slipjoint knife steels

shaldag

shaldag

Joined
Jun 17, 2004
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I have recently been bitten by the traditional folder bug. (I guess I should say re-infected, as I ALWAYS carry a SAK, along with my one-hand openers etc.)

However, this disease is complicated by the fact that I also suffer from steel-snobbery, for which medical science knows no cure.

These 2 diseases can be treated together by buying custom slipjoints (Just got me a Dan Burke). However, these medicines are horrifically expensive and not covered by my health insurance. So in between custom slipjoint treatments, can anyone help me out with less costly treatments for my disease?

I know that Queen offers a number of slipjoints in D2, including a beautiful pelar President's knife. In addition, their Dan Burke production model, the "Real Cattle knife" uses BG-42. Anyone know of a good web site with a lot of Queen models including the 2 above?
(Aside from AG Russell--nothing against them, but their "real Cattle knife" is a special edition.)

Anyone know of other slipjoint manufacturers using premium steels?
What does Case use for their Tony Bose models?

Anyone know about Schrade's custom Collaborations? (Not counting the Kious--got that one).

thanks for your time & interest.
 
Case is producing several "regular" patterns in ATS-34. I have not handled any of them, but the prices seem to be high to me.

All of the Case/Bose knives are also produced in ATS-34.

Queen also played around with ATS-34 a couple of years ago, but it did not last long. I do have 1 doctor's knife by Queen made with that steel 2 or 3 years ago.
 
One of the hardest things to find, is a modern day, quality, traditional folding pattern at a reasonable price.

This is why I look more at the older manufactured knives, I have an old unnamed slipjoint with a blade of 1095 forged this sucker rarely needs an edge touch up and if I'm not mistaken the RC on 1095 can be brought up to 60+, pretty hard for an older steel.

I find many older knives are put together much better than todays offerings,
The problem is finding mint examples, if your willing to accept a little scuffing and maybe a sharpening or two, you can get some quality knives for good prices.
 
Ok, T.Erdelyi--
then how do you tell the knife steel? On your unnamed slipjoint--how do you know that the blade is 1095? I love these old nonstainless steels, but how would I ever tell?
 
shaldag said:
Ok, T.Erdelyi--
then how do you tell the knife steel? On your unnamed slipjoint--how do you know that the blade is 1095? I love these old nonstainless steels, but how would I ever tell?
Click to expand...


I knew if I said that i'd be called, I honestly don't know other than being told at a local show by an oldtime collector that in all probability that was the steel that was used at the time the knife was made.

My point was that there are a lot of older steel out there used on older knives that hold up better than the new stuff out now, remeber these guys have been heat treating O1 and 1095 for nearly a century, that's a long time to work out the bugs, compared to the BG42's and VG10's out there.
 
CRH said:
Is this the "Case Select" line?
Click to expand...
I will let you know when I get home this evening.
 
To answer a few questions,

The Case Select line is the regular 420 crap, not the ATS-34.

Case does a few limited runs in ATS-34, the ones that I have seen are the annual limited Tony Bose knives, and some special runs of knives with the Case Brothers tang stamp (careful tho since the regular production Case Brothers knives use 420).....the ATS-34 are WAY more expensive, like by a factor of five compared to the 420 knives.

As far as older knives, probably well under 1% of pocketknives made between 1910 and 1950 were stainless steel....the early stainless is easy to spot because any knife that old will have a patina unless its SS. Even in the period of 1950 to about 1965, the percentage of SS knives only went up to maybe 3% of the market (my guess). Then starting about 1965 SS grew and carbon declined (slowly).

Queen still does use some ATS-34, on their Schatt & Morgan "File And Wire Tested" series...but I'm not sure all of the knives in these series are ATS-34.

www.cumberlandknifeworks.com is an excellent source for Queen and Case, and Bill the owner can answer all of your questions about what Queen and Case currently offer.

My recommendations would be Queen regular production in D2, or if you want to spend more money on something nicer, the File And Wire Queens. They are still a real bargain IMHO compared to Case.
 
Here's another suggestion. Today I got in one of the new Boker 135th Anniversary models for my collection. They have red jigged bone scales and carbon steel blades (mirror polished even.) I got the Congress pattern. It was $35. Pretty hard to beat a well made German pocket knife with useable carbon steel blades for that kind of price. It's not a file and wire tested ATS-34 Schatt & Morgan but it's a fraction of the price. Check it out.
 
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