All About Pocket Knives

I have this old Queen Steel single blade slim trapper number 12 and am wondering if they ever put horn on those for covers? The tang stamp appears to be 1949-58 but the queen above the steel is worn almost off. The handle on the right side has a crack where the spring pin goes through. It measures a hair over 4 inches closed. The covers have shrunk on both ends but that is not unusual for old horn material. Am I guessing right or not? thanks, Terry

terryl308 wrote:I have this old Queen Steel single blade slim trapper number 12 and am wondering if they ever put horn on those for covers? The tang stamp appears to be 1949-58 but the queen above the steel is worn almost off. The handle on the right side has a crack where the spring pin goes through. It measures a hair over 4 inches closed. The covers have shrunk on both ends but that is not unusual for old horn material. Am I guessing right or not? thanks, Terry

This isn't an area that familiar to me, so I'm certainly no expert, but I believe the handles to be synthetic. Perhaps imitation onyx?

The Historical catalogs on Queens website list a #12 slimline trapper as having simulated pearl handles in that time period. You can see it in the 1960 catalog page 16 here http://www.queencutlery.com/Historical_Catalogs.html

Bill

I am not an expert on Queen knives, but looking at the way that handle has shrunk, cracked and curled away from the liner, I would be pretty sure it is a celluloid of some sort.

Thanks for the replies, we'll go with syn. material, just thought it looked a lot like horn. And thanks Bill for the web page link, it was interesting, didn't know Queen made so many different models! Terry

+1 on the Celluloid.

I double clicked on the last pic of the knife and see where someone had rubbed off most of the tell-tale reddish discoloration of the bolster. Assuming the bolster is nickel silver, that would be a sure indicator of off gassing celluloid. I would keep the knife away from all my other knives and on an open shelf (out of the direct sunlight) to give it plenty of air so it does not damage my other knives or send other celluloid knives over the edge to off-gassing.

One little celluloid knife like that can cause a lot of damage and cost lots of $$ to repair!

thanks Dale, I will get it off by itself. Might even remove the covers and have some one recover it (hint hint) TERRY