Do you carry your GEC knives without sharpening (reprofiling) them?

None of my GECs came sharp at all. None could slice phonebook paper. It takes a bit of work to put a decent edge on them. When they cleanly slice phonebook paper they're good to go for me.
 
I have owned well over a hundred GECs, having been in almost from the beginning of the brand. I would say about a third of them have been somewhat sharp, maybe 10% of them sharp enough (would shave a little), and only 3 (1 #53 Cuban from 2011, and 2 TC #15s from the early runs) that would roll hair off my arm. I wish they would all shave well, not talking scarey sharp, just shaving sharp, but I enjoy sharpening so not a huge deal.

It does surprise me that of the dozens of RRiders I've had, only maybe 3 would NOT roll hair off my arm. :confused:
 
I've only had a few from GEC that had edges. My latest GEC was a Dixie stockman and it had no bevel at all on any of the blades. It had a wonderful grind though. I put a 30 degree bevel on it and sharpened it up some but I just got it and haven't had a chance to make it shaving sharp... yet... it will be.

You can force a patina on a blade so it doesn't necessarily indicate use. Some may just enjoy knife photography. And there are a lot of collectors with 100s or 1000s of knives on this forum. When you have that many knives, they all aren't going to get a lot of use. There's not enough time in the day to use all those knives. Jackknife said something like...(i'm paraphrasing)..."pocket knife is something you carry around a lot and use a little". It made sense to me. Sure it depends on your lifestyle and occupation etc but knives generally spend a lot more time in pockets than in hands.

I honestly don't understand all the enthusiasm for RR. Some of mine have been sharp. Some haven't. The last few wouldn't cut paper without being sharpened. This whittler had an interesting half edge on the small clip blade.

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u298/supratentorial/img592_zps3eac5me6.jpg
 
sharpened. Looked better too, since it evened out the edge bevels.

Most of my knives have been acceptable from the factory, but neither my Case nor my GEC were. 5 minutes is all it takes with a couple diamond stones. If you're spending an hour you're not trying hard enough.
 
If it's going into my pocket, it has to be very sharp. I've had very few slipjoints ever arrive from any US manufacturer, with an acceptably sharp edge, other than maybe Buck. The naughty list includes Camillus, Queen, GEC, Schrade, Bear and Son, Utica, and Case.

I'm not complaining though. I kind of prefer to put my own bevel on my knives. I sometimes look for stockmans with particularly bad edges on the sheepsfoots, so I lose less steel rebeveling them to chisel grinds.
 
I only regularly carry one GEC knife. That one I bought used through the Exchange forum here. The previous owner had put a pretty good edge on it but I sharpened it further.

I have several others that I don't carry but that had acceptably sharp (but not exceptionally sharp) blades out of the tube, but that I would probably go ahead and sharpen if I were going to carry them. I also have a few GECs that I would not carry without first sharpening them to a usable level.
 
Buzzbait said:
If it's going into my pocket, it has to be very sharp. I've had very few slipjoints ever arrive from any US manufacturer, with an acceptably sharp edge, other than maybe Buck. The naughty list includes Camillus, Queen, GEC, Schrade, Bear and Son, Utica, and Case.
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Either of my Bear and Sons knives came decently sharp, one bought just yesterday. I like them. Eyeing their balisongs.
The peanut required a little reprofiling as the edges were ground a tad roughly.
 
philllll said:
Hahaha! Bohncliffe... I think you have just coined a new blade shape name, my friend. Good stuff.
rotfl.gif
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Actually I just saw the name on the KSF site as describing the uniqueness of most Northwoods Wharncliffe-type blades that Derrick has designed. Loved "Bohncliffe" and decided I would start using it.

Mike
 
I find that a lot of the tips on GEC blades, at least the curved ones like clips and spears, tend to be pretty dull while the rest of the blade is usually fairly sharp.

Any knife I plan to carry, I sharpen to my liking first. I usually just strop them back when they lose shaving ability. I've only sharpened about 5 or 6 of my GEC's and only one gets a lot of carry time. Compared to my modern knives, 1095 is ultra fast to sharpen.

