All About Pocket Knives

ive always thought that queen steel was 440c from the early days up until the early 80s when they switched to 440a am i right or wrong on this i live near titusville and thats what an older employee of queen told me years ago any help or confirmation on this will be appreciated thanks

chautauqua wrote:ive always thought that queen steel was 440c from the early days up until the early 80s when they switched to 440a am i right or wrong on this i live near titusville and thats what an older employee of queen told me years ago any help or confirmation on this will be appreciated thanks

As far as I know you are correct. I have a 1976 factory letter from Queen that they would send to new dealers and it stated that the blades in Queen knives were 440C.

As to the switch to 440A I have it in my mind that it may have occurred by 1979 but it may well have been the early 80's.

For a while in the mid 70s some Queen blade etches included the words 440C Stainless. Then later knives had just 440 Stainless so that may have indicated the switch from 440C to 440A.

i have a known mid 70s queen mountain man on ekay and its labled queen steel 1440 mountain man i got a guy that keeps emailing me telling me queen never used 440 only if it was etched on blade and he is just being very obnoxious and wanted some some help thanks

chautauqua wrote:i have a known mid 70s queen mountain man on ekay and its labled queen steel 1440 mountain man i got a guy that keeps emailing me telling me queen never used 440 only if it was etched on blade and he is just being very obnoxious and wanted some some help thanks

He is wrong they used 440C for many years and only etched it on the blade toward the end. I suspect that they began to use the etching in the 70's when they did because by that time stainless steel had gained some level of respect as a knife steel. and knife buyers had become more educated as to the types of blade steels in use.