Queen Cutlery out of business

The Queen Cutlery Company manufactured knives in Titusville Pennsylvania for 96 years. The company opened its only factory there in 1919 and commenced to make some of the best US crafted cutlery you will find. Unfortunately, the Titusville manufacturing plant closed down in 2018.
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knifetime
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Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by knifetime »

Is there any information about the closing of Queen?
-"...and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby If the iron be blunt,and he do not whet the edge,then must he put to more strength....Ecclesiastes 10 10 ;So the good book says
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knifetime
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by knifetime »

This was all I was able to find.

"Kenneth Daniels CEO and President of Queen Cutlery has announced effective January 10, 2018, that due to issues with cash flow, Queen Cutlery Company has been forced to cease all production and close it's Titusville Pennsylvania facility, and furlough it's employees while it goes through a period of reorganization"
-"...and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby If the iron be blunt,and he do not whet the edge,then must he put to more strength....Ecclesiastes 10 10 ;So the good book says
sharpen your knife !!!
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Railsplitter
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by Railsplitter »

That's all I could find with any recent dates. Looks like they are done. I don't know that much about it but I've been told that Chapter 7 means it's the end of the road.

EDIT: I decided to remove the link out of respect for the Daniels Family. Probably shouldn't have posted it in the first place.
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by TwoFlowersLuggage »

Yes, Chapter 7 means liquidation. All assets are sold to pay as much as possible to the creditors. Chapter 11 means reorganization, where a plan is created to allow you to continue doing business to hopefully eventually get back to profitability.

According to the link Railsplitter posted, they have less than $100K in assets and greater than $1M in liabilities. That means A LOT of their creditors are going to get screwed.

What a shame.

Edit: Looked a little closer at the info on that link: That looks like the petition by Daniels to be granted Chapter 7. The court could deny that petition and force them to first file Chapter 11 - making them try to give it a go. Given that low amount of assets and high debt, I doubt the court will do that. IANAL.

Also, I was a bit confusing above - Chapter 13 is usually for individuals. Chapter 11 is usually used by corporations. I corrected that.
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by kootenay joe »

Queen did contract work & SFO's. With Queen no longer making knives, a lot of pressure will be put on GEC to do more SFO's.
I see this as a threat to GEC knives as they now are, which is well made, well finished with a very low incidence of 'issues'. I doubt the current high standards could be maintained if number of knives made per month goes way up.
There is room for another maker of high quality traditional style folders. I think they could do well with SFO's alone.
Maybe Canal Street Cutlery can be resurrected ?
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by zzyzzogeton »

Who would be putting "pressure" on GEC to do SFOs? If GEC chooses not to do SFOs then no one external to the company can "pressure" them do anything they don't want to do.
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by kootenay joe »

"Who would be putting "pressure" on GEC to do SFOs"
Every club, business, etc. that want 50 or 100 or so knives made for them. Some may be friends or previous customers, which would be hard to turn down.
I bet GEC finds it difficult to turn down any work, but they have done so and will be confronted with many more requests.
I think it comes down to:make more knives and more money, or keep production levels steady and consistently make high quality, issue free, knives.
kj
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by TwoFlowersLuggage »

I think it is pretty simple - if Queen isn't making the SFO knives, and GEC isn't making the SFO knives, then the customers for those SFO knives will go elsewhere - probably Case or Buck (if they need made in the USA) or offshore.
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by Mumbleypeg »

Given the geographical proximity of Queen to GEC I'd think if GEC wanted, and has the resources to do so, they could acquire assets from Queen's bankruptcy (at pennies on the dollar) to expand production. Equipment and tooling, raw materials, and perhaps even plant facilities might be available from Queen.

Queen obviously had some talented experienced cutlers who could move over to GEC without the expense of relocation. If done correctly expansion does not mean reduction in quality. GEC may not want to expand, or have the financial resources to do so. Queen equipment and tooling may be worn out. There are reasons it wouldn't make sense but I have to think GEC is at least exploring it.

It will take some time for the bankruptcy proceedings to play out so we may not know the outcome for some time.

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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by TwoFlowersLuggage »

I'm sure this is common knowledge to most of you, but I didn't realize that the Daniels family had only purchased Queen in 2012. The article I read said that they were making significant investments into tooling right after purchasing. Clearly, something in the plan went sideways on them. Six years is not all that long a time to try to get a return on big capital investments in tooling.

Bill Howard left STV/Queen to start GEC in 2006. STV sold Queen to Daniels in 2012. Queen-DFC closes in 2018. Wild times!
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by brucegodlesky »

In recent years , Queen did not even have a Master Cutler.
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by kootenay joe »

I had read that the machine tools Queen was using were the originals from 100+ years ago. Did the Daniels actually purchase and install new equipment ? Or is the old original equipment still there, having been in use until a few weeks ago ?
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by TwoFlowersLuggage »

Well, this is the article I read from the Titusville Herald:
http://www.titusvilleherald.com/news/ar ... dcd2c.html

It talks about an article from September 22, 2012 (that I could not find) that says:
Another story, published Sept. 22, 2014, in The Herald, reported that Queen Cutlery was poised to hire on new employees following the purchase and ongoing installation of new quality control equipment.

