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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
GEC Annual RendeZvous
- Thread starter CoffeeCat2112
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Cool stuff. Thanks for sharing!
Will Power
Gold Member
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A treat to see the works,owners,workers&key consumers all there at once. I'm sure you all had an excellent time. MUST look for one of those Ivory Bone single sheep.....
Lucky you are to be in the vicinity! :thumbup:
Regards, Will
Lucky you are to be in the vicinity! :thumbup:
Regards, Will
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Now you're talking :thumbup:
Will Power
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Gary, I'm so glad you did! Thanks. You got some great pictures, and I continued my career as a picture taker fail person. I enjoyed meeting you; one of my regrets of the week end is not availing myself of the opportunity to learn (or at least watch) some of your sharpening technique, as it registered too late that you had some of your materials along. Hopefully, there will be a "next time."
It sure is!
O, dear. I hope I looked better 'n that the rest of the time!
Thanks, Johnny! It was great to finally meet you as well. I believe you and others are too generous in your estimation of my knife knowledge, but I appreciate the compliment all the same. I'm enjoying myself, at any rate.
I'm so glad I got to meet you guys-- more in my next post.
I think it was mostly that I was sitting next to over a hundred years' worth of barlows when we talked-- that's what had the effect on you.
~ P.
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What a fantastic time.
I'll begin near the end, when Dan (Parke1) and his Katie arrived at the factory and surprised me with this:
An owl... on a blue base. An owl on blue.
Ie,
It doesn't get better than this.
Dan, Katie's and your thoughtfulness in this wee gift had me skying from that point on. Thanks so much for your kindness!
This picture captures the heart of the days' goodness:
Towards the back, Charlie is displaying and explaining (and hopefully selling!) his latest release, the sheepsfoot barlow. His barlow collection is in the green-backed case in the mid-distance. Nearest to the camera, Lyle (wlfryjr) sits with his case of Farmer Jacks. His attention is directed here...
... as he listens in as Bill Howard examines and discusses the various features of one of Lyle's farmer jacks with Bob Andrews.
1) I treasure not only getting to meet Charlie, but to be with him right there at GEC at the unveiling of one of his barlows, one set of which is clad in his father's walnut, with his array of older barlows close by. Even without the knives and their particulars it would have been grand, but having all those things come together was truly special. "An honor" doesn't even begin to describe the experience, although it's a good start! I have much to say for which I am not finding ready words, so Thank You will have to suffice for now.
2) Sitting with Lyle and looking over his farmer jacks with him was another highlight of my week end. I had not heard of the farmer jack pattern until Lyle described it to me (via forum exchange) and provided pictures, both directly and in this forum's Old Knives thread. To be with Lyle and the collection of knives he so clearly loves, to hear Bill Howard's thoughts on the same, to be welcomed by Lyle to open and close and compare and contrast the various features on the actual knives themselves? It was an education and an impartation all at once-- not just the practical aspects, but the joy therein. Thank you, Lyle.
3) Yep, there's Bob (he'd been looking at the knife with Bill Howard, but his radar pinged and he looked up just as I took the picture). I really enjoyed looking over knives with Bob and talking about so many different facets of their production and the business of bringing them to market. Bob, thanks for your good company, and for your understanding about the knife/knives that weren't the Right One.
4) I was also standing in roughly the same spot from whence I took the above picture when I met Brian (mr_badexample) and Dan & Katie (Parke1 and his family). Pretty good corner, that. It was really great to meet both of you!
5) Some guy named Howard or something was also hanging around, and he seemed to know something about the GEC knives.
... So great, to converse about knife matters both specific and general, or simply to be present as Charlie and Bill and others did the same.
Knives:
I spent much of my time near Charlie's table, tucked in next to his array of barlows. So wonderful, to see in person the barlows first glimpsed at the outset of his thread, What Makes a Good, Traditional Barlow?
Others took better pictures of these, but I tried to get my own-- especially with Duncan in mind, but also for my own records.
I spent a lot of time happily looking and looking and looking again at these knives. What a treat (understatement), to examine these knives, together and in their particulars, with Charlie.
The old made new again:
The new walnut sheepsfoot between its predecessors, gabon ebony clip on top, macassar ebony spear at the bottom.
Some mementos of the week end:
Poopwood-Rosewood-clad knife pick from JBF Champlin/Mike Lasicco; #25 American Patriot barlow from Lyle (thanks, so!); my three two-bladed, wood-clad TC barlows together; a Case Barlow of a Certain Color that Charlie graciously made available to me; a two-bladed pen-behind spear main barlow in sawcut bones (ditto); and an owl on blue.
Speaking of which:
~ P.
