Blade Forums Spring Street Barlow (BF Knife 2021)

GaiusJulius said:
Mine arrived on Thursday but I couldn’t remember my photo hosting password, and I wanted to bond with the knife a bit before posting my impressions.

Overall I love the design, and the bolster just looks great when the knife is sitting on a table or nightstand. Very elegant and eye catching.

I don’t really love the shallow sawcut though. I wish it was more deep and pronounced, or that we’d voted for smooth covers. Am I allowed to say that? I also don’t love the pronounced chatter marks on the beveled edge of mine. (3rd pic). Hard to tell if it was a slip at the factory or just the porosity of the bone. As I already put a scratch on the bolster accidentally, I guess that means I can clean it up with some sandpaper and polish, and this guy will be a …..USER 😀 Other than that, fit and finish are really top notch. Blade is centered, no play, backsprings flush at open and closed positions (slightly proud at half stop but that doesn’t matter to me) and the bolster transitions are well done.

In hand this is a big knife. But not gigantic. It’s a good size. It’s weighty enough in the pocket that I can feel it there, but not in a bad way (unlike the 2 blade 86s, which I find a bit too chunky to comfortably carry.) Also, I can’t remember if it’s been noted before, but the blade is quite pinchable, which is a nice bonus.

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I see perfection of purpose in it.
 
WValtakis said:
See! That's the problem...I was never able to score a harness jack so I never saw Charlie's instructions 😂 I really should have gotten the BF Harness Jack...things were kinda tight a few years back though🤦‍♂️
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I keep reading how the Spring Street Barlow is the best quality GEC knife that has ever been produced. Mine is certainly very nice but I start to question how many GEC’s folks have handlled when I read such pronouncements…the Washingtons are GEC’s gold standard IMHO.
 
Markeologist said:
I keep reading how the Spring Street Barlow is the best quality GEC knife that has ever been produced. Mine is certainly very nice but I start to question how many GEC’s folks have handlled when I read such pronouncements…the Washingtons are GEC’s gold standard IMHO.
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Markeologist said:
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I think it’s a luck of the draw thing. Some runs may have some feature nearly across the board that many people don’t like, such as lighter pulls. But for the most part I think most of their runs produce some of their best work to date. The punch on my Washington sat much lower in the frame than yours appears to which made it hard to open whereas my 2ab and blade forums are both smooth as silk but on my forum knife the pins were a little ragged so I spun them a little to clean them up.
 
Markeologist said:
I keep reading how the Spring Street Barlow is the best quality GEC knife that has ever been produced. Mine is certainly very nice but I start to question how many GEC’s folks have handlled when I read such pronouncements…the Washingtons are GEC’s gold standard IMHO.
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I haven’t really observed a change in GEC quality, having owned a few dozen + from 2011-present. (Which admittedly is not many compared to some.) They’re generally well made knives, with fairly regular goofs and oopsies that slip through, but never anything bad enough that it impairs function or practical action of the knife in any way. (Unlike some other brands where blade play, uneven grinds, and grossly uncentered/rubbing blades and big gaps in springs are pretty much normal). I’ve had a few that were nigh on perfect, a few that were perfect mechanically but had some annoying cosmetic defect like a splotch of color on one side of the bone that wasn’t present on the other, and a number that needed some minor mods to be great (or that I moved on… if they had sunken back springs for example.) I had to use a needle file to complete one of the flutes on my Washington.. the factory didn’t get it all the way across, for example.

That said…. If the BF Spring Street had Washington Jack covers, *that* would be perfection. The color saturation and uniformity on the WJ was on another level.


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Markeologist said:
I keep reading how the Spring Street Barlow is the best quality GEC knife that has ever been produced. Mine is certainly very nice but I start to question how many GEC’s folks have handlled when I read such pronouncements…the Washingtons are GEC’s gold standard IMHO.
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I Do Not have enough GECs to proclaim which one is the Best That GEC Has Ever Produced either . But I will say that these 86s are some very well made knives , and I agree that the Washingtons and Many more are too .

Harry
 
Johnnythefox said:
Absolutely brillian,so now who ever gets it has to change their name to Merle.
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It's actually a passaround knife, the idea (and sketch) of btb01 btb01 . When he proposed the idea to me I was absolutely tickled to provide the service😁

On the Road Again with Merle

Well, I didn’t expect to be starting this thread just yet, but the cat’s out of the bag, so here we go. 🙂 I’m sure you all remember Earl the Barlow (bit of a scoundrel, running from the fuzz in Yorkshire, joining up with pirates and whatnot) and Pearl (a bit more civilized, though she did enjoy...
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