queen pocket knives 1958 - 1960

[atrco]

Hi: a guy has about 10 Queen knives on eBay at eh moment (3/13/15) listed on eBay. they all appear to be winterbottom bone. would a queen of that vintage had real bone handles as a matter of course, r would they have been imitation?

thanks
Duke Biscotti

[treefarmer]

Hey Duke!
Here's a picture of two 58-60 #49 Queen stockmen, both are real Winterbottom bone. The faded one is an EDC and the other is a "safe Queen" . Not sure when the imitation Winterbottom was first used, I have several of them and have no complaints about the handles.
Hope this is some help.
Treefarmer

[terryl308]

David Krauss, in his book "American Pocketknives", page 121, "the beginning about 1959, as Queen ran out of Winterbottom bone, they transitioned into the use of synthetic Winterbottom handle materials." Hope this helps, terry

[Keystone]

David Clark has produced a very detailed report on the transition to delrin from winterbottom and the types of winterbottom bone used traditionally. He is the guy I would check with. Contact at Queen cutlery historical documents.

My understanding is that they used bone as long as they had pieces to fit certain patterns, but by the early 60s lots of knives were delrin. I have a #36 lockback that has no tang stamp and is agreed to be in middle 1960s - it is bone.

Some people say it is hard to tell the delrin from some of the bone, especially looking at photographs, but if you use a lens you can almost always see the pores in the bone on the sides of the scales.

I would also say if you plan to use a knife, the delrin is pretty good stuff- it fades in the sun, but otherwise seems to last forever and not shrink.