GEC Quality Control Issues

Yes Jack Black, it is. Not real sure of what your getting at but yes, yes it is. Very sleuth like of you.
 
Ken44 said:
Sorry to hear you are having some bad luck dma1965, and sorry you're having to catch flack here.

Hope your luck with GEC turns around.
Good luck.
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Thanks Ken. I don't mind the flack. I like to see collectors with passion. As I said, I want to see GEC thrive and stay in business. Queen and Case as well...or any other US maker. The passion is what will keep these companies in business...or so I hope.
 
It is interesting that the knives you are saying have blade wobble are second hand knives and not new knives via the dealer network. Kinda puts a different light on it.
 
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I am one of these "GEC faithful" that Terdl76 speaks of, but I dont own a single one that hasnt been beaten to death and put up dirty.
Maybe GEC has such a cult following because MOST of their products turn out to be more superior than other competing brands.
As an avid whittler/carver, I put significant lateral forces on the majority of my GEC slipjoints and have yet to experience ANY play other than a lone 72 that arrived that way.
 
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dma1965 said:
So I see this thread stirred up some discussion. First of all, let me state that I think GEC knives are great knives. I am happy to see a company making classic knives with such high quality fit and finish. That is why I keep buying them.

To answer some of the questions, at the expense of some re-iteration:

1. I define wobble as ANY lateral movement when the blade is opened and I grip it and move it side to side.
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Thanks for the further clarifications-- that helps!


I am, of course, now back from attempting to wiggle the blades on all my knives (not just the GECs), heh.


Out of, er, less than 30 GECs say (:o), almost all of which have more than one blade, I found three blades on which I could detect any perceptible movement at all, and only because I was paying heightened attention-- nothing came even even close to a wobble, and none of which I'd noticed (in regular use and/or play, opening and closing and fiddling with) until I checked just now.

(On my other knives, I found more statistically more wiggle-per-number-checked, with one blade-- the main blade on a NOS Boker Barlow-- evincing something that might approximate some wobble.)

Yours would seem bad luck indeed!

I'm glad to hear of GEC's customer support in light of this.

~ P.
 
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Terdl76 said:
Yes Jack Black, it is. Not real sure of what your getting at but yes, yes it is. Very sleuth like of you.
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It didn't really take much sleuthing to see you're a relatively new member with virtually no posting history Terdl76. My point was that for a relatively new member, posting for the first time here, that's an unusually combatative post (reproduced again below), which makes assumptions (arguably worse) about more regular posters here. If you'd spent more time here, I think you'd realise that most regular posters use their knives, and that GEC are certainly not immune from criticism here. To say you tell our friend to "tread lightly", you seem more than happy to jump in with both feet.

Terdl76 said:
Be careful man, the GEC faithful will get you. I think a lot of people who buy GEC's do so to collect, not to use. That's why you'll hear things like, I have 50, 100 or whatever and NO issues. Kinda hard to use that many knives, as tools, on a day to day bassis. No company that produces as many knives as GEC are going to go without issue and if you use a knife as it was intended, a tool, some are going to show production issues (all companies). I only own 5 GEC's and all but one has been sent back. Most where cosmetic issues but one, a #15, had horrible blade wobble. Tread lightly my friend. GEC's faithful are going to make every excuse as to why it's yor fault or that you're to picky or maybe you're exaggerating. Good luck.
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Terdl76 said:
Be careful man, the GEC faithful will get you. I think a lot of people who buy GEC's do so to collect, not to use. That's why you'll hear things like, I have 50, 100 or whatever and NO issues. Kinda hard to use that many knives, as tools, on a day to day bassis. No company that produces as many knives as GEC are going to go without issue and if you use a knife as it was intended, a tool, some are going to show production issues (all companies). I only own 5 GEC's and all but one has been sent back. Most where cosmetic issues but one, a #15, had horrible blade wobble. Tread lightly my friend. GEC's faithful are going to make every excuse as to why it's yor fault or that you're to picky or maybe you're exaggerating. Good luck.
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I cant speak for the rest but I use all of my GEC knives to some degree. The first thing I do to most of my GEC knives when I get them is sharpen them. That alone removes the temptation to turn them into collectibles. I havent gone through all my GEC knives...but in time.
 
dma1965 said:
Mike, none of my knives are lock backs. Also, I do not dislike GECs, nor do I like posting about disappointment. I actually love GEC knives and have bought quite a few because of that. In fact, I have bought quite a few from you.

