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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
GEC Your Best of The BIG BOYS!
- Thread starter TinyDog
- Start date
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With my Sunfish, the hook was set. Next came a #45 Lumberjack:
Ooh la, the expanse of ebony, the lanyard hole, the ballooning main blade, the smooth handle with a profile unbroken by a closed secondary....
And funny, how the Lumberjack's larger-yet size serves to "normalize" the #36 Sunfish!
~~~
Once one has become smitten with the wide-bladed Big Boys of GEC, one becomes inexorably drawn into an often fruitless hunt for a Whale(r).
Imagine my humbled astonishment when a long-admired Whale(r) came and found me:
Again, an expanse of ebony, an absurdity of steel....
The Whaler and Lumberjack are built on the same frame, with the Whaler's main blade at the wider end, the Lumberjack's at the smaller:
Wonderful character in the ebony of each:
As you can see in this and previous images, the Whaler came already bearing the marks of use,which removed any hesitation or intimidation in putting it to use myself-- a welcome thing, in at least some of one's knives.
The Whaler and Lumberjack join forces to further normalize the Sunfish, which holds its own quite nicely:
~~~
Once one has become smitten with the wide-bladed Big Boys of GEC, and has perhaps manages to acquire a Whaler, one inevitably becomes becomes haunted by the vision of a White Whale....
~ P.
Ooh la, the expanse of ebony, the lanyard hole, the ballooning main blade, the smooth handle with a profile unbroken by a closed secondary....
And funny, how the Lumberjack's larger-yet size serves to "normalize" the #36 Sunfish!
~~~
Once one has become smitten with the wide-bladed Big Boys of GEC, one becomes inexorably drawn into an often fruitless hunt for a Whale(r).
Imagine my humbled astonishment when a long-admired Whale(r) came and found me:
Again, an expanse of ebony, an absurdity of steel....
The Whaler and Lumberjack are built on the same frame, with the Whaler's main blade at the wider end, the Lumberjack's at the smaller:
Wonderful character in the ebony of each:
As you can see in this and previous images, the Whaler came already bearing the marks of use,which removed any hesitation or intimidation in putting it to use myself-- a welcome thing, in at least some of one's knives.
The Whaler and Lumberjack join forces to further normalize the Sunfish, which holds its own quite nicely:
~~~
Once one has become smitten with the wide-bladed Big Boys of GEC, and has perhaps manages to acquire a Whaler, one inevitably becomes becomes haunted by the vision of a White Whale....
~ P.
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2012
- Messages
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Every year for the past few, I have visited wlfryjr's White Whale(r) at the GEC Rendezvous, marveling at it for so many reasons-- its wonderful appointments, its place in GEC's production history, its ungettableness....
The White Whale of GEC Whalers, literal and metaphorical!
Never did I imagine one would become available to me, let alone at a time and in a way that I would be able to follow through.
These Big Boys have rearranged my preferences, haunted me, and proven me wrong all along the way.
Why not one more time? Because somehow, this knife is now mine:
I doubt my pictures will ever do the knife justice, although I'll keep trying.
[Sans a more deliberate photographic set-up, bolster selfies abound, and the light is seldom right to catch the creamy goodness of the bone.]
GEC's 2011 Rendezvous knife...
... the Pattern Production Premier:
In other words, this is the 6th GEC Whaler released, ever.
With its use-able(!) brother:
The curved tang stamps in the copperplate-ish font are some of my favorite touches-- I shall try to get a better image of each of them, Northfield and Tidioute alike, soon.
I am still in awe, and likely will remain so. This knife means more to me than I yet know, let alone can put to words right now.
'Best of the Big Boys,' indeed(!).
~ P.
[TinyDog, imagine my surprised delight when I went searching for the best thread in which to post this knife, vaguely remembering one dedicated to "the big boys" that I'd previously hoped to return to with my Lumberjack and ebony Whaler, and discovered whose thread it was!]
The White Whale of GEC Whalers, literal and metaphorical!
Never did I imagine one would become available to me, let alone at a time and in a way that I would be able to follow through.
These Big Boys have rearranged my preferences, haunted me, and proven me wrong all along the way.
Why not one more time? Because somehow, this knife is now mine:
I doubt my pictures will ever do the knife justice, although I'll keep trying.
[Sans a more deliberate photographic set-up, bolster selfies abound, and the light is seldom right to catch the creamy goodness of the bone.]
GEC's 2011 Rendezvous knife...
... the Pattern Production Premier:
In other words, this is the 6th GEC Whaler released, ever.
With its use-able(!) brother:
The curved tang stamps in the copperplate-ish font are some of my favorite touches-- I shall try to get a better image of each of them, Northfield and Tidioute alike, soon.
I am still in awe, and likely will remain so. This knife means more to me than I yet know, let alone can put to words right now.
'Best of the Big Boys,' indeed(!).
~ P.
[TinyDog, imagine my surprised delight when I went searching for the best thread in which to post this knife, vaguely remembering one dedicated to "the big boys" that I'd previously hoped to return to with my Lumberjack and ebony Whaler, and discovered whose thread it was!]
- Joined
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Never thought I would like these knives but now that I have a couple they just bring a huge grin to my face every time I handle them, can't wait until Great Eastern does another run.
Augie, that's just it, isn't it?
They make me smile, laugh even.
~ P.
I was busy installing a wooden ceiling today, doing some minor rimming up on the ladder when these knives popped in my head, I now kick myself for not picking one up while at the rendezvous this year...perhaps next time...who would have thunk I that such a goofy knife would be appealing and useful.
Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk
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Behold the rare white whaler!
joeradza
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Thanks, guys! Given my early strong dismissals of their appearance, I'm still surprised at how happy these over-the-top knives make me-- yet perhaps I shouldn't be?
They embody, in excess of steel and expanses of natural materials, the excess of friendship and good company I've come to know here, and in person in Titusville, as we appreciate traditional knives together.
Each came to me through consideration, in thoughtful word-of-mouth regarding availability and/or the actual terms of each exchange.
That the White Whaler is a Rendezvous knife, even if from the year before I started attending, makes it all the more special to me.
Behold the rare white whaler!
WOW.
(Is this your work, Barry? A perfect cover choice for this knife!)
~ P.
Rusty1
Gold Member
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2005
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Fantastic pictures of the Whalers and Roughnecks. I still kick myself for not picking up one of the white bone etched annual rendezvous Whalers that year, but spent up on other GEC offerings. The White Whaler is off the scale, Wow!
Yes when are GEC going to do another run of 45's and 46's?
Yes when are GEC going to do another run of 45's and 46's?
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At 4 1/8" this barehead Forest Jack appears Mammoth 
, yet dwarfed by some of the really Big Boys showing in this thread.
, yet dwarfed by some of the really Big Boys showing in this thread.
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- Joined
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It was a factory model - one of five in 2011.
Oh, my golly. I had no idea!
Have I mentioned recently that you have excellent taste in knives?
~ P.
- Joined
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That's a beauty Charlie! Is that the one and only Bark EI? Very pretty.
