Queen Cutlery Company Closes

As far as natural materials, what could be grander than some of the wood covers on the Trestle Pine knives? Taken from recovered logs, sunk for 100+ years? You just can’t find wood of the same quality and age anymore.
Thanks, Neal
 
scrteened porch said:
I won't share my customer service story. I will see about getting somebody to replace the broken springs on my only new-boughten Queen. It's a beautiful knife, except for the self-breaking springs.

Queen had problems, but I think the main problem, as mentioned above, is that nobody carries a knife anymore. How long can Case last? I can't see GEC outliving us eccentric codgers by much. Buck and Utica may last longer because they have offshore producers and modern designs.

I wonder what Rough Riders will cost when all our domestic cutlers are gone.
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field of dreams, man, if you build it. im hoping for a canal street like scenario but with a successful run. Knowledgeable folk put up the capital together and pull it out of its slump.
 
I was just remembering that Queen had recently started venturing into their "traditional" automatic knives. They did not appeal to me for two reasons... Their high price, and more importantly, their difficulty in ownership due to their legality (at least in states like my own).
Anyhow, it seemed that Queen was really putting major focus on these. But, I wonder if they became more of a problem in the end for the cost of the project's undertaking. Just another hmmm type of thing. I do believe that these "automatic" Queen knives will become pretty desirable as time goes on (as collectable items)... And if Queen does not survive, they will almost become prohibitively expensive, imo.
 
Here's what I'd like to add to this. I've had the pleasure of meeting Ken Daniels, and Courtney Daniels, on a couple of occasions. They were both extremely willing to take their time to spend with me. I bought knives from them, on both occasions, but certainly didn't feel pressured to. They also gave my two young sons free knives both times. Another thing that I'd like to add is that a few months ago I contacted a handful of cutlery companies regarding a possible donation to a charitable organization that my sons are very actively involved in. Queen was the first, of only two, to step up and generously donate a couple of knives to use as prizes for our event. Now I find out that they did this even in a difficult time for them financially. I have a few, maybe 10-12, Queen made knives. They may not all be perfect, but they are all definitely within the standards of what I'll accept in a factory made knife. I'm very proud of the ones I own. I wish the Daniel's family, and all of their employees, nothing but the best regardless of which road they take. -Lance
 
The Fort said:
Here's what I'd like to add to this. I've had the pleasure of meeting Ken Daniels, and Courtney Daniels, on a couple of occasions. They were both extremely willing to take their time to spend with me. I bought knives from them, on both occasions, but certainly didn't feel pressured to. They also gave my two young sons free knives both times. Another thing that I'd like to add is that a few months ago I contacted a handful of cutlery companies regarding a possible donation to a charitable organization that my sons are very actively involved in. Queen was the first, of only two, to step up and generously donate a couple of knives to use as prizes for our event. Now I find out that they did this even in a difficult time for them financially. I have a few, maybe 10-12, Queen made knives. They may not all be perfect, but they are all definitely within the standards of what I'll accept in a factory made knife. I'm very proud of the ones I own. I wish the Daniel's family, and all of their employees, nothing but the best regardless of which road they take. -Lance
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Thank you for sharing that, Lance. My wife and I don't have any kids and I forgot all about the Kiddo Project that the Daniels family started up. Very nice of them to do that for the kids and I see it as a reflection of how Ken feels about the future of traditional knives.
 
I had been coveting a Tuna Valley Whittler for a little while and when I saw this thread pop up I decided I'd better pull the trigger while I still had a chance. It arrived today. I'd say it reasonably good, but not exceptional. One of the better Queen knives I've seen, but still not up to other brands you'd find at the same price point. The bummer is, it's pretty dull. Once I fix that, it should become a great user but really, that's kind of poor QC for the money. I'm just a dude, but wouldn't you suppose that a knife should cut paper with a factory edge?
 
Will Power said:
Greg's outline is very telling though. When he says e-mails & texts unanswered since early Oct, repair/replacement knives sent back 'delivery refused' he was an important customer with his Trestle Pine venture. If he received this treatment, it speaks volumes for what those at the top were up to in this company, how would an individual consumer fare? Looks to me that IF Queen C can be turned around, it needs different people with a very different mindset at the helm....
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A couple week before Xmas. I sent pics to Julie. She said my mountain man D2 eligible for warranty repairment. Then i straight away sent it.