Now I will say the ones I have gotten from you have all been wobble free. Others came off this forum or from eBay. It is possible that the ones I have purchased off of this forum or eBay may be ones that were sold because they were less than perfect.
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LCS said:
One comment about the original post, and your follow up: I know hindsight is 20/20, but it would have been good to mention, initially, that the knives you were less than satisfied with were from previous owners rather than from vendors. The first post kind of implies that the random purchase of GEC knives would lead to a seemingly higher than average number of issues. To know that the knives with issues (at least as far as what you require) had been offered up for sale by previous owners (very possibly because of the issues) puts a little different light on things IMO.
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Thanks for your clarifications dma1965 :thumbup: I'm still a little confused though, are you saying that the GEC knives you bought new are free from blade wobble, but that the second-hand ones have blade wobble?
 
In all fairness, there are GEC Distributors that sell new, 1st quality GEC knives on EBay.
 
So sorry to have struck a nerve with a few of you. I was only posting my experiences with GEC and fellow GEC users. I, for whatever reason thought this was a knife forum, where questions where asked, opinions are stated, lessons given/learned and information is vast. I've given only my experiences. If I post more, maybe I'll be taken more with a grain of salt? The op asked, I answered. Sorry for breaking the rules. I'll start posting more things like "cool knife" or "that's awesome" so that I may eventually earn an opinion. I have no dog in this fight that has been manifested so I will bow out, tail between legs. My experiences are irrelevant.
 
Terdl76 said:
So sorry to have struck a nerve with a few of you. I was only posting my experiences with GEC and fellow GEC users. I, for whatever reason thought this was a knife forum, where questions where asked, opinions are stated, lessons given/learned and information is vast. I've given only my experiences. If I post more, maybe I'll be taken more with a grain of salt? The op asked, I answered. Sorry for breaking the rules. I'll start posting more things like "cool knife" or "that's awesome" so that I may eventually earn an opinion. I have no dog in this fight that has been manifested so I will bow out, tail between legs. My experiences are irrelevant.
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stop trying to act the victim now. you could have easily expressed your opinions without your "GEC faithful are gonna get you" comments. i see you have very few post here and maybe you are new to internet forums but your first post is what is called a "bait" post, purposely making passive aggressive comments to bait and get responses back.

i have owned four GECs and used all of them. none have blade play and have never developed blade play over time. thats not to say that they will in the future. a knife is a mechanical tool with moving parts, any tool with moving parts will develop issues over time and use, thats just life.
 
Terdl76 said:
So sorry to have struck a nerve with a few of you. I was only posting my experiences with GEC and fellow GEC users. I, for whatever reason thought this was a knife forum, where questions where asked, opinions are stated, lessons given/learned and information is vast. I've given only my experiences. If I post more, maybe I'll be taken more with a grain of salt? The op asked, I answered. Sorry for breaking the rules. I'll start posting more things like "cool knife" or "that's awesome" so that I may eventually earn an opinion. I have no dog in this fight that has been manifested so I will bow out, tail between legs. My experiences are irrelevant.
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It certainly is a knife forum, and a great one at that... As has been said though, there have been countless times when a new member posts negative things about certain knives, just to stir the pot.
Perhaps it isn't fair, but after awhile, people become suspicious when reading heavily negative posts. We all want to know when a maker has issues, and I'm sure the maker does as well, but when the issue at hand is such a small percentage of the knives bought, it does get peoples attention.

You will find people are very loyal to certain brands, and become very defensive when negative issues are posted, especially if they have had a track record of great quality, from past purchases.
 
I have been one of the biggest GEC fans, and I've had many fine examples of several different patterns. That said, I have had a few lemons. Crazy thing is, I've never sent anything back to GEC to fix. The problems have been things like liner gaps, blades that when open don't point straight, things that can annoy, but not really affect use. I've only had one out of around 40 that had any side to side blade wobble, and that came second hand so I can't say if it came from GEC that way. Thing is, when you find a good maker sometimes we tend to be overly critical going forward. We expect all to be as good as that first one we got our hands on.
 
Ok folks, back on topic please. As you all know, we like to see respectful, friendly and constructive posts. Respectful being the primary attribute. Thanks.
 
dma1965 said:
Mike, none of my knives are lock backs. Also, I do not dislike GECs, nor do I like posting about disappointment. I actually love GEC knives and have bought quite a few because of that. In fact, I have bought quite a few from you.

Now I will say the ones I have gotten from you have all been wobble free. Others came off this forum or from eBay. It is possible that the ones I have purchased off of this forum or eBay may be ones that were sold because they were less than perfect.

