Hmmm. Having had past dealings with Queen, my original suggestion to the folks seeking an SFO from Queen was to try to do so through Mr. Risner. My thought was that being a Queen retailer, he'd know how to go about it (or at least who to contact and how to contact them). I've not heard why this wasn't done--or perhaps they were following Mr. Risner's suggestions. I simply don't know.Keystone wrote:This latter discussion seems important enough to me that it should be its own thread --beyond an add-on to Clarence Risner business,
I have no inside connection with Queen Cutlery, just buy their knives when I see a nice one from my perspective. I am struck by disclosure during the recent acquisition about how small the company is - 24 employees. I am sure they are paddling as hard as they can to keep producing knives, set up new special production, while learning about a business that is famous for casual record keeping. I say patience is desirable right now - Certainly keeping expectations high, raising expectations, but patiently.
They have greatly improved the company website - under servotronic it was essentially empty and took you to Ontario offices. They have added contacts for all key administrators, and more images of knives. I complained to Ryan Daniels that some of the images (Queen ACSB) were too small for my vision.. I got no response, but they did increase most of the images shortly thereafter. They have added a much mproved list of distributors.
http://www.queencutlery.com/
They are clearly working on some new, high quality knives - "New Dawn", new "Classics." I especially like some of the treatments of the Mountain man they are showing on their site. I hear lots about customer service and my own priority is sharper knives from the factory (put some work into these nice D2 blades), but I strongly feel things are headed in the right direction and current management is more committed to quality than prior management.
I say "Good luck, Queen"
The folks seeking to arrange the SFO were trying to be Queen customers: not on the onesy-twosy scale of most folks, but on the order of 400-500 knives. They received no response to their queries before the sale, and none after. That doesn't seem to be much of a change. Are you seriously suggesting they should be "patient?"
