New knife from Queen?

:confused:
waynorth said:
⚠Warning: This product can expose you to Lead, which is known by the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
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I assume the Prop 65 warning on pocket knives is for the brass liners and pins, since brass contains a tiny amount of lead. Ironic thing is, if the blurb on this new “Queen” is correct, it contains no brass (Nickel silver pins and bolsters, steel liners) so it might not even need the California warning. I think the manufacturers are just putting the warning on everything to keep it simple. On a related note, since I found the Prop 65 warning on a brass garden hose nozzle I bought, I’ve made sure not to eat any brass hose nozzles. Can’t be too careful!:rolleyes:
 
This same type of conversation occurs with some regularity on the motorcycle forum I routinely participate in. The resurrection, and resurrection attempts, of famous motorcycle marques like Triumph, Indian, Vincent, Ariel, and most recently Norton (and I read that the rights to the BSA name was recently purchased by an Indian company) cause similar angst as to the legitimacy.

The new Indian motorcycle company (owned by Polaris) uses terms like "heritage" in their marketing. The new company is related to the original company that created the heritage in name only. They're putting out a quality product that does the name justice, but the marketing hype is stretching the truth quite far. OTOH, the heritage associated with the name is why they bought the name in the first place. In the seventies the Indian name was slapped on small trail/street bikes manufactured in Taiwan. Not bad bikes, but certainly the cause of massive amounts of eye rolling in the motorcycle community.

The Colonel Coon example is pretty good. I've got a couple of Queen made CC's. They're a quality knife. I think they do the name justice. BUT I bought them as Queen knives, not because they said "Colonel Coon" on them. Frankly I'd prefer they said "Queen" on them. I won't buy a Bear made Colonel Coon, because I don't think it does the name justice. If I want a Bear made knife, I'll just buy one that says Bear on it.

OTOH, GEC does the same thing with the Northfield name. Rebranding GEC knives with an old, resurrected name. Others come to mind.

The key to acceptance seems to be to maintain the quality of the original

BTW, I believe Cattaraugus is owned by Case now.

I 'm pretty sure I've stopped making sense, so here's a pic of Queen made Coon ;)
Coon6.JPG
 
I ran out of conspiracy theory coffee a few years back so I will leave those to others. As far as the company's response to the question is concerned, it looks to me like someone who didn't really know was just trying to give someone an answer. If they hadn't responded, they would also have been accused of trying to cover things up.

As far as the quality of the knife is concerned, I wouldn't be surprised if it's about the same as it is for the other brand names that SMKW has bought up. They are decent knives for their price point, or so I have heard. SMKW's business model is pretty well established and seems to be working for them, so I would be surprised if they deviated from that approach.
 
I think GEC resurrecting an old brand name like 'Northfield' is quite different than some of the examples above. Northfield knives had been out of business for something like 80 years when GEC brought the name back. I suspect GEC/Bill Howard used that name more as a nod to the history of American made knives rather than to leverage a well known brand to increase sales.
 
mbkr said:
This same type of conversation occurs with some regularity on the motorcycle forum I routinely participate in. The resurrection, and resurrection attempts, of famous motorcycle marques like Triumph, Indian, Vincent, Ariel, and most recently Norton (and I read that the rights to the BSA name was recently purchased by an Indian company) cause similar angst as to the legitimacy.

The new Indian motorcycle company (owned by Polaris) uses terms like "heritage" in their marketing. The new company is related to the original company that created the heritage in name only. They're putting out a quality product that does the name justice, but the marketing hype is stretching the truth quite far. OTOH, the heritage associated with the name is why they bought the name in the first place. In the seventies the Indian name was slapped on small trail/street bikes manufactured in Taiwan. Not bad bikes, but certainly the cause of massive amounts of eye rolling in the motorcycle community.

The Colonel Coon example is pretty good. I've got a couple of Queen made CC's. They're a quality knife. I think they do the name justice. BUT I bought them as Queen knives, not because they said "Colonel Coon" on them. Frankly I'd prefer they said "Queen" on them. I won't buy a Bear made Colonel Coon, because I don't think it does the name justice. If I want a Bear made knife, I'll just buy one that says Bear on it.

OTOH, GEC does the same thing with the Northfield name. Rebranding GEC knives with an old, resurrected name. Others come to mind.

The key to acceptance seems to be to maintain the quality of the original

BTW, I believe Cattaraugus is owned by Case now.

I 'm pretty sure I've stopped making sense, so here's a pic of Queen made Coon ;)
View attachment 1331444
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I agree 100%. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
The brand is before all a man's name and reflects this man's (and team) skills. I met several Davidson, but none would know how to build a hog! :p

At least Triumph slightly changed the logo. It confuses only those who want to. :)
AW_Triumph.jpg
 
mbkr mbkr I mostly agree that the Queen made CC's were just another Queen knife and they did the name justice but given that company closed up more out of choice it has a little different feel than whats going on with Queen. I would like to see resurrected names at least get special treatment and produced to a higher quality standard. I have not owned a Bear & Son's knife but from their price point, picture, and reputation they are at best equal to Case and that isn't enough to me for what was a premium name. I would like to see the CC name get a treatment to make it more premium than a normal Bear & Son after all on top of honoring the name and it's history it seems rather pointless to me for a business to have multiple lines of products with no difference in quality. I will add on a related note I would love to see CC knives made in TN again that would really make them something special.
 
