GEC F&F #35 Calf Pen Jack - Show and tell

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DwightC

Joined
Mar 28, 2018
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Today I ordered a F&F #35 in orange delrin and I'm ecstatic. I'm new to the traditional knife world and began drooling over GEC knives after stumbling across this subforum. I knew I wanted a GEC and was set on purchasing a Tidioute Bird Dog #56 as my first. After checking out different vendor's inventories, the F&F #35 started growing on me and the itch to own one got the best of me today. I placed my order through a company that offers free shipping and they threw in a free leather pocket slip! This knife seems to be a bit of an oddity as I haven't read much about them on this forum and there aren't many YouTube videos featuring this knife. In anticipation of receiving my knife in the mail, would you fine folks mind posting up some pictures of your #35s? Any and all colors and materials are welcome!
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Hey Dwight, welcome!
I bought a couple of these when they came out. I gave it the old college try, but I just couldn't warm up to it. I love a lot of the features (screwdriver, lanyard hole) but that razor style blade just made it a real hassle to carry.
It would frequently accidentally hook on my pants pocket and be half open by the time I had it pulled out. And that little point on the blade tended to scratch anything sharing the pocket with it. I tried it in a pocket slip but that didn't really work for me either.
I feel that this knife, with, say, a clip/sheepfoot blade combo would make a more carry-able knife.
 
Welcome Dwight.
That's a great GEC to start out with. Be warned though; soon you will have a drawer full of those GEC Tubes in all kinds of flavors. Addictive is a short word to explain it :)
 
GEC addiction is a serious thing my friend. There will be many other GECs coming into your life before you know it. You'll find yourself on knife dealerships late at night impulse purchasing the third model of that particular pattern which you like just because it has a different scale cover before you know it.
Welcome to the sickness my friend! :p ;)
 
K Kiteman72 , thanks for the insight! After reading your impressions, I'm thinking a belt sheath may be in order. Did you end up parting with your #35's, or are you still trying to learn to like them?

pmek5 pmek5 and S Student762 , thanks for the warm welcome! I am hoping this is the first of many, but I'm worried about how I'm going to hide all of these from the missus? Maybe she'll be OK with it because I'm selling off all my "tacticool" titanium flipper mall cop knives and replacing them will classy, smaller traditionals? Hahaha
 
You are welcome Dwight!

I have held on to both my Calf Pens (green and nifebrite). I very rarely part with my knives once acquired, haha.
I still really like the knife, I just didn't find it as pocket friendly as I wanted to. I can't seem to dedicate a whole pocket to it, which might help.
I hope you enjoy yours, GEC is a very fun brand to both collect and use.
 
I’ve been trading out my modern knives for traditionals too, Dwight. My wife doesn’t get the excitement over knives but she appreciates that I’m not spending lots of money!

If you like the calf pen you might also like the 35 Churchill because it is the same frame but slimmer and thus more pocketable.
 
Hey Dwight, welcome. Traditionals are super fun to carry and use, and GEC makes some great knives.

I actually quite like the Calf Pen Jack, mainly because it's just a weird, ugly duckling kind of knife. It's got a lot of blade in it for the price, stout pulls, and the one arm blade (while sometimes troublesome) has interesting history. Here are my Calf Pens, one in Nifebrite and one in OD Green Micarta (with a rough clip mod to the one arm blade). I've included one of my Churchills for comparison as well. If you're looking for other great GEC patterns available now, I'd personally recommend the 78 American Jack, 35 Churchill, 15 Caplifter, and 48 Weasel.







Looking forward to what you think of the knife.
 
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BenjaminRush BenjaminRush
Wow, that nifebright scale is really slick looking! Thank you for the images. I also really like your clip point mod! Definitely changes the look of the knife from "goofy" to cool. Hahaha.

I looked through the knives you listed and the #15 Caplifter looks so tempting!

It was a tough decision between the orange and nifebright, but I'm thinking a nifebright will be in my future. I had to stick with my current theme of orange knives! It will compliment my orange Benchmade Griptilian perfectly.
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My shipping tracker says the knife should be delivered on Thursday of this week. The anticipation is killing me!
 
Nice pic there! Another one to consider is the 71 Bullnose that will be finishing up soon. Great take on the Sodbuster pattern... and it’s being done in orange too
 
I grabbed one of these in Nifebrite and, while it doesn't get much pocket carry, it lives on my nightstand where I can enjoy it's greenish glow every night. It was my gateway GEC as well.
 
Can someone tell me what the odd shaped blade is called, and what it is used for? It looks like a spey with a bite taken out of it. I’m new to traditionals and have never seen a blade like that. It’s one of the reasons I never considered this model as I can’t justify a knife with a blade I don’t know what to do with lol.
 
BenjaminRush BenjaminRush , I've been looking forward to that. It looks like it will be shipping to distributors soon.

mugwump867 mugwump867 , have you noticed the glow effect deteriorating at all? I was kinda worried about the nifebright losing its glow after time.

F FSUwelder1212 , from what I've learned, it's a one-handed opening feature. You catch the end of the blade on your pant seam or shoe, or whatever it close by, then use pressure to manipulate the blade open.
 
The odd looking blade is a one-hand opening spey blade originally intended for castrating farm animals hence why it's on a Calf Pen knife. It is nice to be able to open the blade with one hand but that protruding bit can chew up your fingers depending on how you carry it in your pocket. And I haven't noticed any dimming of the Nifebrite as of yet but I've only had the knife since October. It is an odd duck of a pattern with a locking blade, a one hand opening blade, and a flathead screwdriver but I can see how all the functions would be handy.
 
It finally came in the mail and I am super happy with it! Blade centering was near-perfect, although I'm not a huge stickler about that. It feels great in the hand and the knife has a nice heft to it. The blades snap open and closed with authority and it sounds really nice. The locking pen blade is nice, and the one-handed spay blade it actually super easy to open one-handed.

I do have some small inconsequential criticisms:

The scale cover around the pivot pin isn't quite flush with the circumference of the pin. I tried to capture that in this image. It doesn't really bother me, but I thought I would mention it here.
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When I opened the knife for the first time, the orange delrin was already scuffed and dull. This isn't something I care about at all, because it's going to get beat-up and scratched by me anyways; however, I just thought the readers should know.

Now for some quick pictures. Sorry about the quality!
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