Queen Winterbottom Bone?

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pinetree

Joined
Jun 24, 2005
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Was this ever real bone? Some picks of knives it is obviously plastic, other look really good? I am looking at use fixed blades and fillets.

Thanks,
Tim
 
It's real on old Queen knives,I don't know when they started with the synthetic stuff,I'm guessing 60s or 70s,I think most of the new ones are synthetic.
 
That would surprise me. If something is sold as bone I expect it to be bone. Now if it were marketed as 'Winterbottom "bone"' (note the quotes) or something I could accept it, but it's not.

Keep in mind Winterbottom is the guy's name who invented the jigging pattern, not the name of the material.

Somewhere in my collection I have at least one Queen Winterbottom bone knife, and I'm pretty darn sure it's real bone. Some of their materials are so "worked" they feel slick, but are still natural. I do have one Queen knife with sawcut Delrin scales, but it was sold as such.

-- Sam
 
Yosemite Sam said:
Keep in mind Winterbottom is the guy's name who invented the jigging pattern, not the name of the material.



-- Sam
Click to expand...

And with that in mind,true Winterbottom bone was only use back in the 1930s or 40s,I'm not exactly sure of the time frame.Now the name is used as a jigging pattern.
 
"Winterbottom" is a style of jigging, it can be either bone or Delrin.

This is an old 1940's Queen with Winterbottom jigging on real bone.
(the greenish stains are from this knife getting wet and the brass corroding)

Queen-51-1950-1.jpg


This is a modern Queen with Winterbottom jigging on Delrin synthetic.

Queen-49-Forest-Edge-2.jpg
 
See the attached pics...these are real winterbottom bone. Queen started using it when they introduced "Queen Steel" circa late 1940's. Later maybe about 1960 it was changed over to winterbottom delrin. The Queen catalogs up to 1968 that I have owned still called it "bone"...but remmeber in those days there were no collectors so no one really paid much attention to catalog copy.
 
Queen still has some stocks of winterbottom bone but they are small in size. As I understand, not even large enuff to haft a trapper.
 
knifeaholic said:
See the attached pics...these are real winterbottom bone. Queen started using it when they introduced "Queen Steel" circa late 1940's. Later maybe about 1960 it was changed over to winterbottom delrin. The Queen catalogs up to 1968 that I have owned still called it "bone"...but remmeber in those days there were no collectors so no one really paid much attention to catalog copy.
Click to expand...
Steve, your pics aren't showing up for me! - ????
 
Here are some more examples of winterbottom jigging.
Winterbottoms.jpg

From the left, a beautiful old example of the real stuff, in bone, on a W.R.Case and SONS Harness Jack. Next, again the real thing, on an aluminum-framed Queen Barlow. Maybe someone can date this for us. Third, an example of the delrin imitation winterbottom bone seen on many 1960s - 1970s Queens. The next, a slim trapper, I believe is an example of an experiment Queen did, now called burnt orange or something like that. They tried to dip dye the finished knife, but it didn't work out. One year only - when??
The dark balloon whittler is from just a few years ago, and is called Forest Green delrin. The last BIG knife is a 1990s version Schatt, real bone. I checked on this, and had a chat with someone "who was there"! Queen ordered the bone, and oiled it to look old, then found out it wouldn't accept dye anymore! They had to use a surface dye, giving it a different appearance. Considering it was an error, they recovered nicely.
 
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