Hey guys. I wanted to post a review in the event another Trad newbie comes along. Aside from a Rough Rider that I enjoyed, but quickly gave away, I haven't had a non-locking knife since 1993. I got my first in 1984 but I was a little kid and had no perception of quality on the Old Timers, Case, Boker, Kissing Crane, and Buck knives I broke or lost. I'm glad I don't recall which ones I owned. Many were antique gifts and likely valuable.
On to the Queen D2 Birdseye Maple Split-back Whittler. I want to preface this that I am NO EXPERT. If anything I say is unfairly critical or asinine, by all means realign my expectations. Secondly, this is a GREAT knife. Well worth the money and I got great service from a company called TSA Knives (I thought it was a reseller of confiscated airport secruity knives at first).
Here are pics, I may reference them but I don't have a paid membership, and hosting and managing hyperlinks from a tablet is a PITA, so sorry if you don't like Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/101091851@N06/sets/72157635322814370/
The blades all came sharp. I've read a bunch on trad's but I hope I get all the terms right. The Clip had a clean and even grind, toothy, but a bit of a steep shoulder; the etched logo was centered and uniform. The nail nick had a little chip on the bottom edge. The Pen blade was flexible as I would expect from a whittler and very sharp with a well-suited and even grind angle. The Coping blade came with a tiny bit of burnt tip, a convex-ish grind, and a tiny bit of edge waver in the lower section of grind...it had some micro chipping that I only saw under the right lighting. That said, it was perfectly straight with a perfectly acute point...the best of it's type I have owned. I did some cutting on local assorted Texas hard/dense woods and all blades performed well. After 3 minutes on the ol' paper wheels every blade is shavin' sharp! The choils are deep, clean, and offer plenty of room to work the edge without tang contact.
When closed, the back springs are nice with minimal lateral edges you can feel. Only a tiny amount of light shows through one liner, and expectedly, at the tip of the spring splitting liner. When the Clip and Pen are open, the springs protrude a tad (see pics); however the fit of the open Coping is perfect. I can see hand fit peening on the Kick and grinding on the Tang of the Clip. I'm certain someone spent time trying to make this knife function well. In the good ol' USA. Love it. This is my first split-back...all of the springs are perfectly tensioned for me...zero hassle to open, safe to close, and no sense of safety issues so-long-as you know the designs limitations. The double spring on the main blade may be super old in design, but it's new to me, and I think it's genius. The blades are perfectly centered with no rubbing.
The bolsters were mirror polished. One had a tiny ding in it that probably couldn't be polished out.
Scale to bolster fit is PERFECT. The shield is flush and well-fitting. The scale pins have a tiny bit of tacticle edge/texture on one side, but its only from one direction and might've not been finished from the other direction. The maker's mark is really clean, detailed, and deep.
Simply put...this knife cost me $70. I'd have paid more. It's made in America, by craftsmen who still show up to make a 100 year old product. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a non-custom knife to drop in their pocket, cherish, and use til the blades wear out. That's the future of mine.