I also don't care if they're super limited. If it's a favorite, I don't mind using it. I just get to see it more often that way.
 
Macchina said:
So... Do you reprofile before you ever carry a GEC? If not, do find you are able to easily use the knife with the factory edge? Would you even sharpen something like a rare TC Barlow before carrying it? I would...
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Well, to be quite truthful, I have been known to grab a new knife right out of the box and drop it into my pocket whether it was fully sharp or not. Knife knuts do that.

And you need to differentiate between "sharpen" and "re-profile" Not the same thing.

►In Sharpening, you maintain the angle and shape of the cutting edge as you remove metal.
►In re-profiling, you are, at a minimum, changing the edge angle.

Once the immediate need to carry the knife is gone, I sharpen it. That goes for every knife I have ever bought, GEC or not, one-handers included.

I have not needed to re-profile most of my GEC knives. Couldn't give you a percentage. I know I have reprofiled at least one. On the other hand I have made major changes to the edge angles on the bulk of my Queen knives.
 
knarfeng said:
Well, to be quite truthful, I have been known to grab a new knife right out of the box and drop it into my pocket whether it was fully sharp or not. Knife knuts do that.

And you need to differentiate between "sharpen" and "re-profile" Not the same thing.

►In Sharpening, you maintain the angle and shape of the cutting edge as you remove metal.
►In re-profiling, you are, at a minimum, changing the edge angle.

Once the immediate need to carry the knife is gone, I sharpen it. That goes for every knife I have ever bought, GEC or not, one-handers included.

I have not needed to re-profile most of my GEC knives. Couldn't give you a percentage. I know I have reprofiled at least one. On the other hand I have made major changes to the edge angles on the bulk of my Queen knives.
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This describes my habits as well, including the comments about Queen (though I don't own many Queens).
 
Full honesty here.. I mainly love aquiring, fondling, admiring, and even taking pictures of my knives. I have a couple TCs that haven't rotated into pocket time yet, and they may stay in my knife box for a while in mint condition. My cutting needs are simple everyday tasks that don't really require a razor edge. I know that makes me the worst sort of novice here but I don't pretend to be otherwise. Learning to sharpen is on my list of 'knife knut future goals'. Short answer... yes
 
I have to say that the edge is about the first thing I check after a cursory look over. If I carry it it's going to be sharp, don't matter if I did it or someone else did. If it's not sharp it's just a knife shaped object.

Chris
 
dispatch184 said:
Full honesty here.. I mainly love aquiring, fondling, admiring, and even taking pictures of my knives. I have a couple TCs that haven't rotated into pocket time yet, and they may stay in my knife box for a while in mint condition. My cutting needs are simple everyday tasks that don't really require a razor edge. I know that makes me the worst sort of novice here but I don't pretend to be otherwise. Learning to sharpen is on my list of 'knife knut future goals'. Short answer... yes
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There are worse, don't worry!
 
If I'm going to use it it gets sharpened. There have been a couple that I wasn't sure about when I first got them, so I threw them in the pocket unsharpened to see how they felt carrying around for a couple days. In those cases I always used another knife, and they just rode along. If I decided to keep them after that they got sharpened, otherwise I can trade them away as unused and unsharpened with just a little bit of carry. ;)
 
Woodrow F Call said:
Then share with us what it is you are doing!!!!!!!
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Lol...I'm hardly the person to ask. My knives are sharp, but they're nothing to brag about. They don't compare to the mirror polished, perfectly symmetrical beauties you see in the maintenance sub-forum. But since you asked...

I start out by using a Norton India stone to reprofile. I lay the blade pretty close to flat, using the stone to hog off the metal. Once I have the blade sharp, I'll slightly convex it and refine the edge using sandpaper of various grits. I'll finish it off with a strop. Once done I can keep the knife sharp a long time with regular stropping, using the stone only to repair occasional damage.
 
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