What is your opinion of Tuna Valley?

C

CujiWuji

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I noticed they are also coming out with a barlow soon and with them having a slightly higher price I was wondering what people thought of the quality? Also, who is making them these days? I believe GEC made some early on and then Queen later, but who is putting out the current Tuna Valley knives? Curious on all of your opinions!
 
I can only speak to a single experience, but it wasn't a good one. I purchased a Phoenix Jack in Green Maple Burl. It was much heavier and "clunkier" than I expected from the picture, and the fit/finish was not good. I immediately returned it. Not sure who made it but it definitely was not even close to GEC quality.
 
To the best of my knowledge, Ryan and Courtney Daniels currently own the Tuna Valley brand. They are also producing knives under the Excelsior and Napanoch brands. The latter mentioned brands are made by custom knife maker Chuck Hawes. I don't know if Chuck also makes the Tuna Valley knives or not.
 
Railsplitter said:
To the best of my knowledge, Ryan and Courtney Daniels currently own the Tuna Valley brand. They are also producing knives under the Excelsior and Napanoch brands. The latter mentioned brands are made by custom knife maker Chuck Hawes. I don't know if Chuck also makes the Tuna Valley knives or not.
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Thanks for the info, i had heard they had a customer maker working on Excelsior so its cool to know the name, still curious on the TV knives though. 🧐
 
Dave Dallam said:
I can only speak to a single experience, but it wasn't a good one. I purchased a Phoenix Jack in Green Maple Burl. It was much heavier and "clunkier" than I expected from the picture, and the fit/finish was not good. I immediately returned it. Not sure who made it but it definitely was not even close to GEC quality.
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Well that's super surprising to hear, i would have thought their F&F would be pretty solid considering the price point and overall look of them.
 
they did have some cool knives once, It had all these watch parts in it, and was a single blade with an end cap. But it came with an EO cut which ruined the knife for me. Otherwise Id have bought it as it combined two of my favorite hobbies, knives and watches. I think once upon a time GEC made them at least when they were listed on that dealer's site. However I can not seem to find the exact list of affiliated dealers atm so I wont say who it was.
 
Don't have one. No experiance with the brand, and likely won't as they are out of my price range.

From what others have said about their's here on BF, I'd guess they are good quality. Of course most, if not all, I've seen on here concerns their fixed blades.
 
I looked at pics of some of them, and they looked very nice in the pictures... the price was a little off-putting for me. Never say "never", but at this point, they are not really on my radar for purchase.. I can buy GEC's at flipper prices on the 'bay, and know exactly what to expect with them....
 
hornetguy said:
I looked at pics of some of them, and they looked very nice in the pictures... the price was a little off-putting for me. Never say "never", but at this point, they are not really on my radar for purchase.. I can buy GEC's at flipper prices on the 'bay, and know exactly what to expect with them....
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Yeah that's kinda what i was wondering about, whether quality is in line with price on those, because like you said, you know exactly what youre going to get when it comes to GEC.
 
I like the look and quality of them overall, but some I have seen have weird hafting of the cover materials. They'll be really thick and then taper down aggressively at the bolsters. It looks cheesy (to me anyways) IMO. I don't think they do that on all of them, but a handful I have seen were like that. I have been tempted to buy a few of them, until seeing that, kinda turned me off of the brand (at that price point).
 
I had one the whittlers at one point, I think it was a Queen made version. Nice knife overall, but the grinds were too thick for my liking.
 
glennbad said:
I like the look and quality of them overall, but some I have seen have weird hafting of the cover materials. They'll be really thick and then taper down aggressively at the bolsters. It looks cheesy (to me anyways) IMO. I don't think they do that on all of them, but a handful I have seen were like that. I have been tempted to buy a few of them, until seeing that, kinda turned me off of the brand (at that price point).
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I have noticed that a lot with their stag. I like fitted stag that is fairly uniform in thickness. The company seems to like very chunky stag that tapers towards the bolster.

Here is a production photo of what they are calling the Old Man Norman barlow. I do like the stamped bolster, but the frame seems a bit wide to me. Is the stamped arrow bolster a carryover from a barlow of the past?38E676D3-A5F7-453B-A38F-D81FC452423D.jpeg
 
I think Rookie82 Rookie82 has some GREAT LOOKING Tunas . I do not know the vintage of his though .
I received this as a gift from my Son in 2015 . I could find Nothing Wrong with it when I received it nor since . But in 2017 I tried to Hand Pick a Queen made knife but not a Tuna , and all I saw was some Junk that I would not buy .
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My recommendation would be to Check them out in person if you can because they make some nice looking Patterns and I certainly would listen to what Rookie82 Rookie82 has to say about them . I hope he shows a bunch of his too .


Harry
 
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