All of this branding and rebranding shell game seems to just add to the confusion of who makes what unnecessarily. When I was a young man and first came out west I discovered that sometimes a name is just a name, without its former associations. I remember there was a fellow who used to name all of his dogs Hunter until a Texan child explained that to do so was being ornery, seeing that the dog never left the porch. The kid said "Mister, no matter what you call it, that dog won't hunt!" I have heard this expression applied in many situations. It's not what you call something, but what it is by its nature that matters.
 
Bartleby said:
All of this branding and rebranding shell game seems to just add to the confusion of who makes what unnecessarily.
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While we’re on the subject, I’d like someone to explain to me how Frost gets away with putting a tang stamp on their “reborn” brand knives with an obviously phony country of origin. I assume they would claim it’s just part of being a “reproduction” knife, but it seems as if it ought to be against some law. (No, I didn’t buy the knife. It was given to me, so I didn’t get taken too badly. It’s actually usable, if you don’t mind the sheepfoot blade being krinked halfway out the blade.)
c6rapLo.jpg
 
What about the Schatt and Morgans on the same Tenness-e-tailer's site? More expensive than the Queen Pilot. Could Bluegrass still own S&M?
 
Headwinds said:
While we’re on the subject, I’d like someone to explain to me how Frost gets away with putting a tang stamp on their “reborn” brand knives with an obviously phony country of origin. I assume they would claim it’s just part of being a “reproduction” knife, but it seems as if it ought to be against some law. (No, I didn’t buy the knife. It was given to me, so I didn’t get taken too badly. It’s actually usable, if you don’t mind the sheepfoot blade being krinked halfway out the blade.)
c6rapLo.jpg
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If it comes in one of those plastic Clam Packs/Clam Shell packages, the country of origin only needs to go on the product card enclosed with the product. The company that owns Schrade does this. Here's an example:

Not my pictures:
Q61NHBB.jpg

hAGWztx.jpg


Notice the Made in China at the bottom of the back side (picture two). There is no mention of China on the knife or sheath once removed from the Clam Pack. Notice where the name of the knife is referred to as 162 UHCP - I believe that the CP stands for/identifies the product as packaged in a Clam Pack.
 
Modoc ED said:
If it comes in one of those plastic Clam Packs/Clam Shell packages, the country of origin only needs to go on the product card enclosed with the product.
Notice the Made in China at the bottom of the back side (picture two). There is no mention of China on the knife or sheath once removed from the Clam Pack. Notice where the name of the knife is referred to as 162 UHCP - I believe that the CP stands for/identifies the product as packaged in a Clam Pack.
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Yes, I realize the country of origin does not have to appear on the knife. What bothers me is that “Meriden, Conn.” does appear on the knife. I know retailers had knives made for them by various manufacturers, and I know it doesn’t actually say “Made in USA”, but it still seems misleading.
 
Headwinds said:
Yes, I realize the country of origin does not have to appear on the knife. What bothers me is that “Meriden, Conn.” does appear on the knife. I know retailers had knives made for them by various manufacturers, and I know it doesn’t actually say “Made in USA”, but it still seems misleading.
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I see your point and agree with you; however it is what it is - the same as the Schrade example I showed. We just have to buy with our eyes open.
 
Headwinds said:
While we’re on the subject, I’d like someone to explain to me how Frost gets away with putting a tang stamp on their “reborn” brand knives with an obviously phony country of origin. I assume they would claim it’s just part of being a “reproduction” knife, but it seems as if it ought to be against some law. (No, I didn’t buy the knife. It was given to me, so I didn’t get taken too badly. It’s actually usable, if you don’t mind the sheepfoot blade being krinked halfway out the blade.)
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The city,state on the tang is likely part of their "trademark logo" and therefore they can put that on anything they want without it having to be made there. It is not stating the manufacture location, rather just their logo. It's a shady way that a lot of places can falsely get away with that sort of thing. Loopholes in the US trademark/patent/copyright laws.

scrteened porch said:
What about the Schatt and Morgans on the same Tenness-e-tailer's site? More expensive than the Queen Pilot. Could Bluegrass still own S&M?
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A friend of mine spoke with Gilbert and Seth Cooper, who are involved with the Bluegrass Cutlery. They did indeed sell the Queen brand to SMKW with the intention that Bear & Sons would be making the Queen knives in the future (although there is no guarantee that SMWK won't make them overseas at some point, as they do with their other brands.) Obtaining both the Queen and S&M trademarks was their only option when they were bidding, even though their only focus was using the S&M brand, and therefore sold the Queen brand to recoop some cash. The Cooper's main goal was to focus on the S&M brand, and continue to make them on the original machinery out of the Queen factory, including the original dies and tooling. They have succeeded in making some of their Winchester knives so far, and plans to make S&M knives soon.
 
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