Model 11 handle color

[Potechop]

Picked this queen model 11 up and never seen one with this color handle. Has a orange tint to it. Thought maybe it was faded or something but both sides look the same. Don’t collect queens but I have a few 11 patterns have always liked that pattern. Know queen went out of business and Might start making them in China and didn’t know if this could be one of those.

[treefarmer]

Reading your post caused me to try and remember what is going on with that knife. Seems Queen was experimenting with different dyes/colors on the imitation Winterbottom handles and some had this red/brown color. I think I have one or two in my pile.
Maybe someone will respond with a documented article on this.
Treefarmer

Edit: Potechop, I probably spoke/wrote before I looked. It may be that the dye/color issue was with real Winterbottom bone rather than imitation. I looked in a drawer of Queens and took these out and there are color differences in the bone and the Delrin handles. The 3rd #11 is bone as are the knives to the right of it. The 4th and 5th really show the red/brown/orange color. The 1st two #11's are imitation. Hope this picture doesn't muddy the water too much.

[Potechop]

Thanks for the reply Treefarmer probably like you said must be the dye they used on the imitation bone. All the Queens I ever seen had that same color till I picked up this one.

[DanQueencutlerycom]

Queen was experimenting with the winterbottom Delrin synthetic in 1959. They could NOT control the color and felt they had to waste completed knives - some were red, some deep purple, but they did sell the "burnt orange" ones for a short time as Fred Sampson, Queens master cutler at the time described it. Collectors labeled the knives and they remain quite popular through they were never cataloged. While they tried a relatively large number of knife patterns, the approach did not last long - all burnt orange were gone before 1960. The company switched to dying delrin with a black dye before assembling the handle to the knife and the look of almost all queen pocket knives with synthetic delrin for the 1960s was set. (Some knives were still handled in bone in the '60s until, the inventory for that pattern was exhausted. Here is a bone (right) and a burnt orange (left) in the big single blade hunter #44. download/file.php?mode=view&id=578556