The story reported that Daniels announced a recent major production equipment investment.

The Herald story went on to report that Daniels indicated that the equipment was received and that installation was ongoing.

“The equipment was purchased to streamline the production process, but more importantly, to eliminate the issue of back orders,” said Daniels at the time.

He added that the new equipment will make quality control much easier, more reliable and a less time-consuming task to properly manage.

According to The Herald story, Queen Cutlery was anticipating that the new production addition would likely produce six to eight additional jobs by as early as Jan. 1, 2015.
There is a youtube video of the Queen factory from May 2017 that gives a lot of footage of the factory. You can certainly see a lot of very old tooling, but it's hard to tell if there is also newer tooling in there as well. The video might also have focused on the vintage tooling on purpose because it is a video intended to show the long history of Queen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC4CJyhnTBo

So, it seems to me that either the 2012 article was incorrect or the Daniels Family didn't actually do what they said they did or they did have some newer tooling or they put in the newer tooling then later removed it. Those are the only 4 options I can think of that fit the evidence.
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by kootenay joe »

HMM, well, whatever happened it seems Queen was unable to survive. Too bad. Queen made a lot of good knives for over a century.
kj
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by bdev »

I just got back from the Easton PA knife show. I was at a table looking at some knives. Ryan Daniels was talking to the vendor and said that they were finished and had no plans to continue. It seems Queen is done. :(
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by bone collector »

I notice there are a lot of gold and bronze tier supporting members, will some one enlighten me on what a supporting member is.
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by Mumbleypeg »

bone collector wrote:I notice there are a lot of gold and bronze tier supporting members, will some one enlighten me on what a supporting member is.
These are voluntary contributions used to support costs of running the AAPK site. No one is required to buy a membership to view and post on AAPK.

However if you want to post items for sale here, you must buy a membership. There are other perks from having a membership, and they vary according to the level of membership. . You can find more info here: https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/ca ... scriptions

AAPK has no paid employees. It is entirely run by volunteers, but there are expenses involved in computer hardware and software. Many supporting members enjoy the site and want to help keep it going so we are spending a few bucks annually for a membership. Some of the supporting members rarely if ever post anything, but apparently having AAPK available for research is worth it because they have paid for a membership.

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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by bone collector »

Thank you mumblypeg. you shed some light for someone feelin' his way around. By the way, my wife claims she was pretty good at mumbly peg as a girl.
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by Old Folder »

Here is the latest update on Queen Cutlery, posted in the May 2018 issue of "Knife Magazine"
Still hoping for a miracle. (It could happen) ::tear::
IMG_0013.JPG
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by TwoFlowersLuggage »

Yikes, that sounds like a nasty situation. Fraud & embezzlement is a horrible way for a 95 year-old company to end. Jeez, where were the auditors in all of this??
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by treefarmer »

A few years back, I remember being pleased to read about the new ownership of Queen and hoping they would be able to pull the wagon up the hill. Wonder if this will mean another door will open and China Queens will be like China Schrades? Someone will probably end up with the rights to the name, the ever changing world of pocket knives. ::hmm::
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by Quick Steel »

Sad. Very sad. :(
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by TwoFlowersLuggage »

I said this in another thread, but it really belongs here. It appears the "parent corporation" of GEC is actually the "Howard Daniels Corporation", which operates as "Great Eastern Cutlery".
http://www.buzzfile.com/business/Great- ... 4-827-3411

Which, of course, begs the question of the Daniels family relationship to GEC. Are they investors? That would be my bet. Does William Howard have any plans to get involved in the Queen situation? Wouldn't it be interesting if GEC ends-up with much of the assets & IP of Queen, thereby allowing Daniels to discharge all the debt from Queen while still (at least indirectly) owning the Queen brand?

My spidey sense is tingling...
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by kootenay joe »

This is a bit confusing:
does Bill Howard own GEC ?
and Howard & Courtney Daniels own Queen ?
My hope is that Mr. Howard focus 100% GEC and not have anything to do with Queen. Associating with Queen would drain GEC of their money and mojo needed to keep making only top notch knives.
kj
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Re: Queen Cutlery out of business

Post by TwoFlowersLuggage »

"Own" is always a bit confusing when you are taking about a corporation. A "holding company" owns assets, including other companies, but may not actually have anything to do with the day-to-operations of the assets it owns. An "operating company" runs the day-to-day operations of a company. Nearly all the revenue and expenses are generated by the operating company and the employees probably work for the operating company. Legally, the holding company and the operating company can be two different entities. The holding company may own all of the shares of the operating company, so legally, the operating company would be "owned" by the holding company. The holding company is "owned" by whoever owns shares in the holding company.

Bill Howard is the president of the the Howard Daniels Corporation, which is the holding company of the Great Eastern Cutlery company. This means he runs the company. Who "owns" the company is a different question.

Clear as mud? :lol:
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