Case vs GEC

Love both but my vote goes to Great Eastern for consistent QC and top-notch fit & finish. Even so, Case does some of the best jigged bone in the business, imo.

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GEC made:cool:

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Case born :D

-Brett
 
I'm fairly new to GEC as I only own one.. Had some issues with it and had to send it back.
They fixed it up and it's a great knife.
Have a few cases and have owned them on and off throughout my life. Have yet to get a bad one.
If I were comparing the GEC I received after the repair to my case knives I'd say it wins out slightly on fit and finish.
But only slightly and after having to send it back to get the fit fixed, I'd say that negated any lead it had.
I have heard people talking about case quality slipping but that has not yet been my experience.
GEC makes some beautiful knives and I'm Sure my lemon was a fluke.
Hard choice for me, ill have to get some more GEC knives before I decide.
 
I think these Case vs. Whoever affairs are a bit unjust. GEC and Queen for example have vastly different business models from Case. Case is trying to appeal to a very broad audience at a lower price point than the aforementioned...............
 
dan1802 said:
I'm fairly new to GEC as I only own one.. Had some issues with it and had to send it back.
They fixed it up and it's a great knife.
Have a few cases and have owned them on and off throughout my life. Have yet to get a bad one.
If I were comparing the GEC I received after the repair to my case knives I'd say it wins out slightly on fit and finish.
But only slightly and after having to send it back to get the fit fixed, I'd say that negated any lead it had.
I have heard people talking about case quality slipping but that has not yet been my experience.
GEC makes some beautiful knives and I'm Sure my lemon was a fluke.
Hard choice for me, ill have to get some more GEC knives before I decide.
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Case makes a good quality knife, no doubt. The only issue I have is that they dont pin their shields and they dont use CV steel enough. Otherwise I would be snapping them up like crazy!
 
I think Case knives have sleeker, more flowing designs, while GEC is a little blocky/bulky. I like both companies, though.
 
ptradeco said:
I think these Case vs. Whoever affairs are a bit unjust. GEC and Queen for example have vastly different business models from Case. Case is trying to appeal to a very broad audience at a lower price point than the aforementioned...............
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No doubt GEC and Case are building two different products, with GEC being a much smaller more upscale outfit.
Queen, IMNSHO was like a small, poorly run Case. I am not sure what Queen will be going forward. Who are their dealers? What are they building that is all new? (kind of rhetorical questions, not really looking for answers in this thread, just making a point)

Wouldn't it be great if Case put out a line of "premium" knives to compete with GEC?
Something north of what they put out now, but south of the Bose annual knives. I would love it!
Hopefully the new Queen will also be a rival to GEC.

Sometimes it seems like this should be called the "GEC (and a few other) Traditional Folders and Fixed Blade" forum. I for one would love to see some new life from Case and Queen to liven things up.
 
I've had great knives from both Case and GEC and I've had lemons from both too.

This is a 4 1/4" CV Case 6375 Large Stockman with amber jigged bone covers that I received not too long ago. I ordered it from a mail order house and it is one of the nicest late production (2012 manufacture) knives I've ever had from Case. Except for the Schrade Fire & Ice Ttrappers by GEC it rivals anything I've ever had from GEC.

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I don't think it's "the luck of the draw" but rather what is coming out of Case most often these days.

Stu said:

Wouldn't it be great if Case put out a line of "premium" knives to compete with GEC?
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You bet it would Stu and for my .02¢ the stockman pictured above would easily fit into that niche - that's how good it is.

Further, for my .02¢, Case has always turned out a better blade finish than GEC ever has.
 
i don't own a gec yet but i'm ready to take the plunge after getting another lemon from case, as far as the look of it goes. the first one i ordered about and recieved was about 6 months ago. a case peanut amber bone stainless steel and it has very little jigging and lacks what the texas jack amber bone looks like. i kept it because it works well and cuts. the second case i just recieved in the mail and is a case peanut chestnut bone cv. i was excited that this was coming today only to be disappointed with the looks of it. man, the jigging is average and the overall stain just looks like it came out of a high school beginner arts class. i'm returning it to gpknives for another one so we'll see what happens.
 
I have to say, I'm normally ambivalent about Case's amber bone, but the bone on this one is really well done and nicely matched. :thumbup:

Modoc ED said:
I've had great knives from both Case and GEC and I've had lemons from both too.