If my post causes GEC to lose business that was not my intention. I also do not believe my post is going to have that much negative impact. I will restate that I continue to buy GEC knives and will continue to buy them as long as they are in business.
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My bad assuming we were talking about lockbacks; because that was the only pattern I have seen any consistent play. As to the other comments, I don't pretend to understand any one persons background or perception; thus I try to speak generically. Using what I have seen as a whole instead of any one particular occurance. I have gotten knives back with "terrible flopping around" that I measured to 2/1000ths movement at the tip and one that I got back that sounded like your were ringing a dinner bell when you shook it that the customer said had a "slight amount of play".

If you have had a 50% satisfaction rate on non-lockback GEC knives then you are terribly unlucky. When I would go to the cattle auction with dad in my youth, I noticed that the singles that came thru didn't bring near what the groups averaged. I asked dad about it and he said everyone assumed that any singles that came thru had a problem, and got culled. So, without any real insight, there might be some merit to your observation that actioned knives from individuals are sometimes culls. When I bought knives off eBay I invested in equipment becuase I learned that I recieved knives I was tickled with about 10% of the time. Everyone forgets to mention the chigger bites, scratches, slop, gaps, etc. and the pictures for some reason never show them.

Factories, and dealers for that matter, lose customers and gain customers. If these types of threads show up more often than the positive thread, it will ebb - otherwise flow. That is not to say anyone needs to hold their opinions, just a fact of doing business. Knife loyalties many times are like politics; we let our overall loyalty (or disloyalty in many cases) cloud the specific circumstances. I once read somewhere, "Can you win your argument if you lose your audience". My downfall is that I generally try to play devil's advocate and disbelieve everything until I am convinced otherwise.

Unless your luck turns, I would just assume every knife was going to cost me an extra $6 shipping to the factory. But if an extra $6 is all a perfect knife cost you, then you are in much better shape than most of us.
 
Not sure if I qualify as part of the "GEC faithful", but suspect that I do as I own a dozen of their patterns, and wouldn't have purchased that many if I wasn't pleased with their overall product including their quality. None of my GEC knives have any blade wobble that is perceptible to me, but perhaps I've just been lucky. The patterns that I own include: 06, 15, 33, 42, 48, 55, 61, 62, 68, 72, 85, 92. Not all of my GEC's are perfect though, and I have sent one (#55) back to GEC as the pull was too strong. My experience with their customer service on that occasion was very positive as Chris was very courteous and professional, my problem was addressed, and my knife was returned to me in what I felt was an acceptable timeframe (right at 3 weeks door-to-door). Other issues that I've noted include the fact that the back spring on several of my knives are not perfectly flush in all three positions, but for me personally, this is not a big deal. Also, most have not been as sharp out of the box (err, tube) as I like, but this is easily remedied and not a big issue for me as I use rather than collect knives. Overall though, I give GEC very high marks and have been very pleased with each of my purchases (all of which have either been through GEC dealers or from other members here on the exchange). I carry and use all of my knives and although my typical use is for fairly mundane purposes, they all perform as I would expect a tool to perform, which is to say they get the job done. In retrospect, I guess you can definitely include me in the "GEC faithful" category.
 
"GEC faithful" was not meant to be a negative thing, I swear. GEC's warranty is great! The knives they make are great! I have had bad luck. Please consider this a "first post screw up". Baiting or any other term that I'm not aware of was not my intent. I apologize, again. Not sure what for but I am sorry.
 
My experience, and my opinion, is that in Manufacturing, in Retail Sales and certainly in Secondary Sales, Perfection is unattainable. The crux of the matter then becomes, What can a Manufacturer do to minimize imperfection, and what can the Retailers then do to make whole the imperfection that does get through to the customer. Anybody who has been to the GEC Factory, or been around these knives and this Forum, knows that there is a great deal of hand work that goes into building these knives. To quote Bill Howard, if I may, "These knives are built by People, they're not assembled by machines." That also goes for QC, one person, one knife. They work very hard, but cannot achieve perfection. As for Retail Sales, every GEC Distributor, of which I am one, that I have met, worked with or know by reputation only, works just as hard not only to uphold the values of Great Eastern Cutlery, but to provide the best product and buying experience to our customers. If you have a problem, contact your Distributor and IT WILL be made right. We can not achieve perfection either, but we can make a mistake right within reason. As for Secondary Sales, ie EBay, Forum Exchanges and Non Authorized Distributors, this goes back many, many years, Caveat Emptor.

Just to lighten things up a bit,
 
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My (regrettably) only GEC came not sharpened. I called them and sent it in and they sharpened and polished the blades for free. I think that if they have fixed like 15 knives for wobble at your stated high standards then that pretty much shows they do care about quality.
 
All of my Pembertons (I have 5) are rock solid, as are my GEC-built Northwoods. My 76 and 66 Stockman both have ridiculous amounts of side wobble, so I agree they can be hit or miss.
 
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