Queen small sleeve board?

Ernie1980

Ernie1980

Gold Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2012
Messages
8,162
I am loving the look of this new knife with the buffalo covers! Does anyone have one that can chime in on their experience with it? Pictures would be great too!
 
I've been eyeballing that exact knife since I first saw this year's catalog. We haven't seen too much chatter about the new buffalo Queens, but they look to be beautiful knives to me.
 
I broke down and bought one! I will have to post my thoughts on it when it comes in.
 
You got me as well. I just placed my order, and will also add my review when the knife comes in.
 
I finally got mine today after it took the long way here:)
Overall, I am quite impressed. The fit and finish is nice, and the pull on both blades is around a 5. The scales are even better in person, with small streaks of white that really make the handle pop. The blades don't rub each other or the liners, and they sit in a position that makes them easy to grab with my short nails. The blades did come dull, but I took care of that already. :thumbup:

This is not a very large knife, but will handle the daily tasks just fine. It fits well in my watch pocket, and will be there tomorrow!
 
Got one winging across the Atlantic to me. I very much like single-springs, often carry a smaller knife and I'm a D2 enthusiast after initial scepticism. However, I'm a bit wary of horn handled knives as it can be rebellious stuff....Looking forward to this one very much indeed.

Thanks, Will
 
I got mine about a week and a half ago, and I have to agree with Ernie. I love this knife. I love this knife the same way a gambler loves the track. I can't get it out of my system. It is a gorgeous knife, and I didn't use it for the first couple of days because I was contemplating making it a "looking knife". It's attractive enough to make it worth putting it behind glass and never touching it. The pull of this knife is strong enough that it wouldn't allow itself to fall victim to this fate. It plagued my dreams. I finally caved and sharpened it up and dropped it in my pocket. It has now become my go to knife. I really wasn't expecting this at all. I thought that this would be a cute knife to look at and maybe to pull out to cut a stray string or open letters. I thought it would be a trinket more than anything. I like bigger knives, and prefer a GEC 23 to the more popular 73 because I feel it fills my hand better. My biggest complaint on the 15 is that it's just too small to be comfortable in my hand. This sleeveboard is tiny next to the 15, but for some reason it just feels good to me. Queen really knocked it out of the park with this pattern. It's dainty, but at the same time very capable. The pull is around a 6 on the main blade and a 5 on the pen. It snaps open and closed with authority. The movement was a bit gritty out of the box, but a quick flush with some oil and a couple short opening and closing sessions cleared that right up. It's now silky smooth. There is no blade rub anywhere, and the grinds are thin enough to make it one heck of a slicer. There are no gaps worth mentioning anywhere, and the pins are all nice and flush. I know that GEC has their reasoning for leaving sunken pins, but they really could improve their presentation by following Queen's lead in this regard. I don't know what else to say. This knife is better than I had hoped it would be. It rivals my Queen made Ruple trapper for the best fit and finish I've ever witnessed in a production knife. If all of Queen's 2015 knives are coming out this nice GEC and Case are in trouble.

Queen03New_1.jpg
 
Congrats, Ernie! :thumbup::thumbup: And Will; look forward to hearing a report/review when yours arrives. Thanks for the update on yours, Cory; you should be getting a commission because your reviews are excellent sales pitches!! ;);)

- GT
 
Mine arrived this evening.

PROS: Excellent snap, no blade rub, no play, very minor gaps. Strong spring, flush on open. Good grain on the horn mark side, nice white stripes on the pile.

CONS: The handles could be more radiused, they are left rather blocky against the liners. Some blistering around one of the pins, this is common with horn and will often rectify itself with time.

I am rather disappointed by the shortness of the Master blade, it's a very small blade that isn't that much more commanding than the minor pen blade. All in all it's well put together and looks good but that blade is a drawback , in my book at least. Here it is with a GEC Conductor which is very nearly the same length, but you can see the GEC's superior Master blade.

