Queen dissapointment......

R

Ram

Joined
Apr 3, 2003
Messages
65
I just received my Queen serpentine from Knifecenter.com and I was
just excited until I opened the box ! The scales on the knife are
two different colors !!!! It is a bone stage version and one side the
bone is a yellowish color and the other side is WHITE !!!! What the
heck ! I paid good money for something that looks like a 2nd or reject !
This is my first Queen, so is this normal or did I get a
bad one ? Everything else on the knife is fine, but I just cant get
over the different color scales. I knew I should of ordered the
wood scales !! This is the last time I buy a knife without seeing
the actual !:mad:

Ram
 
Unfortunately, this isn't really that uncommon with bone handled knives in general. I've seen different colored Cases, Queens, Schrades, even the 25th Anniversary Delica with two different honey colored slabs. Is the jigging the same? Or is it just the color that's off. Either way, I don't think that it's that big a deal; I think that in some cases it adds to a knife's character. I guess that it all comes down to personal preference.
Matt
 
Ram, I totally agree!

I bought one of the queen President's knives, the MOP shield had a small crack, the small blade had 0% snap, and the backsprings were so badly finished they had little sharp slivers of steel stuck in between them.
 
The jigging is ok on the scales. I understand what you mean, but
I was expecting a little better quality control from Queen.
It makes the knife look flawed. Infact, I showed it to my friend who
is not into knives and that was the first thing he pointed out !!
I am new to traditional folders, so didnt know what to expect.
Maybe with time I will warm up to it, but this will probably be the
last Queen I buy without holding it in my hand first.

Thanks,
Ram
 
I wouldn't be surprised if the slivers (were they thin brass?) are why there is no snap in the 1 blade. If you have Break Free, flood the liners/backsprings and keep working the blade action. If not WD40 might work. Oh, some tweezers might help as well. I once had a Camillus stockman that had 4 slivers finally "float" out. It greatly improved the snap.

Hope that might help.

Bill :)
 
Sorry to hear that Ram. (Especially since I have recommended them.)
I have picked up a few over the last 4 or 5 years and have been happy with all of them. You may want to consider asking if they can be returned since I do not think you were sent a good example of the norm. If the dealer does not want to mess with it, the factory might.

A few years ago I used to deal at shows and purchased most of my knives from a distributor who inspected each knife as it went out. It cost a little more, but not that much and I knew that my stock was sound. I think it is a good thing for sellers to know what is leaving the door since they have a more direct line to the source if something is wrong. The only drawback to the customer is that the tissue paper might have an extra wrinkle or two. :).

The more I think about it, the more I feel a sound return policy is a must when dealing knives via mail. I know as idividuals in the forums most people extend that. We should expect the same or better from those in the business.
 
El Lobo,

The Queen President's 2003 has no brass in it. I have also used a few different lubricants on it.
 
Sorry to hear that. Did you return it or ask for help from the factory? If not, there is a Queen Forum at knifeforums.com. Maybe they will help make it right for you.

Best of luck,

Bill :(
 
Thanks El Lobo,

I actually did not notice the chip on the shield until after I had it for a little while,so I decided not to return it. I decided to just live with it, but I am still dissapointed, this is suppose to be the highest quality knife Queen has to offer.
 
All the queen knives I own are perfect.. and beautiful. I'd ask the seller to make it right. He would be cheating not only you, but the Queen company by not doing something about it.
 
I have 4 Queen stockman knives. The first two I bought right in the beginning when they first came out with the D2 blades. Both of those had less than desirable edges and required some reprofiling with the diamond stones. The second two both came darn near shaving sharp! I ended up giving one to my ungrateful piss-ant brother (I only call him this because he hasn't had it in his pocket in the few and inbetween times I've seen him since giving it to him) and the other is a fairly constant companion in my pocket. I think (and hope) that Queen heard the gripes about the lack of out of the box sharpness in the first run of the D2's and have since corrected those issues. Of the four, I haven't seen any fit and finish problems in any of them.
(Damn, sorry for the wordiness here!)
 
I'd send it back! if your not happy with it now, you're only going to hate it the more you look at it.

If you can't find the slipjoint you want locally where you can examine it yourself there is only one on-line source I trust and that's because he will hand select for me. If you want this service you have to ask for it and it helps to say you are a bladeforums member. Send BVB Ranch Knives an email or better yet give them a call and ask for Barry Billings.

Barry knows the quality we are looking for.

Collecter
 
Thanks everyone for all the replies ! I think I will
send it back. Just cant get over how different the color
variation is. Talked to another friend who does collect
and he said that the slabs are hard to match, but
they shouldnt be that off ! The edge on it is also a
disappointment, very dull.

Thanks,
Ram
 
My first Queen knife was like yours: a large stockman with differently colored and jigged bone slabs. It also came from Knifecenter (cca. 2 years ago).
Otherwise the knife was very good, with excellent walk and talk,
so I kept the knife and it turned out to be a great user.

Still, I remember, I felt disappointed.

Since then I got some perfect Queen knives from other sources and some less than perfect ones from Knifecenter.

I wonder if Knifecenter stocks mainly Queen cosmetic seconds.
 
I just received my Antique Bone Copperlock from BVB Ranch today. It sure is a nice knife!

These things really need to be hand selected and Barry really picked a nice one for me.

Ram, I know you will have better luck here

http://www.bvbranchknives.com/

Remember to tell them you a are a bladeforums member.

Collecter
 
I actually prefer having natural handled knives to have a variation between the front and back scales that is one way to confirm its not synthetic I have always specified when ordering a knife it has the largest variance on the scales. I have one mammoth ivory where the front scale has a creamy beige with flecks of blue and the back scale is almost snow white with almost black lines in it I have a walrus ivory with similar variance.Real bone or stag will never be exactly the same on both scales bone absorbs die at differing rates and stag is also going to have differences,after all its a natural material,not a perfectly homogeneous product.
 
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