I thought I'd dream up a special knife for someone to make and this is what I came up with. Everyone knows I love a Moose pattern but what if we combined two patterns into one? First we would make enlarged Canoe handles to 4 1/4 long and give them moose style blades. We could call it a Canoose...lol. It would come in three handle materials stag, wood and whatever else suits your fancy. What do ya'll think of this one?

owwww, I like that Robert "a Canoose"

like i said early that i will support both company,and hope to see y'all at the blade show this yr...tom

So we all know Stag is a favorite, for good reason.  It looks great, carries well and lasts.  What other handle materials catch your fancy and give you the same type of smile?

waterfall handle material...........woot woot

Worm groove chestnut bone.

One of the scales I happen to love is Rams Horn, be it smooth or with the natural ripples the color and wearing ability of this scales has always excited me.

Rams horn would be awesome, the dusk buffalo would be another great choice. I would like to see some strawberry red bone scales, maybe with some peachseed jigging. I love the look of Queen's old winter bottom bone, that would be awesome.

OK, I'd like to see Ebony make it to the big leagues. I want that Ebony to be black, black, black, as black as it gets, not brown with stripes of grain. Black. I want all of the woods we have seen to be turned up to eleven on a scale from one to ten. I don't want to see middling woods, I want to see stellar woods. If so much attention is paid to bone and antler I want to see that same attention paid to wood. Wood should not be thought of as "plain". And no "plain" wood should be used either. Wood should be able to grab you on an emotional level, the grain should sweep you away in reverie, it should be highly figured and have a story to tell, even if it is in the form of a Haiku. Wood, the most absolutely beautiful wood available, bar none and nothing less. Think Stradivarius...

Continued: I want to see the natural warmth and color in woods. I want to see both the weight and density of woods considered, some weigh like a feather and some like iron and I love both. Burlwoods, like smoking pipes. Flame and tiger stripe grain configurations like a Gibson electric guitar. Be picky, very picky, and pick only the best, that will say it all in just a few square inches of material. Something you would notice from a few feet away, if not a mile.

Johnny,

I agree that the dusk buffalo is an awesome scale material.  I am not a big ebony fan but that may be because finding the solid true blacks Luca spoke of are rare.  wood are wonderful I like them highly figured, the burls and the spalted

OK, so how does this sound.  A two backspring swell-center Moose (somewhere between 3 1/2 and 4 inches) with nickel-silver liners and shield with slanted lined bolsters, thick blade stock (maybe ATS), a spear and a clip blade with Long pulls and walrus tusk handles

and here is another thought...will the Daniels Family knives have their own shield?  Distinct to their knives????

Within the range of Moose and Moose type knives, loosely defined, the Bullwinkle J Moose is 3 1/2", the White Owl is 3 1/2", the Conductor is 3 3/8", the the real Moose is 4 1/8". I know, above I'm talking about the GEC product line and not the Tuna Valley product line to be. Given that there are already several knives in the 3 1/2 " range, I'd like to see Tuna Valley make their Moose at least 4" if not 4 1/8" long, as I personally prefer a bigger knife (I know I tend to repeat myself). As for it possibly being a swell center frame, I like that too, very old timey, though I also like the equal end cigar frame, so perhaps both could be made available? Personally I don't like the slanted and the pinched bolsters at all, preferring the straight lined or unlined bolsters for being more traditional, but that's just my opinion. A thick blade stock is always good in my book, long pulls make it even better, and swedge those blades and I'm a happy man.

looks to  me like we are talking to the absent Tuna valley family, think its the building of the new web site causing the delay in responses to all your comments???

I think GEC is coming out with a Tuna Valley knife soon, what's up with that?

Sue,

I know that Ryan has 2 jobs, a 4 year old, a pregnant wife.  Tackeling his own Website and bringing a new company up can't be easy with all that going on.  I usually hear from him every week or so...I am sure we will hear from him soon

Robert,

I have heard the same thing and think it is great.  That would be the best of both worlds wouldn't it

Yes mam, I sure would like to see the pattern they have decided to make. I'll bet it sells well and may be a rare collector, as the brand name changes.

Hey everyone sorry for not commenting that last few weeks. I have been working on the knives beleve it or not. Yes we should have are first knife out in the next 2-3 weeks (if there is no road bumps) It is as you all know the Lock Back Trapper with Amber India Stag with a production of 50 knives. The dealers that will selling them is myself, Greg Holmes at TSA Knives, & Ken Mundhenk Blue Creek Cutlery. There are only 50 I know I have some already spoke for so if you want to get one please go ahead and reserve yours. The knives will be coming in tubes with the Label above and come in a black velvet pouch and a certificate. The knives will have no blade etches or serial numbers . I have also been looking at everyones suggestions for patterns and I like them all some are ones we were already planinng to do but sorry to say none metioned below will be in the next few patterns which we already had working into motion. I am still working on the webpage should have it up in a few weeks I will be bringing more information as I get more info right here. Thanks again everyone for joining and sorry I haven't made this active enough but I will be growing every week. Thanks again

Here is the start of the first TVA

That Amber Elk looks as comforting as perfectly done toast at breakfast, only prettier. Making a wood man like myself think twice about antler materials, though I do have a sweet spot for black Buffalo horn. Love the flat bottom, can we see it fuly opened too? Please? Sweet.

glad to see a sample of the Tunavalley........Think i will wait on something that looks more like knife jewelry...giggles

Anything for you my friend

I have a question, is the spear blade on our GEC club knife the same as the spear blade on the Tuna Valley opening edition knife?

hey everyone just to let you know the Tuna Valley Cutlery amber stags are already sold out so I'm sorry if you didn't get on the list in time. If you check out with Ken Mundhenk at Blue Creek Cutlery or at Greg Holmes at TSA knives you might get lucky. Sorry once again.

