-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
GEC gets some love in the press
- Thread starter mnblade
- Start date
silenthunterstudios
Slipjoint Addict
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2005
- Messages
- 20,039
Do you have a link to the article?
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2005
- Messages
- 71,133
Would it be possible to cut and paste the article here? When I visited the link, there was a pop-up requesting a response to a question before I could read it.
:thumbup:
:thumbup:
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2010
- Messages
- 2,348
TITUSVILLE -- Bill Howard is carving out a niche for himself in an iconic Titusville industry.
Howard's Great Eastern Cutlery is crafting pocket knives and hunting knives for a growing number of collectors and sportsmen worldwide.
The company, founded in 2006 in Titusville Opportunity Park, produces a modest 65 to 70 knives daily. The business is not about mass production, Howard said, but about getting it right.
"We make traditional pocket knives, like the knives made in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A lot of the things you see in our display cases, no one else makes anymore," Howard's son, William Howard, said.
It was Queen Cutlery, on Chestnut Street, that put Titusville on the cutlery map almost a century ago. Bill Howard was hired at the plant after high school and worked there for more than 30 years, learning his craft, before striking out on his own.
"I wanted to have my own company and the freedom to do my own designs," he said.
Great Eastern Cutlery makes knives with handles crafted of stag and elk antler, cattle bone, wood and colorful acrylic. Blades are specially designed for whittling, gutting fish and even slicing thick ropes once used in the Titusville oil fields.
"There's a lot of history to the knives that we make," William Howard said.
It takes about 200 steps to manufacture a traditional pocket knife, many of those steps done by skilled operators on machines decades older than they are, others done by hand. Blades are cut and ground to precise measurements. Handles are textured, dyed, cut and polished. Pins and springs hold parts together and allow blades to operate independently of each other.
Each knife is finally honed and then branded in an acid bath.
"When you see the final product, you're proud of what you've done," said LouAnn Clouner, one of 23 Great Eastern employees, between assembling knives and clipping off excess brass wire.
Great Eastern Cutlery produces Tidioute Cutlery, Northfield UN-X-LD and GEC brand knives sold online, in catalogs and at the 17,000-square-foot factory on Caldwell Street in Titusville. Glass cases display hundreds of styles of knives made at the plant, formerly the metallurgical lab for Cyclops Steel.
"It took us awhile to get going," Bill Howard said. "But people are realizing that we make a good product. We've gotten a lot of notice lately on (online) blade forums."
The company also sells its wares at outdoors shows in the tristate region and at an annual GEC Rendezvous during the Oil Festival, this year from Aug. 6 to 8.
The factory is open for public tours weekdays from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The store, which also sells bottle openers and other kitchenware made by Great Eastern Cutlery plus dog bones, from bone not suited to blade handles, is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
"People still have a love for quality products," Bill Howard said. "And pocket knives mean something to people."
Howard's Great Eastern Cutlery is crafting pocket knives and hunting knives for a growing number of collectors and sportsmen worldwide.
The company, founded in 2006 in Titusville Opportunity Park, produces a modest 65 to 70 knives daily. The business is not about mass production, Howard said, but about getting it right.
"We make traditional pocket knives, like the knives made in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A lot of the things you see in our display cases, no one else makes anymore," Howard's son, William Howard, said.
It was Queen Cutlery, on Chestnut Street, that put Titusville on the cutlery map almost a century ago. Bill Howard was hired at the plant after high school and worked there for more than 30 years, learning his craft, before striking out on his own.
"I wanted to have my own company and the freedom to do my own designs," he said.
Great Eastern Cutlery makes knives with handles crafted of stag and elk antler, cattle bone, wood and colorful acrylic. Blades are specially designed for whittling, gutting fish and even slicing thick ropes once used in the Titusville oil fields.
"There's a lot of history to the knives that we make," William Howard said.
It takes about 200 steps to manufacture a traditional pocket knife, many of those steps done by skilled operators on machines decades older than they are, others done by hand. Blades are cut and ground to precise measurements. Handles are textured, dyed, cut and polished. Pins and springs hold parts together and allow blades to operate independently of each other.
Each knife is finally honed and then branded in an acid bath.
"When you see the final product, you're proud of what you've done," said LouAnn Clouner, one of 23 Great Eastern employees, between assembling knives and clipping off excess brass wire.
Great Eastern Cutlery produces Tidioute Cutlery, Northfield UN-X-LD and GEC brand knives sold online, in catalogs and at the 17,000-square-foot factory on Caldwell Street in Titusville. Glass cases display hundreds of styles of knives made at the plant, formerly the metallurgical lab for Cyclops Steel.
"It took us awhile to get going," Bill Howard said. "But people are realizing that we make a good product. We've gotten a lot of notice lately on (online) blade forums."
The company also sells its wares at outdoors shows in the tristate region and at an annual GEC Rendezvous during the Oil Festival, this year from Aug. 6 to 8.
The factory is open for public tours weekdays from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The store, which also sells bottle openers and other kitchenware made by Great Eastern Cutlery plus dog bones, from bone not suited to blade handles, is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
"People still have a love for quality products," Bill Howard said. "And pocket knives mean something to people."
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2013
- Messages
- 1,766
"People still have a love for quality products," Bill Howard said. "And pocket knives mean something to people." :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2005
- Messages
- 71,133
Thanks a lot for posting that Jake, and for the photo Mike, interesting article :thumbup:
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2014
- Messages
- 2,700
Very cool article.
Fire Beard
Gold Member
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2013
- Messages
- 1,388
"When you see the final product, you're proud of what you've done," said LouAnn Clouner...
And this is evident in every knife they make. When the people behind the scenes, doing the actual work, love what they're doing and take pride in the finished product, it always shows. Thanks for the cool article, OP.
And this is evident in every knife they make. When the people behind the scenes, doing the actual work, love what they're doing and take pride in the finished product, it always shows. Thanks for the cool article, OP.
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2013
- Messages
- 5,713
Good article. Thanks for sharing.
Clem Kadiddlehopper
knife guy
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2012
- Messages
- 7,114
Great story, I'm going to have to get me GEC knife.....
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing.