All About Pocket Knives

Only Tuna Valley I own. 2010 47/100, GEC red bone.

I love that redbone on those knives. If you take it outside on a sunny day, it stands out like a firetruck. I wish they would release a pattern with jigged bone again, just every once in a while. This was the only knife in the entire Tuna Valley history to use bone.

Is the large 4 blade Cattle knife the only Tuna Valley made by GEC ? If is a very good looking knife and the jigging is a pattern new to me.
kj

No, all knives 2007-2010 were GEC made, and 1/2 of the ones in 2012 were GEC made. The other half were from Queen, and anything 2013 - present is from Queen. I wrote in my descriptions on the list thread which company made each.

Sorry about that. I should have referred to your excellent list. Does the switch from GEC to Queen in 2013 reflect the time that Ken Daniels spent with GEC before buying Queen ?
kj

Originally Perry Miller resurrected the name Tuna Valley in 2005 I believe, along with his friend/partner Dave Mullins. And then in 2007 he had GEC make some prototypes. At that time the Daniels were part owners of Great Eastern cutlery. After 2010 Perry sold the name to the Daniels family, with Mullins remaining part owner, and they planned to continue having knives produced by GEC, but ramp up production to more than just 1 pattern per year. But then in mid 2012 the Daniels had the opportunity to purchase Queen, and so the knives made from mid 2012 on were all produced by Queen out of their Schatt & Morgan custom shop.

Today, although Ken and Ryan Daniels do a lot of behind the scenes work, I believe that Ryan's wife, Courtney, is considered the President. And she chooses the patterns for each release, and signs all the CoA slips.

Thanks for this outline of T.V. recent history. I enjoy the history of knife companies as much as i do the knives.
kj

Great thread Rookie with many fine contributions. I am not a newer brand collector but these knives are fine!

Those 4 blade cigars were the last knives Perry Miller commissioned before he got sick.They came in red bone and stag and were never delivered to Perry and Daniels acquired the brand.Ryan sent many of them and had the bolsters "hammered".I had a pair of each at one time.They were very nice knives.

I've been looking for one of the stag ones with the Oiseau bolster engraving for a long time. I've never even seen one in person, and have never heard of one coming up for sale anywhere. Whoever owns those (there are only 15) probably have no intention of selling them. I've got my feelers out trying to locate one.

And look at that! Finally found one of the knives I've been looking for. The 2012 cigar with the engraved bolsters. The knife is really nice. The stag coloring isn't visually matching, but I'm OK with that. I can only look at 1 side at a time anyways!

Couple new shots from the recent thaw between snowstorms.

I just ran up on this post for the 1st time and all I can say is
"wow" Rookie,,you really put on a show of gorgeous knives that
was really fun to look at !!!
The Stag on several knives is just exceptional !!! Good show !!!
I really did not know much about TV knives till reading yours and KJ's posts...

Stag
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/stagman

stagman i have a Tuna Valley EO Jack with very fine mammoth handles listed in the "For Sale" forum. If you would like to own a Tuna Valley knife it is an opportunity to save $100 (or more) on the price.
kj

I picked up this Fish Scaler right here at AAPK from plumbob and it's a real peach. some of the prettiest, most well matched stag scales I've ever seen. walks and talks like my wife at the mall and both are built like a Mack Truck!

*edit: Rookie, absolutely wonderful job you've done here with the pics and the info! thx!!
KJ, if that Mammoth EO Jack is still around when I've got a couple extra bucks burnin a hole I'll be happy to give it a good home because buddy, that is a real sweety right there!! wow!

stagman wrote:I just ran up on this post for the 1st time and all I can say is
"wow" Rookie,,you really put on a show of gorgeous knives that
was really fun to look at !!!
The Stag on several knives is just exceptional !!! Good show !!!
I really did not know much about TV knives till reading yours and KJ's posts...

Thanks Stagman. Yes, the stag is usually out-of-this-world on the Tuna knives. Part of the reason I like them so much.

KJ, I love the handles on that knife you have for sale!

Cletus, that is a fine looking stag fish scaler. I've bought a few different knives from Plumbob at knife shows during the last few years. And boy he has another dozen or so that I wish I had! He has the largest Tuna Valley collection (inventory) of anyone that I am aware of.

Some new Tuna knives for me. First is the 2012 lockback with clip blade in amber stag (made by GEC). The 2nd is the newly released 2018 humpback whittler in mammoth ivory. This run was some of the last knives to come out of the Queen factory before they stopped production.

Whoa, i sure like the 2012 Lockback 1
kj

I got some nice photos today of some Tuna knives.
2009 burnt stag trapper
2014 amber stag gunstock
2015 amber stag railsplitter
2018 ivory humpback whittler

WOW ! times 4 !
Queen is Tops for the best of handle materials.
I think the Tuna Valley knives might one day be seen as the best Queen made knives of the last 75 years and thus become even more collectible.
kj

I agree, the handle material is top grade. As good on some pieces as to what custom knife makers use.

Few more new shots of knives that have already been shown.
2012 lockback, spear point, burnt stag, engraved bolster
2012 cotton king, ebony wood
2014 gunstock, burnt stag

Very impressive knives. I especially like the Gunstock with the dramatic saber ground clip blade and absolutely The Best Stag handles i have seen for ages.
Do you know if the Tuna Valley knives will live on despite the loss of Queen ? Except for a small custom shop, GEC is the only manufacturer that can make this quality of traditional folding knives. I have read that GEC is already fully booked for SFO's and is not looking for any more contracts.
kj

The Tuna Valley name was not part of the Queen Cutlery umbrella. It is separately and privately owned, and the Daniels had worked a deal with the owner to use the name for their high end line of knives from 2012-2018. Rumors I've heard is that the knives may make another comeback in the future, but I'm not sure which company would be making them. I imagine there won't be anything new released from Tuna Valley for the rest of this year, and perhaps longer.

Sounds like there will be a hiatus before any more Tuna Valley knives get made. First a manufacturer will need to be found. There are a few small cutlery shops like "Rock USA" started by Wallace Rockwell from Camillus, so there is hope for high end knives.
kj

Here are a few new Tuna knives I can show off. The burl wood knives are the final Tuna knives made from the Queen umbrella.

2013 tadpole, amber stag
2018 carpenter whittler, burl wood with copper bolsters
2018 carpenter whittler, burl wood with nickel bolsters