Queen made Barlows

Modoc ED said:
Sure enough, Mort showed the correct Patent but it is interesting to note that the knife pictured in the Patent is not a Barlow but just a basic single blade Jack Knife as the "Pattern" of the knife wasn't patented just the method of construction. The knife pictured in the Patent was marketed by Queen in their "Big Chief" line.

Nice looking knives you have there Mort.

"btmccutcheon" - I hope I didn't take your thread off course. I just wanted to clear up what some might think is a bit confusing by me having shown the Barlow when the Patent I referenced shows a Jack Knife.

Further, I'd leave that knife you got alone. It's a nice knife and a looker to boot. It was not uncommon for some manufactures to mismatch covers on their knives in the past. Case wasn't the only one to do it.
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Not a problem at at. The information you provided is very helpful in understanding the mechanics on how that design works. Just because it's displayed on a regular jack does not make it less relevant. Thank you.

And thank you to the rest of you for your insights as well. I'll keep working on it in it's current state. I don't have the tools as of yet, nor the confidence to tear it down for a thorough cleaning. I'll see if I can stabilize those cracks, knock off some more grime, do the mineral oil bath, and work on the pivot.
 
Modoc ED said:
Queen Steel #22 Barlow
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What makes this knife unique is the way it is built. The body of the knife is an elongated casing with the bottom and front open while the spine and rear are closed. There are slots in the closed top edge of the casing. There is no spring pin to attach the spring to the casing. Rather, the spring is inserted through the rear slot in the closed, top edge, of the casing, fitted to the blade tang in the usual manner and fitted to a shoulder on a piece attached internally to the closed, rear, end of the casing. This causes the spring to be leveraged to the solid edge (back) of the casing. That's kind of a simplistic description but you should be able to understand it by looking at the picture of the back of the knife.
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I've noticed that Queen built Barlows using the offset/asymmetrical bolsters with both covered and traditional open backspring(s). While far from comprehensive, my little collection of mid-20th Queen Barlows includes one of the Rawhide series ca. 1980 with the offset bolsters and "naked" backsprings. It also has four pins (as does one of my synthetic Queen Barlows IIRC). I'm not in a position to photograph my older Queens right now but I did find an unetched version of the Rawhide Barlow online to demonstrate.



Modoc ED said:
Sure enough, Mort showed the correct Patent but it is interesting to note that the knife pictured in the Patent is not a Barlow but just a basic single blade Jack Knife as the "Pattern" of the knife wasn't patented just the method of construction. The knife pictured in the Patent was marketed by Queen in their "Big Chief" line.
Click to expand...

The Big Chief and its variants are surely typical jacks, but it almost seems like Queen wanted to make an all-stainless quasi-Barlow with that design. There's even a typically-long "bolster" area on the Big Chief and its unmarked little brother where the grip pattern on the handle does not extend. Just another example of the interplay between your typical barehead/shadow jack and a full-fledged Barlow, IMO. :D
 
I've had a few Queen barlows, one was a Queen made Robeson. Nice knives.

If you can find a Queen Dan Burke barlow, either size, do yourself a favor and buy them (regular or daddy barlow). Both are very well made and are D2.
 
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