This is a 4 1/4" CV Case 6375 Large Stockman with amber jigged bone covers that I received not too long ago. I ordered it from a mail order house and it is one of the nicest late production (2012 manufacture) knives I've ever had from Case. Except for the Schrade Fire & Ice Ttrappers by GEC it rivals anything I've ever had from GEC.

gl5q.jpg


hym.jpg


y5un.jpg


lp49.jpg


I don't think it's "the luck of the draw" but rather what is coming out of Case most often these days.

Stu said:



You bet it would Stu and for my .02¢ the stockman pictured above would easily fit into that niche - that's how good it is.

Further, for my .02¢, Case has always turned out a better blade finish than GEC ever has.
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bwperdue said:
I have to say, I'm normally ambivalent about Case's amber bone, but the bone on this one is really well done and nicely matched. :thumbup:
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definitely nicely done and is a far cry from the jig lacking peanut i have in amber bone. o well, not the end of the world. :D
 
I've got both GEC and Case.

GEC: hit or miss. One knife is a sublime piece of craftsmanship; the next, you wonder if the knife received any QC at all (wobble, gaps, dull). Sent three GEC knives back that had blade wobble far beyond the realm of reason. Each time, it took several weeks to get the knife back, and only after calling and asking (politely).

I stopped buying GEC knives after sending back a new roper that was frankly a piece of junk (no snap on any blade). I called to check the status...it had been repaired right away and sent from GEC to my address. Great. Several weeks later, no knife. GEC position: they mailed it (uninsured) to the right address...once GEC dropped it off at the post office, GEC's position was it had met its responsibilities in full, and the loss was strictly mine.

Case: I own several and am happy with them. For reasons I can't quite articulate, those old Cases from the '70s and earlier seem to have a little more character to them than the present day.
 
Liberando said:
I've got both GEC and Case.

GEC: hit or miss. One knife is a sublime piece of craftsmanship; the next, you wonder if the knife received any QC at all (wobble, gaps, dull). Sent three GEC knives back that had blade wobble far beyond the realm of reason. Each time, it took several weeks to get the knife back, and only after calling and asking (politely).

I stopped buying GEC knives after sending back a new roper that was frankly a piece of junk (no snap on any blade). I called to check the status...it had been repaired right away and sent from GEC to my address. Great. Several weeks later, no knife. GEC position: they mailed it (uninsured) to the right address...once GEC dropped it off at the post office, GEC's position was it had met its responsibilities in full, and the loss was strictly mine.

Case: I own several and am happy with them. For reasons I can't quite articulate, those old Cases from the '70s and earlier seem to have a little more character to them than the present day.
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what year or years did case hit their peak? whoever is looking over the knives before being sent out needs to get their eyes checked.
 
csisland said:
what year or years did case hit their peak? whoever is looking over the knives before being sent out needs to get their eyes checked.
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Though I'm hardly an expert, I'd say Case's peak was the early '70s. The rest of the '70s seemed good, too.
 
I've been mostly lucky with my Case knife purchases. But I do have to agree that if there was one thing they need to improve on, it is the consistency of the appearance of their scales, in color, jigging quality, and matchup of scales on the same knife.

Especially annoying to me is when the stock catalog photos on their web site and that almost every dealer uses doesn't look a thing like the actual finished product. That can work both ways, of course. The stock picks of their second cut antique bone looked awful, but the knives are gorgeous! But the reverse is true of their sunset winterbottom bone - great in the catalog, every one I've seen actual pictures of (and the two I bought) looked garish.

GEC on the other hand does a much better job with that, and because of their smaller production runs quite often the knife you see on a dealer's web site is the exact one you will get, so it's about as good as going to a local store.

It's really a shame with the Case handles because some of the better examples are truly gorgeous. If they could just maintain that same level consistently across the majority of their runs, it would make buying online a lot more worry-free.

Of the five GEC knives I have, I'm a little disappointed in the fit and finish of one of them. One of my personal peeves with folding knives is that I want the backsprings to be flush when the knife is both closed AND open. My new #48 Trapper is ideal in all respects except for that little detail. It's not quite bad enough to want to send it back, but it bugs me.

In general I'm happy with the value for the money received from both companies, and I recognize that they are targeting and serving different segments of the market. I hope both companies continue to prosper as well as others like Queen, Canal Street, and Buck who all continue to give us good and great pocket knives to use, enjoy, and collect.
 
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