GEC handles?

[bonky]

None of this makes any sense.

The number of GECs that get modified is absolutely nowhere near 25-50%.

A collector will definitely care about modifications. There's different kinds of "collectors", of course, but there's unquestionably collectors who will only want unused, undamaged, and unmodified knives. Even someone who calls themself a collector and uses knives in their collection will care because they'd be unwlling to pay too much for a modified knife, especially if the quality of work is in question. Regardless, modifications will absolutely have impact on the value.

Deleting a layer can make a quite noticeable difference in how a knife carries in the pocket and feels in the hand. If it didn't, people wouldn't do it.

The majority of people that would spend the time, or spend the money to commission a significant modification like a blade delete or different handles will do so for very personal reasons, and thus resale value and/or ease of resale wouldn't be a consideration. It's never done willy nilly on a whim, especially on a rarer knife, because "collectors don't seem to care".

I agree, especially with your point about modifications not being done on a whim.

An example of this can be found here:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads...ves-and-company-history.1239398/post-14619884

I was fortunate enough to run across one of the knives in that post, and it certainly wasn't available at the GEC retail for a 153215, believe it or not

 

[Tyson A Wright]

I just recently purchased a GEC 142116 Barlow sfo ppp and one of only 56 made. It’s supposed the have the yellow heart wood for the handle scales but someone changed them, and did a really nice job btw, to a black jigged bone. First question is does anyone know if GEC would put the original handle scales back on for a fee and second does it even matter if I change them? Thanks

You can never get this knife back to the kind of factory pristine condition that pretty much all GEC collectors want. GEC knives are great users, but due to their market value, it seems like a lot of owners are nervous about using them, and maybe impacting the resale value. The great news for you is that your knife will never be worth as much as others on the market, so you can just use it and not worry about it!

I solve this problem by immediately cutting something acidic (tomato, lemon, whatever) whenever I get a new GEC - I get a little patina going, and then I never have to worry about my 'pristine' knife, because I don't own any.

Enjoy your knife. And please post pics - I think we'd all enjoy seeing what it looks like with the new scales.

-Tyson

 

[BladeRust]

 

[BladeRust]