Slippies: Queen vs Case

K

kidwholaughs

Joined
Jan 17, 2004
Messages
1,189
Hey Guys,

All my life, I have had Case slipppies. Never handled a Queen. Going through Cumberland's Website I was moved by some of the sliippies Queen had.

I was wondering about how Queen's D2 compared with Case's CV interms of durability and eaze of mantainance. I love that I can put a razor's edge on my peanut with no time. But I want something more stain resistant. However, I want something more durable than the Case SS.

In addition, how does the FF on the Queen slippies compared to the Case's.
I am looking for a 3 1/4" -1/2" jack. Recommendations would be greatly appreicated.

God Bless
 
The only "complaint" I had with my Queen Copperhead was the edge; had to reprofile it completely. F&F is excellent; the backspring on mine is a little on the soft side (5 out of 10). Overall, I'd buy a Queen again without any hesitation. Hope this helps!

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I'm not much of a slippie collector,but pertaining to the few I've had & have,I prefer Queen mostly because they use D2.I do like the old Case carbon slipjoints though.

They're both great companies IMHO.:thumbup:
 
All of my Queens have been great, except for the edge. Now that I can sharpen fairly, well, ah, better than I could ;), I wish I would have held on to my Queens. A couple of years ago, I was very much enamored of the stag Case CV models, pretty much any I could find. Razor sharp. Every single SS one that I saw was dull out of the box. Remembering those stag scales, I wish I would have held on to the Case CV models too.

Never sent anything in to Case, but I did send my Mountain Man to Queen for sharpening, and tightening the blade up. Got it back with what could have passed for a better edge from my ten year old sister, and a lot of goop, presumably protective oil I hope, in the bolster. Their cocobolo, jigged delrin (maybe)? and winterbottom releases are the best I've seen. I have a Queen small stockman, carried (oils from my hands have darkened the coco) set aside for my sister.
 
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Thisa is oinly my non-representative personal experience, but I have only ever returned one Queen knife for FnF problems. Most arrive with crude edges (though they have been better lately), but I send mine to BRKY for "convexing" anyway. What bothers me is I would really like to own a Case that I am satisfied with. One of these days I'll pick one "off the shelf." My problem is that I have ordered probably 6-7 case knives over the yeras - about every time I see a CV Canoe or stockman I have to have - only to end up sending them back because the FnF is dissapointing to me. SO, in my experience, the FnF on Queen exceeds case, while the out-of-box sharpness of CV case knives is often better than Queens. As to sharpness/sharpening, I find that D2 holds the edge longer, but CV is easier to resharpen (same holds true for Boker's Carbon (1095?)). My guess is the CV is not as hard and/or has smaller carbides. Both take a patina - though the D2 is more mottled and grey. YMMV. Somewhere around here I have an old picture of "the drawer" containing the knives I rotate for pocket-carry on a regular basis. I'll try to find it. Finally, the best combined FnF & sharpness I have seen yet from a production company is coming from Canal Creek...followed closely by GEC. Also, the Honey Amber bone Queens I have seen have had esp. nice FnF.
 
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Posting images of our EDC drawers is not going to help answer the original question posed and if we all start posting images of our EDC drawers the thread will go even further afield from its original intent.

There are numerous other threads on the forum regarding our daily carries.
 
I like both my Case and Queen knives but as many others have found out, oftentimes the Queen knives arrive with less than desirable edge geometry. This can be quickly remedied with diamond hones and a little bit of effort (though it shouldn't have to be). In fairness, I've had a few Case knives that were either less than sharp or came with a large burr at the edge. All things being equal, however, I'd rather remove the burr and touch up an edge than have to completely reprofile as has been the situation with some Queen made knives.

Once you have a good edge on D2 it will hold it for a good long time and along with carbon or CV it's amongst my favorite steels for regular use.

Fit and finish vary on a knife by knife basis but some of the Queen's seem a bit more robust in their construction to me.

I'd be hard pressed to pick one over the other and like having the option of both.

Being able to pick your knife or purchasing from a reliable source can go a long way toward limiting the frustration of purchasing a knife with issues.
 
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I own one Queen knife and one Case knife, although I have seen several examples of each. Fit and finish is the about equal, but from my experiences Case knives come with a more usable edge out of the box. I prefer the D2 steel on Queens. Case's CV is nice, but their CV offerings are paltry compared to their Tru-Sharp knives. Another thing I've found is that the blade stock on Case knives is a little too thin for my tastes. I wish the blades were a bit more substantial, so I guess Queen has the advantage here. And I like the flat grinds on Queens better than the hollow grind blades of Case.
 
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I go with case.

My few experiances with Queen were like the others posted here; needed alot of edge work. Finish was exellent, no complaints in the department. But the fact that a knife comes dull is one of those little things that bug the holy heck out of me. A matter of principle. I'm too old fashioned and I think an object made for a purpase should be able to be utilized in that area soon as you get it. A new dull knife to me is like buying a new car that you can't use untill you do a tune-up service, or a new gun can't be shot till you do a trigger job on it. With modern equiptment in a up to date knife shop, it only takes a minute to put a final edge on a knife. The fact they let it out the door in that shape really bugs me. My country cousin sodbuster arived with an edge rivaling some of the butter knives in my kitched drawer. Sloppy workmenship and sloppy QA won't get my money.

