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 For the first time, knife collectors and historians have access to a knowledge bank of knife photos and descriptions, historical documents, catalogs and articles related to these legendary cornerstones of the American cutlery industry.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 knowledgeable 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 The Daniels Family, last owners of the company have graciously donated all related historical documents from the old Queen website.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.

⇒ See just below for a  Historical Knife Spotlight article on modern Schatt & Morgan pocketknives. Specifically we highlight the long running Keystone Series. 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.

The origins of Schatt & Morgan date to 1895. It’s well known that the founders of Queen City (later incorporated as Queen Cutlery) were fired from S&M in 1918. When the Schatt & Morgan cutlery collapsed into bankruptcy in 1933, Queen City bought all the assets and subsequently moved into the S&M building on Chestnut Street, in Titusville, PA.

For 58 years, from the time Schatt & Morgan closed their doors in the 1930’s, no knives carrying the Schatt & Morgan markings were produced. Then, in 1991, Queen revived this venerable old brand with a series of finely crafted pocket knives officially called the Schatt & Morgan Pocketknife Series but commonly known to collectors as the Keystone Series. The inaugural release consisted of a set of 6 folding knives. Over the years anywhere from 5 to 8 knives made up a set with the majority comprising of 6 knives. The Roman numeral numbered series ran for 20 years, ending in 2010. Under Daniels family ownership they were revived, typically with just 400 sets per year but the sequential numbering of the sets (ie. Series XII, Series XX) was not continued.

In introducing the Keystone Series, Queen published the following comments:

The knives in the Schatt & Morgan Series are made by skilled craftsmen who have learned their trade over the years. The knives take a good deal of time to manufacture – over 190 hand operations are required – and cannot be mass produced. Given the time and skill required to make these knives, annual production capacity is limited.

It’s difficult to say with certainty how many sets of each series were produced. Some years it was 300 to 400 and we believe the maximum quantity in any given year was 700 sets. The knife patterns selected were based on original Schatt & Morgan pocketknife offerings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the key features common to all of these high quality knives:

• Pinned nickel silver keystone shields (with the exception of scout knives, a mammoth tusk office knife, hand saw cut bone Barlows and knives handled in mother of pearl

• Queen Steel (440-A stainless) blades (1991 through 1998); ATS34 blades in 1999 and 2000; 420SS blades in 2001 and 2002; 420HC blades from 2003 through 2010

• Main blade etched with the S&M trademark and secondary blades tang stamped “Schatt & Morgan” in the early days and later with various Schatt & Morgan markings
• Many of these knives had coined nickel silver bolsters
• Year of manufacture in a tang stamp
• Each knife individually boxed
• Box label is a reproduction of an original Schatt & Morgan package label

We include, below,  a brief summary of each of the 20 sets of the original series. For more detail see the document Keystone Series on the Flyers & Ads page of this website.

Series I (1991): 6 knives with 5 handled in brown jigged bone and a Barlow with hand sawed bone

Series II (1992): 8 knives with 7 handled in deep red bone and a Barlow with hand sawed bone

Series III (1993): 6 knives handled in Winterbottom bone

Series IV (1994): 6 knives handled in golden corncob bone

Series V (1995): 5 knives with 4 handled in lightly burnt stag and 1 handled in pearl

Series VI (1996): 6 knives with 5 handled in emerald green bone and 1 handled in pearl

Series VII (1997): 6 knives with 5 handled in deep blue jigged bone and 1 handled in pearl

Series VIII (1998): 7 knives with 5 handled in antique caramel worm groove bone, 1 handled in pearl and 1 in burnt stag

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.