Finally in hand 1st traditional slipjoint GEC #48 IT, thanks for the help

chickenfried

chickenfried

Joined
Feb 27, 2003
Messages
1,065
After lots of questions and googling, plus some false starts even after deciding to purchase a traditional slipjoint. Finally have one in hand. A GEC Tidioute#48 Improved Trapper in bocote. Thanks for the help from the forum! Trand's group shots with the variety of different 48's was key in making my decision and robertj298's photo of his bocote was the nail in the coffin.Though I really liked the beaver shield over the hot dog shield, the smooth bocote beat out the jigged cherry wood. Beautiful knife, pretty much met my expectations. Just a couple of nitpicks to settle with before I start using it.

My main concern was getting a nail breaker. If a swiss is usually a 5, the clip's 6 the 'cliffe 7, what I wanted 6-7. I like that the wharncliffe is pinchable. There is a little bit of blade play on the clip in the closed position might be possible to scrape the liner when opening or closing but no scratches on the blade yet. Sometimes opening it seems I could feel something scraping,maybe the area of the tang stamp? Also in the right light you can see some hairline scratches on the clip blade. More like swirl marks since you can't feel them. But they are straight and long. No big deal especially since when I use it I'll put worse on it. But I like to be the one to put the scratches on my new stuff :p
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Great looking knife. Put it to work and you'll like it even better.
 
That is an awesome first traditional pocket knife! If you haven't carried a traditional before, they are definitely a different animal. I don't have any experience with GEC, but I've only seen positive posts here about their quality. The Bocote looks really nice, kind of reminds me of a walnut gunstock.

My only complaint is that now I'm going to see a hotdog whenever I see those shields!;)
 
Looks like a great knife. I am now waiting on my first GEC knives. Maybe next week they will arrive.
 
Congrats! The 48 is one of my favorites. Great choice. :thumbup:
 
That's a nice looking knife. I haven't had the chance to see that handle material in person yet, only online.
 
Great pattern to choose for your first.:thumbup: The scraping feeling could be some buffing compound or other grit in there. Try flushing it out with some oil a bit, it might help.
 
I believe a #48 was my very first GEC also. The Trapper pattern is my favorite and what I always recommend to anyone new to slipjoints. Honestly, after time passed, I prefer a larger slip joint (4-4.25" closed length).
 
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