I'll begin near the end, when Dan (Parke1) and his Katie arrived at the factory and surprised me with this:
An owl... on a blue base. An owl on blue.
Ie,
It doesn't get better than this.
Dan, Katie's and your thoughtfulness in this wee gift had me skying from that point on. Thanks so much for your kindness!
This picture captures the heart of the days' goodness:
Towards the back, Charlie is displaying and explaining (and hopefully selling!) his latest release, the sheepsfoot barlow. His barlow collection is in the green-backed case in the mid-distance. Nearest to the camera, Lyle (wlfryjr) sits with his case of Farmer Jacks. His attention is directed here...
... as he listens in as Bill Howard examines and discusses the various features of one of Lyle's farmer jacks with Bob Andrews.
1) I treasure not only getting to meet Charlie, but to be with him right there at GEC at the unveiling of one of his barlows, one set of which is clad in his father's walnut, with his array of older barlows close by. Even without the knives and their particulars it would have been grand, but having all those things come together was truly special. "An honor" doesn't even begin to describe the experience, although it's a good start! I have much to say for which I am not finding ready words, so Thank You will have to suffice for now.
2) Sitting with Lyle and looking over his farmer jacks with him was another highlight of my week end. I had not heard of the farmer jack pattern until Lyle described it to me (via forum exchange) and provided pictures, both directly and in this forum's Old Knives thread. To be with Lyle and the collection of knives he so clearly loves, to hear Bill Howard's thoughts on the same, to be welcomed by Lyle to open and close and compare and contrast the various features on the actual knives themselves? It was an education and an impartation all at once-- not just the practical aspects, but the joy therein. Thank you, Lyle.
3) Yep, there's Bob (he'd been looking at the knife with Bill Howard, but his radar pinged and he looked up just as I took the picture). I really enjoyed looking over knives with Bob and talking about so many different facets of their production and the business of bringing them to market. Bob, thanks for your good company, and for your understanding about the knife/knives that weren't the Right One.
4) I was also standing in roughly the same spot from whence I took the above picture when I met Brian (mr_badexample) and Dan & Katie (Parke1 and his family
). Pretty good corner, that. It was really great to meet both of you!5) Some guy named Howard or something was also hanging around, and he seemed to know something about the GEC knives.
... So great, to converse about knife matters both specific and general, or simply to be present as Charlie and Bill and others did the same.
Knives:
I spent much of my time near Charlie's table, tucked in next to his array of barlows. So wonderful, to see in person the barlows first glimpsed at the outset of his thread, What Makes a Good, Traditional Barlow?
Others took better pictures of these, but I tried to get my own-- especially with Duncan in mind, but also for my own records.
I spent a lot of time happily looking and looking and looking again at these knives. What a treat (understatement), to examine these knives, together and in their particulars, with Charlie.
The old made new again:
The new walnut sheepsfoot between its predecessors, gabon ebony clip on top, macassar ebony spear at the bottom.
Some mementos of the week end:
Speaking of which:
~ P.
Gary W. Graley
“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Nice Sarah and yes, I brought along some sharpening stuff but wasn't able to get to put it into action, everyone was so active! which is a good thing for sure. Some time we'll meet up again and I'll be sure to bring them along.
Sounds like you had a banner weekend there, really nice gift too, it's great to have nice knife people on hand, was glad to meet a lot of you guys and gals.
So many photos I wanted to take but didn't get the chance, maybe next year!
G2
Sounds like you had a banner weekend there, really nice gift too, it's great to have nice knife people on hand, was glad to meet a lot of you guys and gals.
So many photos I wanted to take but didn't get the chance, maybe next year!
G2
Last edited:
Campbellclanman
Platinum Member
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- Mar 10, 2007
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Sarah - thank you so very much for thinking of me, I will spend much time mulling over the photo of that collection!
Sarah = Legend
Sarah = Legend
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Great post P, glad it was such an enjoyable weekend for everybody. It must have been great to be able to chicken-eye Charlie's Barlows and Lyle's Farmer Jacks (didn't realise you had so many Lyle!) Love the owl! :thumbup:
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What a real pleasure to read your write-up, ~P!! I can now imagine what a wonderful time was had by all. Priceless!!! I too love the owl and your pictures make it sing. Thanks for providing us with a little taste of paradise.
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Speaking of which:
~ P.
Aww shucks, P. We're glad you like it.
It was really great meeting you and everyone else! Unfortunately we had to leave in a rush since my mother in law's boyfriend who was with us got a terrible phone call about a death in the family, so we had to high-tail it back to Ohio. Next year, I'm going to be spending two days there and bringing the collection.-Dan
