Queen Cutlery History is a comprehensive, informative resource for anyone interested in Queen City Cutlery Company and its successor, Queen Cutlery Company. In addition the website features information on the related companies, Schatt & Morgan and the Dollar Knife Company. For the first time, knife collectors and historians have access to a knowledge bank of knife photos and descriptions, historical documents, catalogs and articles related to these legendary cornerstones of the American cutlery industry. Our only focus is on knives made in the USA.

In 2018, having produced high quality cutlery using traditional methods for 96 years, Queen Cutlery closed its doors for good. The curators of this website, David Clark, Linda and Fred Fisher and Bob Welch, had previously served as the Queen Cutlery Historical Committee and are now joined by Carl Bradshaw. We are supported in this effort by knowledgable Queen and Schatt & Morgan collectors from across the USA. The Daniels Family, last owners of the company have graciously donated all related historical documents from the old Queen website. We are grateful to Jan Carter, of iknifecollector.com for contributing the web domain.

⇒ We have looked back into the Historical Knife Spotlight Archive to focus on an article about the Queen  Heavy Duty Jack knives. Previous Spotlight articles can be found in the Spotlight Archive. The entire collection of 2020’s Historical Knife Spotlights are now available in articles for you to check out and download. 

⇒ All new Collector Questions & Comments appear here on the home page.

⇒ The Tang Stamp Guide has been updated yet again, to version 9 (October, 2023) – and now contains details on 101 stamps and markings! The guide also includes a supplement with the stamps used on hatchets, razors and scissors. Additionally, the earlier supplement on Dollar Knives, Robeson and Tuna Valley knives is also included. We welcome your questions, comments and suggestions. Contact us here.

Queen Cutlery’s Heavy Duty Jacks are in our Spotlight this month. These sturdy folding knives have their roots in the Queen City era (before World War II) and are anchored by the ubiquitous # 10 pattern. Sharing the same frame as the # 10 are the # 18 which has been referred to as both a “Heavy Duty Jack” and a “Spear Point Special”, as well as the # 40 “Heavy Duty Screwdriver”.

Aside from blades these three patterns all share common frames, back springs, liners, bolsters and pin configurations. All are 3 11/16 inches in length, with two back springs and nickel silver bolsters at each end.

Some early knives, from the Queen City era, have steel liners and pins but these were changed to brass after the company changed its name to Queen Cutlery in 1946. Likewise, at least some of the Queen City knives utilized carbon steel blades while Queen Cutlery blades were made of stainless steel. Handle materials were primarily either Rogers Bone or Winterbottom Bone and both were used before and after World War II. After 1959 many were handled in Delrin, also called “Frontier Bone” and “Imitation Winterbottom Bone”.

Where these three patterns differ is in the blade types. The # 10 always featured a clip main blade with a pen blade secondary. Pattern # 18 also had a pen, but the main blade was a spear point. As the name implies, the # 40 Screwdriver knife had a long, flat screwdriver blade with a cap lifter (bottle opener) above the tang. The main blade was a clip.

Queen didn’t publish catalogs prior to 1946 so it’s difficult to say with certainty in which year the # 10 and # 18 patterns were first manufactured. As noted at the start off this article, we have evidence, in the form of actual knives (see photos) of # 10’s bearing the Queen City tang stamp. All such knives this writer has seen have the Queen City (script) stamp, indicating production roughly between 1937 and 1945. Both of these patterns were included in the first catalog, oddly called number 82, of 1946. Both the # 10 “Heavy Duty Pattern” with crown and dots stamp and # 18 “Spear Point Special” with big Q stamp are pictured with blades both open and closed.

The Heavy Duty pattern name stuck through the 1969-70 catalog and starting with catalog 50 in 1972 it had been renamed “Farmers Clip” and that name stayed until 1982. There were no catalogs from 1983 through 1994 and in 1995 the name had been switched back to “Heavy Duty Jack” for its last appearance in a Queen Cutlery catalog.

Pattern # 18 had its own little section in Queen Catalogs through 1953.

The most comprehensive and extensively researched guide to Queen and Schatt & Morgan tang stamps and blade markings ever published has just gotten better! Version 9 (October, 2023) of the guide is now a 19 page document which displays over 100 distinct tang and blade markings used by the cutleries over a span of 126 years. Two supplements have been integrated into the Guide. One covers hatchets, razors and scissors. The other details additional brands made by Queen, Dollar Knives, Robeson and Tuna Valley. 

This Guide was created by our editors and a group of collectors following the 2018 closure of Queen Cutlery. Markings on knives in their various collections, both tang stamps and blade etches, were photographed, in color and (with few exceptions) are included here. 

In addition to the photos, an illustration of the stamp or etch marking is included . This is followed by a description and an accurately estimated time span during which that marking was used.

 To view and download, just click the adjacent image.