All About Pocket Knives

Just picked this #54 Schatt & Morgan stag wharnie whittler with D2 blades off eBay (Smokey Mountain Knife Works was the seller). I was eyeballing this model for a while and finally decided to treat myself to an Xmas present.
While checking the knife over I noticed immediately that the main blade felt "crunchy" when opening and closing.

Under bright light and a loupe I saw something really odd on the tang end. The end looked ridged or corrugated.
Is this something new that Queen is doing, a kind of soft second stop? Or was someone at the factory goofing off?

I also found two small nicks/burrs in the main blade edge and the blade bevel is all over the place.

The knife definitely wasn't used.

I haven't been buying S&Ms for a while, but this knife isn't encouraging. Think I should I send it back to SMKW or to Queen?

I a word YES! I would send it back without a doubt!!
Torched Stag and S&M tang stamp this knife is suppose to be the top of there line! That is not top of the line machine work.
I would tell Smokey about it but you will probably have to send it to Queen to actually get any work or replacement completed.
Does your knife have a PH-D2 tang stamp?


Dave

It is a shame, other than that it is a real beauty.

For me, what I did with it would depend on how much I loved the knife. If I was all ga-ga over it and just couldn't stop looking at it, I'd probably contact Queen to see what they can do about it. That looks like a complete tear down and hand finish job to me. If the knife left me with a shrug of my shoulders and a bit of buyers remorse, I'd send it back to SMKW in a New York minute.

It would go back to somebody. That's theres unacceptable.

Yes, it has the PH-D2 stamp.

I had read somewhere that these stag #54 wharnies might be a parts build-off. But that shouldn't excuse the sloppy workmanship.

The tang surprised me so much that I wanted to believe it was deliberate, rather than an unforgivable piece of sloppiness.

And didn't anyone at SMKW notice it as they opened the blades for the Ebay photos?

knowtracks wrote:I a word YES! I would send it back without a doubt!!
Torched Stag and S&M tang stamp this knife is suppose to be the top of there line! That is not top of the line machine work.
I would tell Smokey about it but you will probably have to send it to Queen to actually get any work or replacement completed.
Does your knife have a PH-D2 tang stamp?


Dave

SMKW on eBay has a 14 day return policy. It's going back.

Also, not crazy about the extra fat stag grips. Not well balanced against the thin bolsters.

Colonel26 wrote:It would go back to somebody. That's theres unacceptable.

This disheartening to see from Queen. Really a shame that got out. That should go back for sure and get an apology from Queen.

The knife is back in the mail to SMKW for a refund. They apologized about the defects.

Hope they send it back to Queen.

That is a pretty whittler, even with the pudgy handle, but those ripples on the base of the main blade do not look right and it should open and close smoothly -not "crunchy/gritty" Sloppy blade bevels - It should go back that is for sure.

Always up to the owner, but I favor making the unsatisfactory knife go back to Queen directly - that way they get to honor their warranty and get the feedback. The distributor (SMKW or other) seems to add another layer of communication - I'd rather have a knife fixed than just disappear with a bit more money left in my wallet - I wanted the knife not the cash.

The fat handles were what decided it for me. Did not like them. I doubt that Queen would replace the handles for more even stag scales, so I returned the whittler to SMKW.

But I agree with you about sending it directly to Queen for the feedback. I don't know if SMKW will send it to Queen or simply blow it out on eBay or in their store.

Keystone wrote:That is a pretty whittler, even with the pudgy handle, but those ripples on the base of the main blade do not look right and it should open and close smoothly -not "crunchy/gritty" Sloppy blade bevels - It should go back that is for sure.

Always up to the owner, but I favor making the unsatisfactory knife go back to Queen directly - that way they get to honor their warranty and get the feedback. The distributor (SMKW or other) seems to add another layer of communication - I'd rather have a knife fixed than just disappear with a bit more money left in my wallet - I wanted the knife not the cash.

Keystone wrote:Always up to the owner, but I favor making the unsatisfactory knife go back to Queen directly - that way they get to honor their warranty and get the feedback. The distributor (SMKW or other) seems to add another layer of communication - I'd rather have a knife fixed than just disappear with a bit more money left in my wallet - I wanted the knife not the cash.

That would be a viable strategy if Queen consistently honored their warranty. Given the warranty department's apparent inconsistency, returning the knife to the dealer who sold it is probably a better solution.

Last summer I was at SMKW and they had a sale on some Queen knives. I bought 4 of them and didn't really pay a lot of attention to them at the time. They were supposed to be new knives and I bought them as such. When I got back to the cabin I took the time to look them over and found that two of them, one S&M English Jack and one Robeson Pocket Eze Muskrat were obviously defective. The English Jack was rusting and the muskrat had one blade that wouldn't have cut anything if you'd tried. The edge was dull and looked almost like it was serrated. The next day I took them back and traded them for two more without any hassle. One of the knives I swapped for was also defective. It was a abalone small doctors knife that had a hairline crack on one side that is really only visible with a magnifying glass. So, this was 3 of 6 newer Queen knives that were poor quality. I've not purchased any more newer Queen pieces since.

Who owns Queen now ?????????

gino wrote:Who owns Queen now ?????????

Daniels Family Cutlery Corp

http://www.titusvilleherald.com/article ... 675493.txt

yeah, I knew that

SMKW put it back on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SCHATT-MORGAN-U ... 1175235400

Unbelievable!

I'm not surprised

Of course they did. They'll keep selling it until someone keeps it.

jerryd6818 wrote:Of course they did. They'll keep selling it until someone keeps it.

I recently returned a Queen whittler to SMKW from one of their Ebay auctions - it had awful blade alignment and the shield pin was not trimmed and stuck into the knife.

Of course they relisted it.