IMG_3186.jpg


Thanks, Will
 
The blades are short. I always carry a larger knife, so the shorter blades probably don't bother me as much as they would if it were my only knife for the day. I kind of like the shorter blades as this is my "around polite company" knife, so the shorter blades just further cement the fact that I have no notorious intentions by pulling out this knife. I doubt that another half inch would change anything in that regard, but it's probably why I don't mind the short blades. It's interesting to see how much further out the nick is on the GEC. From the picture it almost looks like the clipped portion of the blade is equal between the two knives and that the GEC is just much longer before the clip. Is this true? The nick being that much further out, does the GEC open much easier than the Queen? It looks like the pen blades are more similar in size, with a slight nod to the GEC. Is this accurate?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and for showing the two knives side by side. I have never had a #33, and was curious how they compared size-wise.
 
That is quite a difference! However, like Cory I don't mind because this is not a hard work knife but rather an open a package of cut a string at work knife.
 
Thanks for the review, Will. :thumbup::thumbup:
I appreciate reading the differences and similarities that Cory, Ernie, and Will have in their assessments of their knives.

- GT
 
I like that pattern! The small sleeveboard makes an excellent pocketknife. Can't buy one now, but maybe I'll locate one in a few months at one of those moments when money and availability happen to intersect...........
 
Thanks everybody for your comments&contributions. What makes this a really credible forum is that enthusiasts can tell it how it is for them, we don't get any inane fanboyism stiffling debate - which you can encounter elsewhere.

Cory The nail nick placement will certainly have an effect on the opening action. Many French knives for instance, have nicks placed far forward which makes opening easier due to leverage. French knives often have a relatively easy opening action but are hard to shut, an ideal state in my view. This Queen Sleeveboard has a curious demi half-stop feel about it and the back placed nick on the Master does offer more difficulty in opening, nothing bad mind, but tough compared to the GEC. As for the difference between the knives, the Queen and the GEC are almost identical in length of frame but one is swell-centre and the other Sleeveboard. The GEC sports burly bolsters which in my view are out of proportion to the frame. It's like an overbolstered 'Barlow at both ends' . This shows in the weight 43g for the GEC Conductor whereas the Queen shows 34g both light knives but the Queen has superior bolster dimensions and look, pinched and lined etc. Measuring blade length from bolster to tip of blade the Queen is 5cm or just shy of 2" The GEC shows nearly 6cm or 2 3/8th" and it is broader. So the difference is real and not optical. With the secondary Pen blades both are 3.9cm/1.5" but the Queen is a tad wider. Both open out nice and straight with no droop as these are not Serp frames as on CASE or RR equivalents.

I like single-spring knives and the Queen offers future potential. It's well-made, has D2 which I greatly prefer to carbon....is thin and exhibits satisfying snap. The Conductor is still the benchmark single-spring as it's superbly made, has first rate snap and has a nice long Master blade in a compact frame. Were Queen to tweak this and have a longer bladed Master then from my point of view, they'd be clearly ahead as this is a very beautiful knife.

At the end of the day after buying a knife you should ask yourself just two questions: Was it worth the money? Will I be using it regularly and with relish? The answer in the case of this Queen is yes on both counts.

Here's a crap photo of some single-springs, the colours etc are awful as the light's going but it does show the blade relative to frame. From l, RR Copperhead, CASE Pen, Remington Sleeveboard from the 20s, Queen Sleeveboard, GEC Conductor faux Tortoise.

IMG_3190.jpg


Regards to all, Will
 
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I love sleeveboard pattern knives. The short blade on the Queen is a gamechanger for me, it looks stumpy. If I saw an old knife set up like that I wouldn't buy if for fear that the blade had been reconfigured. That's my only criticism though. Love those bolsters.
 
Thanks for the response, Will. This is my first knife of this type. I'm usually into larger knives, but needed one for use around people that have delicate dispositions. After seeing your lineup of beautiful penknives I can see why you were surprised by the length of the Queen main blade. Glad to hear that you're still happy with it. I agree about it being nice to be able to have an honest discussion without having to worry about hurt feelings or people making wild claims based on their preferences. :thumbup:
 
Will- thanks for that picture! I agree that this is a great place to hang out and find information:thumbup:
To all of you: it's your fault that I have a bee in my bonnet now and am looking for a suitable GEC conductor to add to my collection!
 
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