Queen used a wide variety of materials over the years to haft their knives. Some of the most exotic and rare handle materials included smoked (white) pearl, black lip pearl, abalone and mastodon (non-elephant) ivory, as well as the more traditional top of the line, “presentation grade” mother-of-pearl. Over the years the company also used various horn, antler, wood as well bone and molded plastics in various colors and “jiggings.” 

Rogers jigged bone was used on many of Queen’s early knives, but by the mid- to late-1940’s, they began producing most knives in “Winterbottom bone” and may be best known for their use of Winterbottom handles produced in the Winterbottom factory in Egg Harbor, New Jersey. From about 1950 to 1959 Queen used that style of jigged bone almost exclusively. 

From the 1950’s on, the use of less expensive plastic and nylon handles increased as a way to both reduce costs and improve durability.  Queen had begun to haft most of its knives in the synthetic Winterbottom style by 1959. And although Queen used approximately 46 different tang stamps during the Company’s tenure, it appears that from about 1961 to 1971 the company stopped tang stamping its knives at all as a further cost cutting measure. 

Queen resumed tang stamping in 1972 under Servotronics’ leadership, and returned to natural handle materials as collectors and users increased the demand. 

As noted above, “Queen City Cutlery Company” shortened its name to “Queen Cutlery Company” in January 1946. This led to legal difficulties with the “Henry Sears & Son Cutlery Company” in 1948. They claimed they alone owned the legal right to use the word “Queen.” The dispute was resolved in 1956 when Queen hired a trademark registration company to file “Certificates of Registration” in all contiguous 48 states. Henry Sears & Son went out of business in 1958 for other economic reasons. 

On another legal front, Queen was granted a patent for an Erickson designed automatic knife, “the Jet” in 1950. The 1958 Switchblade Act made automatic knives illegal so the company got rid of all unused parts by mixing them into concrete that was used to make a driveway. In 2017 a new automatic knife, patterned after the KA-BAR “Grizzly” would be introduced and sold as “The John Henry Express.” 

Under Servotronics, Queen began to issue limited edition knives in 1972. The first was the “Drake Well Barlow” commemorating the 1859 discovery of oil in Titusville. In 1976 Queen issued a number of American Bicentennial commemorative knives using a special “Q76” tang stamp. 

From 1977 onward Queen released a number of “Series” knives, some as limited editions, and some knives in general production. The limited edition “Master Cutler Series”, for example, was comprised of individually boxed knives released over several years. 

The general production “Rawhide Series” (a total of ten folders as well as three fixed blades) were featured in catalogs for a number of years beginning in 1980 through the 2000, but not all patterns were offered every year. Another example of a general production series was the “Burnt Bone” series, nine patterns of pocketknives available for a few years in the 1990s.

The company also produced separate series of “Queen Classics”, “Schatt & Morgan Premier”, “Keystone”, as well as “Queen City” knives; initially for dealers, but some through catalogs beginning around 2005 and running through last few years of Queen’s existence. 

Queen’s most ambitious series was a yearly limited edition release (of around 500) reproduction Schatt & Morgan knife sets that debuted in 1991.  Over the span of 20 years a total of 120 different knives were created for what would become known as the “Keystone Series” which today are highly sought after due to their high quality and limited production.

Similarly, the “File & Wire Select Series” of Schatt & Morgan limited production releases (of 500 or less) per knife was initiated in 1998. Initially, individual File & Wire knives were released about every four to six months in a different pattern, blade shape or handle. The File & Wire series featured ATS-34 steel on all master blades and continued until through 2017. 

But aside from the File & Wire knives Queen was not always consistent in documenting the use of ATS-34 steel on blades. During the late 1990s the company used ATS-34 on some Schatt & Morgan, some Queen, and some Robeson master blades.

Servotronics’ ownership of Robeson permitted Queen to produce knives with the Robeson “MasterCraft,” “PocketEze,” and “ShurEdge” shields and blade etches from 1995 to the early 2000’s. Some Robeson knives were likely produced through the early 2000’s, and some carry the ATS-34 blade etches. All were produced to very high standards. 

In 2011, under the guidance of Queen Cutlery Company Historian David Clark, Queen initiated a limited production, “Heritage Series”; seven historically accurate knives finished with the same type of carbon steel for blades and backsprings and Norway iron for bolsters as found on knives in the earliest known Schatt & Morgan catalog. Conceived as an ongoing yearly series of knives, 300 hundred sets were produced but the series was only produced one year due to manufacturing difficulty and a change in company ownership.

After 2012, there was an increased emphasis on “limited production” offerings for both Queen and Schatt & Morgan stamped knives. 

Over the years Queen made many contract knives for knife clubs, national organizations, private labels, and other knife companies like Case Classics, Marbles, Moore Maker, Remington, Winchester, etc. Many a modern, well-made pocketknife with another company’s name on it actually came out of the Queen factory.  Queen may never generally be as well known or well respected, as it should have been for the workmanship of its own knives. 

In reviewing the more recent history of Queen Cutlery, it appears that 2006 was a pivotal year for the company. That was the year they lost the talent, skills, and experience of long time Queen employee, master cutler and Queen’s chief knife designer, Bill Howard. Howard left the company and started “Great Eastern Cutlery” in partnership with Ken Daniels, creating limited runs of traditional bench-made pocketknives that quickly found favor with collectors. Daniels would sell his part of Great Eastern and purchase Queen in 2012.

Reviewing catalogs from 2012 forward one can get a sense of mounting problems. For example, the company’s longstanding variety of abalone, mother of pearl or other exotic handled knives do not appear in a Queen catalog after 2013. In the subsequent catalogs standard production offerings seemed fewer. But perhaps most indicative of the company’s hard times was the 2016 catalog’s change in Queen’s historically strong warranty to “All Queen Cutlery Company product marked EDC, Every Day Carry are not covered under warranty.” 

The final 2017 catalog featured “The John Henry Express” automatic knife on the cover.  It was the company’s last hurrah. Sadly, Daniels Family Cutlery declared bankruptcy in January of 2018 and shuttered the factory, one hundred years after five men were fired from there in 1918. They returned as owners in 1933 but it’s unlikely that time will come again. Many of us mourn the passing of that era.   

© copyright 2019 used by permission. 

The author wishes to express his gratitude to a number of Queen Cutlery collectors/historians who have helped him along the way, especially David Clark, Fred Fisher, Dan Lago, the late John Lussier, and Fred Sampson. Your encouragement, support, and generous sharing of research have been invaluable in the production of this writing. Thank-you.

David Krauss is the author of American Pocketknives: The History of Schatt & Morgan and Queen Cutlery,

His book is available at Americanpocketknives.com 

David Clark and David Krauss are the co-authors of 2005 monograph The Dollar Knife Corporation. 

Available from the authors