I hope that they finally able to make their best decision for the company.
 
joeradza said:
This statement tells me all I need to know why the company has failed. Anytime the owner refuses to take responsibility and blames his employees is indicative of the poorest type of management which is doomed from the start. No financial entrepreneurs will help bail out a company that has that attitude. Stick a fork in them, they're done.
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I have to agree. The problem is not the workers, it is always management and management's ability or lack of ability to plan, manage, organize. It takes careful analysis and an intelligent production/process flow in any factory to produce consistent good product. If management is pushing QC on employees, to fix problems created by a confused product flow, old machinery, etc, management is driving a brand to extinction, and clueless of the reasons why.

I have been buying Queen knives for a while, both Queen and Schatt & Morgan. I have been happy with all of my Queen and S&M knives, current ones included in that statement. I liked the D2 used on the blades, preferred it to the 420 stainless, the fit and finish on all of them was excellent, so I did not experience the QC problems others have reported. I did notice that some of the knife patterns were made in very low quantity, less than 200, less than 100, and wondered how anyone could make money on such low production runs. I don't know if sticking to traditional patterns was a good business decision, it is hard to compete with cheap overseas versions of the things.

I know Queen made knives for Kabar, I have a Kabar Coke bottle that is a Queen knife, and they made knives for the Northwood brand. I am certain they subcontracted for others.

It is not a good day when another American knife maker closes down, regardless of whether you feel they deserved it or not.
 
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There's been some speculation in this thread about the relationship between age and knife style preferences. Here's a link to a thread about ages of folks on The Porch. Not scientific at all, just voluntary response data, and I suspect that many of the respondents are no longer active on The Porch (and that there are quite a few people here now who weren't here then). But post 273 has a graph displaying the data up to that point. I remember being quite surprised at the time at how many relatively young folks were hanging out here at the time.
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/age-group.1295867/page-14

- GT
 
naturalist said:
A couple week before Xmas. I sent pics to Julie. She said my mountain man D2 eligible for warranty repairment. Then i straight away sent it.

I hope that they finally able to make their best decision for the company.
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I sent a gorgeous sow belly trapper mid November to Queen for repair. Both blades had a lot of wobble. I emailed Julie with my concerns, she said send 'er in for repair.
A week or two later I got a letter in the mail saying they had recieved the knife and fit in repairs between production schedules, so it takes typically 10-12 weeks. That is fine by me, I'm patient.
I emailed her this morning (sat.) asking politely if they are still repairing what they have, or can I just have it shipped back? Its the weekend so I dont expect an immediate answer. Im sure they are all swamped with ?'s.
 
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bucksforus said:
I can't help but think about Ken Daniels undermining Canal Street by offering their employees more money to come to Queen. If that had not happened Canal Street might still be in business.
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So you are all for people working for low wages just to keep a business you like open? Those workers had every right to go where they would be paid the most and the employer is to be praised for being able to do that.
 
Sidehill Gouger said:
So you are all for people working for low wages just to keep a business you like open? Those workers had every right to go where they would be paid the most and the employer is to be praised for being able to do that.
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There's a big difference between what you have written and enticing workers away. If that is indeed what happened. Not that it isn't rather standard industry practice but trying to kill competition this way is rather underhand. Again, if this is indeed what happened.

In any case I don't see the particular sympathy for the Daniels. Especially after years hearing the mantra that they were turning things round after being burnt myself 3 times. I've run two successful businesses myself. It does not take years to institute QC practices as a concept or refine the way things are put together and fitted in the shop. Changes of practice, retraining and management hands on is what is necessary. Especially as the entire time it was the consumer who was paying for the outcome of these delays. It isn't as if they didn't have a benchmark in GEC who did not take the years to learn to do it properly (or fail ultimately) despite the owner having been a Queen employee and also using old and worn equipment.
 
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Babalu32 said:
I sent a gorgeous sow belly trapper mid November to Queen for repair. Both blades had a lot of wobble. I emailed Julie with my concerns, she said send 'er in for repair.
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It was this very model that kept me from being enthusiastic about purchasing Queen knives. It was a 2009 Sowbelly Trapper. Beautiful knife, but the main blade had a bit of wobble and the blade play on the big spey was just ridiculous. You could hold it sideways and twitch it and it would look like a diving board. This knife should have never made it out the factory door.

I guess I could have sent it in for repairs, but instead I just sold it for much less than I paid.
 
Yeah, the brown jigged bone, shield, satin blades, it had it all. Looks alone made me take a chance.
Fondled it for 10 minutes then sought out repair info. Really want to like it, if it comes back tightened up it will be quite a knife.
 
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