Gary made me do it...GEC Barlow

C

Chewy1

Joined
Jun 5, 2006
Messages
1,564
Actually, I can't give Gary all the credit, but I do want him for helping me to gel my decision. Picked up this beauty from Cumberlandknifeworks. Originally, I ordered one of the "perfect for EDC" sheepsfoot style Barlows, but I couldn't get past the blemishes. Bill was kind enough to allow me to swap for a top shelf Long Pull Stag Barlow, which you see here. It's #23 of 50.

Bill- I have no idea if you hang out here, but THANKS!! (It's tough to open, but not the nail-breaker that the other one was.)

And now I'll shut up and give you guys some glamor shots:

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And the only thing a picky person could point to as a birth mark:
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Hi,

Now that's a nice one Chewy! Pretty nice looking Stag. I'm glad you got one you like.

dalee
 
Love my GEC Scout. You're Barlow is just awesome!

I've wondered about those blemished items....just HOW blemished were they?

The other thing that kinda bothers me about the GEC's I've seen and have is that I don't know why some brass pins are recessed further down than others. On my scout, there's one recessed even with the stag, one that's dimpled up above the stag and a third that is completely recessed on the same knife....why do they do this?
 
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Red- the blemishes were just that. Minor irritants, really. There was a very small crack in the stag running from a pin to the side. No biggie, really. That, and I couldn't open the pen blade to save my life. Really, I just couldn't do it. I kept going back to the those days when I was a kid trying to open Grandpa's knives. Anyway, for the money, I could have lived with the crack, but not the pen knife. To be fair, it was advertised as such...my expectations were too high.

Can't answer about the pins. Frankly, I get so busy staring at the stag that I hardly notice them.

Oh, and I think I prefer the more traditional clip blade style that I ended up with. Suits me better, I think. The sheepsfoot was amazing...I just prefer this.

Dalee- Thanks! And might I just add that it's good to bump into you on both forums!
 
Hi,

I agonized over spear vs. clip myself. But Barlows just look right with the clip. But maybe a wharncliff secondary blade might interesting. One thing is sure, with all the nice stag I've been seeing lately, I'm going need to reconsider my taste for it.

Slip-joint guys are nice to hang out with where ever you find them. On the other hand, you get twice the temptation and also twice the opportunity to be lead astray!:D

dalee
 
I have a few of GEC stag models. One is a #54 Big Jack, really nice pattern, and the other is a new #12 Northfield Toothpick, and the last one is a #60 GEC fixed blade.
 
red96 I've noticed the same thing with the pins on many GEC knives. My Liner Lock 73 in stag has 3 pins on one side with the heads of the pins rounded out and on view-as they should be.The other pin is completely recessed leaving a 'hole' effect which annoys me! It looks as if there is no pin in there... This is the same on both sides of the knife and it occurs at the thickest section of stag.

Wish I could get hold of part of a pin to glue in and fill up this 'hole' Asked GEC but they seemed a bit nonchalant about it,but it does detract from the appearance of the knife.
 
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Congrats, that's a beautiful knife. I like all of the GECs. The barlows have stout springs on them, but they're cool knives. Any handmade knife is going to have "imperfections"- especially one with unique handle material, such as stag. I generally view little quirks as contributing to the "personality" of a piece. Every once in a while, you'll see an overspun pin on a GEC, but I've never come across one that I would consider a "second".

I did trade off my stag barlow though. It was lovely- the stag was gorgeous, but it literally ate my thumbnail for breakfast. I still have three of the #25 barlows though- a sawcut brown bone, a sheepfoot with "patriot" acrylic, and an easy-open with blue basketweave-jigged bone. I like 'em all.
 
Chewy1 said:
You guys that know GEC pretty well, does the Easy Open open easily?
Click to expand...

Yes it does. It's a slick little thing. It's thinner than the other barlows, because it only has the single blade. The one I have is a Northfield, so it has a swedge, which makes it a little more slippery than it would be otherwise, but you can still pinch it open easily. The sheepsfoot-bladed barlows can be pinched open as well.
 
I checked out the EDC knives on the Cumberland site. maybe I'm missing something, but they seem to be the same price as the first quality knives.

Beautiful knife, at any rate.
 
Make sure you're looking apples to apples. My first EDC knife was non-serialized sheepsfoot Barlow. With a serial number it would be more and if it was perfect, it would be even more. The second knife was a standard clip point Barlow with serial number and would have been $10 cheaper without the serial number. In other words, a perfect regular barlow is less than a perfect sheepsfoot, but I was too cheap to upgrade to a perfect sheepsfoot, so I moved to a clip blade.
 
OK, thanks. I wasn't familiar with the pricing on those Barlows. They look beautiful, you may have sold another one for them.
 
Make sure that your nails are up to it. I can only open the main blade with a lot of effort. The second or third time and I'm done for the day! Literally!
 
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