GEC Tidioute Sunfish

A

augustus88

Joined
Oct 13, 2006
Messages
781
I picked up a GEC Sunfish in Frontier Bone last week and thought I'd share a few pictures. The fit and finish is nice and tight on this knife. The main blade was shaving sharp out of the box . The small blade needed some sharpening, but it still had a decent working edge out of the box. The springs are tight, but not bad for a GEC. The main blade is easier and not a nail buster. Not bad at all when you consider how beefy the single spring is. This is a large, heavy knife at 4 1/8". It's remarkably slim due to the single spring shared by both blades. Not really a good pocket carry knife for most people unless you wear heavy denim. I wear denim carpenter or cargo shorts every day to work, so I don't mind the extra weight and bulk. This is the best looking frontier bone I've seen on a GEC knife. I've returned two other models of knives with Frontier Bone for horribly shaped and unbalanced scales.

Another fine knife from GEC, but I think they really should fill the hole in their line between the #25 Barlow and #73 Scout. They have enough large knives and retreads of their #54 pattern.

Sunfish1.jpg


Sunfish3.jpg


Sunfish2.jpg
 
Thanks for the pics, Augustus! The frontier bone on that one does look good. I completely agree with you on the comment about the gap between the #25 and #73 patterns in GEC's lineup. Something in between those two would be very welcome to me- that's the size I like to collect (and carry/ use). Something along the lines of a medium stockman or Case's medium jack/ pen would be great. And it would also be nice if they could take it easy with the springs. GEC has proven that they can make tough backsprings. Now how about something comfortable enough for everyday use? Most of my GECs don't get carried much, simply because they are too tough to open when I just need to whip my knife out, open it quickly, cut something, and put it away. You really have to focus when opening a lot of GEC's, lest you rip off your thumbnail. Tough backsprings don't make much sense to me. If you need a knife that can take a lot of force against the spine before closing, you need a lock. A tough backspring gives a (potentially dangerous) false sense of security, IMO.

The toenails look cool, but they're not for me. I have no use for a slipjoint that big and bulky.
 
Hey Augustus

That's a sweet looking knife. I was thinking about picking one up. I think it would be a nice using knife. Indeed it was designed for manual labor. Besides the nail buster, is there anything else that you don't really dig about it? I was wondering if it had 1095 or SS back springs. I look forward to hearing a review of that beautiful when you get you use it more. Thanks

God Bless.
 
Wow... at 4-1/8", yet it looks so "stubby", that thing is Wide!

Indeed, Nice bone too...
Thanks for the pics- although my wallet will not thank you later ;)
 
kidwholaughs said:
Hey Augustus

That's a sweet looking knife. I was thinking about picking one up. I think it would be a nice using knife. Indeed it was designed for manual labor. Besides the nail buster, is there anything else that you don't really dig about it? I was wondering if it had 1095 or SS back springs. I look forward to hearing a review of that beautiful when you get you use it more. Thanks

God Bless.
Click to expand...

The spring isn't truly a nail buster. I have several other GEC knives that are much worse.

The only thing about Sunfish that I'm not crazy about is sharpening. That particular main blade shape is a bit harder to sharpen than a typical drop or clip point. The straight part is easy, but the sharp curve toward the point can be tough to get razor sharp(at least for me). I really like everything else about the knife.

I believe that all Tidioute and Northfield knives by GEC have 1095 blades and springs.
 
You have to be really careful on these large Sunfish. This frame, even as large as it is, actually sits quite compact with a single backspring. Thus, generally if you make it to have a bear trap close you will rip your nails off trying to get it started open. I think GEC is doing the right thing on these by keeping them easy to open; they will pop open but really ease themselves closed.

Here is the Copper Snake Acrylic
GEMLT362208CS.JPG


Stag's won't be long now.

Mike Latham
CollectorKnives.Net
 
It looks like a canoe on steroids!!
Must be an awesome heavy duty work knife.
How long and thick is the main blade?

Very nice bone
 
I wonder how this knife would fair as a work knife. I am guessing that it slices and dices with the best of em.
Btw Augustus, how comfortable is the knife to hold and work with? I think I caught the sunfish bug.



God Bless
 
The blade on my sunfish is pretty thick at the tang, but it thins out quickly. It's ground more on one side than the other in order to provide a space for the small blade to "nest". There is also a large swedge above the "1 of 50"(hate those huge numbers on all serialized GEC knives!). The main cutting portion of the blade is the same thickness as a GEC #23 Pioneer. Cuts about the same too, but the overall knife isn't as thick as my 2-blade #23. The bolsters on both ends add weight so it feels about the same as a pioneer in the pocket. Overall, the Sunfish does a great job slicing and dicing. It's a tank of a knife and it stays in the open position very securely for a slipjoint. Neither blade has a half-stop. It fills out the hand nicely, but would be more comfortable to hold with a single blade. Probably not as good an overall work knife as the #23 pioneer, but it can hold its own.

Here's an overhead view of the GEC Sunfish main blade with dimensions (diagram not to scale).
Blade.jpg
 
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Here are some photos for comparison between a Spyderco C-95 Manix, GEC #23 2-blade Pioneer and a GEC Sunfish. I don't want to hear any crap about my Spyderco. ;) I only kept one "tactical" knife and the Manix was it.

Big1.jpg


Big2.jpg


Big3.jpg
 
Very useful pix, that's a right fattie there!

Can anybody shed light on the origins of the pattern?

I've heard tell that it was originally a Mariner's knife, used for slicing rope by whacking the blade with a mallet! I find this difficult to believe as hitting any pivoted knife is a poor idea surely?I would have though an axe or chisel-like cutter would have been used instead?

The pattern's not for me but it has a bizarre appeal certainly,really nice looking stuff that Frontier Bone too.
 
My pleasure to provide pictures and diagrams with my posts. I think it's always helpful to see knives grouped together for scale comparisons. A knife photo that doesn't provide hints to scale are nice to look at but often not very helpful when making a purchase.

The Sunfish is quite a handful as far as slipjoints go, but it looks small when compared to the Spyderco. People look horrified if I ever whip out the Spyderco to cut something in public. The lady at the Pep Boys Auto Parts shrieked and backed away when I used my GEC Pioneer to cut a special order part box open yesterday. Perhaps the stubby rounded appearance of the Sunfish will prove to be less intimidating.
 
Rusty 1

Very interesting link with some exceptional pictures,thank you.

This pattern? Toenail, Sunfish etc they ought to call it BEHEMOTH!
 
That's funny. The same happened to me. I really want to try out how the sunfish does in heavier cutting tasks. BTW, check out the youtub video that guy has. He gives some tutorials about the sunfish.

God Bless
 
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