haven't been able to put a good edge on the stag-bone blades yet. The cocobolo came all three sharp. Overall, I am happy with the two... I have a DMT diamond sharpener coming for my B-day soon, so I expect that I'll get that stag-bone one singing in no time.
An interesting side note though... I still find myself carrying my carbon series Camillus stockman more than the Queens. I can put a super sharp edge on those blades with a Norton stone. It is aesthetically not as purty as the Queens though.
 
Thanks for the responses. I decided to try to make it more friendly for my tastes. I sharpened the blades up to shaving, this actually was not too awful hard using a coarse, fine synthetic stone and finishing on a ceramic. I also filed down the back sharp edge on the coping blade, I am sure it has a purpose. I am just as sure I don't need it too. I used a diamond file and finished on ceramic, looks and acts just like a sheepsfoot now. I did the same treatment on the tang ends too. Nice and smooth now, looks factory. Overall, after my initial disappointment, I tghink I will be quite happy with this knife. In fact, I did enjoy working on it. I plan to write a full review including edge holding and all that in a while after it has seen EDC use for awhile.
 
I recently received two of the new Queen stockmen, one is the 4" with Black Cherry delrin handles and the other is the 4.25" Cattle King Winterbottom delrin model. The tang ends were sharp on all of the blades and I used a file to relieve them a little. Also, the backs of the blades (the part that rides the spring) were not smoothly polished on any of the blades like they are on a VIC SAK and Buck 300 series and that may contribute to a not very smooth opening and closing. However, on a very big positive note, the blades snap open with authority and the D2 steel can't be beat at this price point and that makes them great pocket knives IMHO.
 
Interesting. I just ordered two of the D2 DR knives in "carved stag" (nifrand if you want one it is yours - email Gus).

I am very curious to compare it to my modern Winchesters and Case Classics as far as fit and finish.
 
Bastid,
I am interested in hearing any observations you (and Gus) may have on Comparing the Q's to other brands.
 
>"I am interested in hearing any observations you (and Gus) may have on Comparing the Q's to other brands."

============================

Here! Here! 'specially to the Henckels slippies and the Buck 300s and 700s. The latest greatest steel is fine, but let's face it, on a normal pocketknife, a lot of us don't care whether or not we have the latest and greatest steel. It has to be good, functional steel that'll take a serious edge, sure. But a fair number of knives on the market offer that. What I'm always looking for is a combination of quality steel, good QC and fit & finish, and design.
 
Magician,
I've got 3 of the new Queen D2 knives.
The first I purchased was the large Trapper in Cocobolo.
This is an outstanding knife! Beautifule matching Cocobolo scales, tight non-wobbly blades, good walk and talk. It wasn't too sharp out of the box, so I touched it up on my Sharpmaker. This knife I bought just to add to my Trapper collection and not use.
The second one is the small Stockman in Carved Stag bone. Once again, almost the same comments as above. However, there is a slight amount of play in the main blade. The other 2 are rock solid. I spent some time getting this knife sharp on the Edge Pro. Now, it's extremely sharp. Finish of the bone to the liners and liners to back springs is perfect. Scales match wonderfully. Nice finish on the blades. However, the blade spring tension could be tighter.
The third one is the large Stockman in Carved Stag Bone. This one is a bit of a disappointment and will be returned. Quite a bit of blade wobble in 2 of the 3 blades, mismatching handle scales, and really dull out of the box. Plus, I thought I would like the larger size better. It's just too large for EDC for me.
The Queens generally are very nice considering their prices, and the superior blade steel. However, I think the Bulldogs are a step above.
Lenny
 
I also have a Q Whittler. Mine has nun of the ff problems that yours has, only thing that may be close is that maybe the corner on the coping blade is a little sharp. It is nothing that has bothered me however. I give mine a very high rating on its fit and finish. Think I need to get a few more the stockman and DR. is calling to me.
 
Ok, as promised last week, here are my observations and opinions re my D2 Queen trapper...

The fit and finish are very good. The cattle shin bone carved to imitate stag is not bad looking. There is no play in either blade, however the "snap shut" is not as impressive as on my Schatt & Morgans.

The blades were not scary sharp, but sharp enough to cut yourself on...as were the tang ends! :)

I have carried and used it for a week now...the only thing I can say for certain at this point is the D2 trapper holds a better edge than my Queen carbon steel trapper.

I like it.

I have also been looking at the Queen D2 fixed blades and trying to figure out why they are so inexpensive...if they are legit, then they're a terrific value!!
 
Just got in my Queen #41CSB Copperhead and #9CSB Stockman. Initial impressions are that the fit and finish on both knives is very good. The carved bone slabs fit well and are nicely pinned on both knives. The blades are tight with no wobble and the open and close with very good snap. Both knives have blades with sharp edges on the tangs. I suspect that I can take care of that with a ceramic stone. There are a few tooling marks on the tang but nothing objectionable. The blades were not as sharp out of the box as I like. I'll deal with that tonight with my sharpmaker. I am looking forward to using the knives to see if the D2 performs as well as my customs with D2. If so, these Queens are a great value!

All I can say is that the other US slipjoint knife makers had better be looking at what Queen is delivering for the money! If the competition follows suite the traditional knife customer is going to be getting a large selection of great knives for the money in the near future.

Cheers!
Scott
 
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