The other issue I had with another Queen, was I needed a pair of pliers to get it open. Thumbnail buster was putting it mildly. It went back to Queen and they sent me one that was a little better. I could get it open if my hands were totally dry.

I would only buy a Queen if I could pick through the stock in person. I never had these problems with Case or Schrade Old Timers, let alone Victorinox.

I've had a Case come to me less sharp than I liked, but never so dull they needed to be sharpened just to cut jute twine for the garden out back.
 
I agree with most of what's been said but will add one thing concerning finish. All of the newer vintage Case knives I've had have been finished in a manner that mostly rounds and softens the edges and corners. By comparison, Queens will typically have sharper, more defined eges.

As an example, on Queen knives the portion of the tang that is exposed when the blade is closed is almost sharp enough to cut yourself on. On Case knives, its rounded and polished. Neither is better -- just different.
 
I've only had one Queen so I can't give a fair comparison, but the one I had had great f&f. It did have the dreaded poorly sharpened edge, but I did'nt carry it anyway..
They use D2, but can't seem to put a good edge on them. If they can't do that I wonder how good their heat treating is? If the heat treat isn't that great, is there really any benefit over Case CV ?
 
Queen uses some interesting materials and makes nice patterns, but most of the Queen-branded knives I've gotten are not quite of the same level of F&F and general "quality feel" of a corresponding Case. They seem a little more utilitarian, despite sometimes having nicer handle materials, etc.

Now their S&M line is another story, but those are a slightly higher price point. Then again, many S&Ms are only available in 420HC, which the steel snobs disdain, so you've got to determine how you use your knife, and whether having an uber-wunder-steel is important. S&M does do some models in ATS34, too.

I've gotten three D2 knives from Queen. The first was duller than a butter knife and had to be completely rebevelled. This is time consuming with D2. The second knife was "just" sharp enough to be usable, and is a pattern I bought for the collection, not to carry (Swing Guard), so I wasn't too worried about it. The third is my Queen Utility knife, which I got just a couple of months ago, and it came very sharp. Not sure if I got lucky, or if they simply got tired of people sending back knives and/or dissing their QC.

Keep in mind D2 doesn't take a patina, it tends to pit when exposed to acids. It also generally doesn't polish up as nice as stainless or CV steel; it's very difficult to get rid of the "orange peel" look in the surface.

I know it's OT, but I gotta say, my favorite stainless at this point is the 12C27 used on my Laguiole. It gets razor sharp and stays that way for a very long time.

-- Sam
 
338375 said:
I've only had one Queen so I can't give a fair comparison, but the one I had had great f&f. It did have the dreaded poorly sharpened edge, but I did'nt carry it anyway..
They use D2, but can't seem to put a good edge on them. If they can't do that I wonder how good their heat treating is? If the heat treat isn't that great, is there really any benefit over Case CV ?
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I don't think it has to do with their heat treat, or the quality of their D2. By all accounts, they use a very good D2, they just can't consistently grind decent bevels on it. If they profiled their blades properly and actually sharpened them before they left the shop you probably wouldn't hear any complaints.

And I know many old timers feel that knives used to come dull, and having to sharpen a new knife is no big deal. This is true when dealing with a 1095, CV, or Tru-Sharp blade; That can be done 10 minutes. It is not acceptable to have to completely rebevel a D2 blade, which can take hours, even with diamond hones. We're talking uneven, 45 degree bevels from the factory, different angles on either side of the blade, etc. Pure slop.

-- Sam
 
Yosemite Sam said:
I know it's OT, but I gotta say, my favorite stainless at this point is the 12C27 used on my Laguiole. It gets razor sharp and stays that way for a very long time.
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12c27 is good stuff. I also have a Laguiole in this steel and I understand why you like it.
 
I would rather buy a "dull" knife in D2 than a sharp knfe in TruSharp. Case knives are ok in CV but are over polished and have that rounded melted look that I don't really care for. I use mostly Queens in D2 because I don't allways have a chance to stop and resharpen my knife.

Tom
 
I have a few Queen knives and have been very pleased with them. The two gunstock were reprofiled by others prior to coming to me. They are razors. The trappers came with the factory edge, which was pretty good. Excellent fit and finish. I am very pleased with them.

I own quite a few case knives. They tend to be of excellent quality as well. I have found some traits that seem specific to patterns that I am unhappy with. For instance, the Sowbellies seem to have a softer backspring than I enjoy. The doc knives (my favorite visual pattern) also seem to have a softer backspring. The Seahorse whittlers and whittlers have been rock solid. Finally, the Elephant Toenails have had very stiff springs, but I love em.
 
Imho, you are not gonna go wrong with either, I like them both, so buy for handle material and pattern. Be prepared to sharpen the Queen when you get it. I prefer Queen's D2 to Case CV for edge holding for my use, but if I did more wood carving the CV takes a higher polished edge for me.
 
I think FF is about even with the philopsophical differences noted above (Case tumbles and polishes, Queen doesn't). I can't seem to do a damn thing with the D2 on the thick blades of my Canoe and Whittler. I have a 2 blade "medium" Congress with thin (Case style) blades that seems to sharpen just fine. The other two get a nice toothy edge on a coarse or medium stone but seem to dull as I go to higher grits. I can use em, but they arent hairpopping like just about every other knife I own. I don't have much experience with the super-steels, so maybe I can't hold a bevel as well as I think. I dunno.

HOOKEM
 
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