All About Pocket Knives

Ken Daniels CEO and President of Queen Cutlery has announced effective Jan 10 2018 that due to issues with cash flow, Queen Cutlery has been forced to cease all production and close it's Titusville Pa. facility and furlough it's employees while it goes through a period of reorganization

Just saw that on Facebook. Going the same way it went with Canal Street Cutlery.

It's too bad.

Wow! Wow!

Ray

So who's left? Case & GEC? Is that it?

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Mike

I really hate news like this.

XX Case XX wrote:So who's left? Case & GEC? Is that it?

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Mike

Utica, and Bear MGC

Ken

Thanks Ken. I forgot about them.

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Mike

That is a shame. From the number of Queen knives I see advertised I kind of thought that Queen was doing all right.

Wow! As many new knives as they have been turning out, I'd of thought they were doing good.Sad news to hear.

Still got Buck too.

There is a lot of behind the scenes information regarding this. Sadly, they have been hurting since before the Daniels took over. I am optimistic that reorganizing, trimming the fat, changing over management, etc. will help them come back stronger and produce a better product than they have in 20+ years.

Rookie wrote:There is a lot of behind the scenes information regarding this. Sadly, they have been hurting since before the Daniels took over. I am optimistic that reorganizing, trimming the fat, changing over management, etc. will help them come back stronger and produce a better product than they have in 20+ years.

I suppose there is hope. After all, many of us have been saying for several years now that they need to buckle up and do whatever it takes to save the company. Maybe this is what it takes.

Let's cross our fingers and hope Ken is able to right the ship.

So sad. Hopefully they can restructure and start up again.

Hopefully they can figure it out they are a fine old brand my favorite . Fellers there a lot of knives being made in the USA according to our friend Google, most I've never seen in the flesh, some I would never knew existed if not for the internet.
Just about all way out of my pay grade.

Does this affect Tuna Valley as well?

It could effect the Tuna line. But that line is not a Queen Cutlery owned brand, but rather a Ken Daniels owned brand. If he chooses, he can have the knives made by any manufacturer that is willing. My bet is that Queen gets back on track in 3-6 months, and the Tuna Valley knives will still be made by Queen.

I hate to be the conspiracy theorist, but could they be shifting production offshore? Or, is it truly a situation where they do not have the demand to support the capacity of that factory?

Does this affect Schatt & Morgan?

tongueriver wrote:Does this affect Schatt & Morgan?

Yes. Schatt & Morgan is Queen.

Yes, this will affect the S&M line also.

I doubt they would be interested in keeping the name going just to start selling foreign made knives. I feel like Queen still had enough demand to justify operating the factory in Pennsylvania.

I don't know the first thing about running a business, but I wonder if they could go offshore for a line of knives to help with the cash flow. it seems to be working for Buck, Kershaw, Gerber and others.

Okay so I have a question about Queen/Schatt & Morgan knives. Has this ever happened in the past for this company or is this the first time this has happened to them? I know some companies in the motorcycle industry that have closed their doors only to re-open again some years later under the exact same name. I'm wondering if this is a first for this brand?

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Mike

This is a disappointing development. I had hoped the Daniels family would put Queen on the straight and narrow and I chalked up some of the often-discussed QC issues to a focus on the business end of things, but in the end (and as GEC is proving) the quality of the product should -- and does -- determine the manufacturer's fate.

Best to the Daniels family and hopes that Queen comes back stronger (and better-built) than ever. I only hope they don't try to turn into a "boutique" cutler and issue their mainline offerings at Northfield-level price points.

XX Case XX wrote:Okay so I have a question about Queen/Schatt & Morgan knives. Has this ever happened in the past for this company or is this the first time this has happened to them? I know some companies in the motorcycle industry that have closed their doors only to re-open again some years later under the exact same name. I'm wondering if this is a first for this brand?

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Mike

There was a rumor in about 1985 that Queen was closing up shop - the way it was presented to me (by someone who would know) was that they were actually in the process of finishing up a few orders of club knives then closing up. At that time, Queen was still owned by Servotronics. Servotronics IIRC was/is a very small company themselves. The early 80's recession was very hard on knife companies.

Of course they did not close, and in fact went on to produce some exceptional knives, including the Winchesters, Case Classics, Schatt & Morgan reproductions, etc.

My guess is that the big problem for companies like Queen and GEC, is that there really is no "training ground" for the skilled labor required for their old-school manufacturing processes. Young people can learn how to set up and operate a CNC machine at a trade school, but where do you learn how to pin together and haft a traditional pocketknife? Given that the old-school traditional knife industry is so tiny, it must be very difficult to attract young talent to maintain and expand the labor force. There is just no critical mass there.