Ryan, I dont mind losing out on this one, though it's a first. But keep that beautiful material, and those blades, coming. You should set up a shop in Brooklyn, I'm underemployed!

So I had an opportunity to put the scales on and let us have a look but I did not have an the chance yesterday to see how we felt about this unusual stag.  It is so wonderfully colored and gnarly that I love it!!

So what do you think?  I really like the Amber Stag

I cant wait to get a look at this knife completed!!

I heard that their already getting set for their second knife. The same blade but with burnt stag. That Tuna is one fast fish...lol

Hey Guys! I am so used to just going to GEC's group that I didn't even see that there was a new Daniels Family Knives group! And no one invited me to the party! I've been reading older posts. I like Johnny's idea of the fishing knife. I'm glad to hear that quality natural materials will be used for handles. I'd like to see some clip blades on those new runs of Daniels #72's. I am curious how the Daniels family will differentiate their knives from those of GEC in terms of design and materials but I am excited about this new chapter of high quality American made knives! I do love the amber stag - just wish it had a clip blade companion. I'd like to see more different materials used on the #72's like abalone, black lip pearl, spiral cut buffalo, primitive bone, musk ox and ivory. I know that they're not natural materials but I would also like to see the #72's handled in micarta and acrylics. I know that it might not be the #1 seller but I would like to see a scout/utility knife made. It wouldn't have to be a boy scout knife but more like the engineer's utility knives made during WWII by Camillus, Schrade, PAL and others. It could have traditional handles like red, brown or green tea bone, stag, elk, wood, etc. with old school jigging like peach seed or Rodger's. Others that I would like to see are a traditional whittler, a larger jack knife than the GEC barlow similar to the Case 6231 1/2, a swing guard, a copperhead and a gunstock. A lockback version of the #23 would be great too. I did like the four blade Tuna Valley stockman that Perry had made a few years back too. A traditional stockman would be great, bigger than the Calf Roper closer in size to the #54W (which I am a big fan of). Can't wait for the future to unfold for the Daniels Family and Tuna Valley!!!

Tom,

I apologize...I thought I had told the GEC group to check this out.  I will correct that immediatly.  The lockback version of the 23 has been on the wanted list for awhile, maybe we will see that come through.  Ryan has been off and on trying to keep us up on the happenings, cant wait to see whats next

Seeing as we know, from Ryan's recounting above, of his father Ken's predilection for the Sunfish pattern, and remembering the beautiful "Ken Daniels" cocobolo Sunfish that he made at GEC that came in the "Jack Daniels" like packaging, and now seeing that the first new Tuna Valley knife is a single bladed knife, I'd like to see these two design ideas united in a new single bladed Sunfish knife from Tuna Valley. Northwoods, a company GEC has worked with in the past, if I'm not mistaken, makes a similar knife called the Indian River Jack, but it's smaller and slimmer. Some of us love the Sunfish blade and some of us love single bladed knives where the hand feel is uninteruptedly smooth against the knife handle, without the secondary blade digging into the folds of our fingers, and these two loves could marry and produce a love child that would be the single bladed Sunfish. While I'm speaking of my dream knife I'll add that I also love the all steel versions, no brass no nickel silver, and would like to see that in the knife I propose here. Finally, I would rather see this knife handle kept pure and solid, without an ez-open cutout, again for the comfort and hand feel. So Daniels Family and Tuna Valley fans out there, what do you think?

Hey,

How many of us are thinking of attending the Blade Show this year?

Jan,

You might have, I might have been snoozing!

I finally have the website started. Its very fresh so please give some feedback on I can make it more interactive and informative. Thanks for all the ideas so far and everyone joining the group. The Burnt Stag Lock Back Trappers will be avaible in a few weeks so you might want to reserve yours there is only 50. Thanks

www.danielsfamilyknives.com

Ryan,

We would be pleased to have a link on there to us here.  I am sure there are more folks out there that would love to be chatting in here with us

Hey Jan, Thanks I forgot to put a links page. I defently will get one on there tommorow.

Ryan, make sure you correct the spelling of your dealers websites! Poor Ken Mundhenk is listed under "blurcreekcutlery" and of course that link takes you nowhere fast! 

Luca thanks for the help took care of it. 

Ryan

Hey Ryan, I tried to get to your web site but I couldn't get on. I'm no wizzard on the computer, so I'll just keep trying. This was just to let you know, maybe theres a glich.

www.danielsfamilyknives.com

Robert,

Is this the link your using?

Watch for some fun to show up soon (hints Hints)

Hey that works for me Miss Jan, I must have been doing something wrong. I'm not exactly a computer wizzard.

I applaude your endeavors and am always happy to support a family owned business producing American made products. Best of luck. 

All I can say is; ALL THE BEST!

And let me see what your up to when the times right.

I waited for a long time to be able to buy some of the first GEC knives, I sure want to be in line for the masters work again. Wish the Daniels Family much

luck in there future and now desires.

And thank you Bill Fletcher for reminding me About the Daniels Family give away.