Sorry folks, but I have to say it. Great Eastern Cutlery is the most overrated thing since the Mona Lisa.
Before you start screaming at your computer, let me say one thing. I really like GEC knives! Sometimes. I have had a few, and they have been pretty nice overall. Some were not a good fit for me, but that was not their fault. In my experience, GEC knives have mostly had really nice fit and finish, good steel, and they are (theoretically) built to use.
But....
1: They are just not as good as they are cracked up to be and the knives are sold as shelf queens, not to be used. I have seen plenty of issues with them on here and in person (ugly acrylic with ugly seams recently for instance). I had a 48 improved trapper that had really sharp jigging, almost splintery to the touch, and the secondary blade had an obnoxious and painfully sharp swedge that dug into your hand when you tried to actually use the knife (not just a problem on this one either, but pretty much any multi bladed Northfield). Recently, I got a Remington knife from them that the jigging actually did splinter! I reached in my pocket for it and a splinter of bone cracked off from around one of their lackluster pins and was stuck in my thumb! It was kind of painful and I had to use the knife to dig out the splinter of bone from the knife (oh the irony). Plus the shield is not fit perfectly either, with a gap beside it. They have non flush pins on every single knife that I know of. They have a lot of ugly, geometric type jigging (this is subjective though). Their blade tangs are so sharp that they are awful on your fingers in use, and on your pockets/leg when carrying. A lot of their knives have nail breaker pulls. Their warranty sucks, just give it a read. They won't even warranty a natural material handle (almost all of their knives) after use. People, knives are tools believe it or not. They are supposed to get used. That is not a warranty, it is worthless. That warranty is telling you to keep your knife a tube dwelling collectible.
2: They make so few knives! I know that they are a small operation and they do a lot of hand work, but dang. People crap on Case all the time for everything under the sun, but at least you can actually buy a Case! GEC makes so few knives that it is just silly, and it gives you no choice of what you want to buy. They sell knives more like they are art than tools. You will get what they make, and you had better like it. They could make the Farm and Field knives en masse so that people could actually get one to use, but they don't. Instead, they have raised prices and made it impossible to get a knife. They are tools. Imagine if wrenches were sold like boutique art like these are and how stupid that would be.
3: Fanboys and flippers. I have been looking at a bunch of GEC threads lately and it blows my mind what people will excuse if a knife has GEC stamped on it. It is like people are afraid that if they say something negative about the sacred cow that Bill Howard will personally ban them from flipping GEC's on Ebay or something. There is so much GEC butt kissing on Blade Forums it is crazy. I have seen people excuse flaws on knives like GEC/Bill Howard could never do anthing wrong. And the flippers are awful! Regular people with a life cannot find a GEC, so they get preyed on by douchebags flipping GEC's for insane prices.
I am going to stop ranting now. I actually like GEC knives themselves for the most part, but the company and the cult of GEC kind of sucks. I'm just saying that Case makes 10x as many knives, and they get crucified on here all the time while people give GEC a pass on most anything because they do not want to bad mouth the collector value out of their precious little untouched tubes. It is silly! I have GEC knives thanks to the exchange here, where you can sometimes find a knife for a decent price if you happen to show up to a sale thread at just the right time. I like them alot. I just don't get the cult. GEC, I'm not mad at you. I'm just dissapointed. lol Thanks for coming to my TED talk, now you can shun the non believer.
Thoughts? Please be nice by the way. We don't have to agree, but don't be a jerk to anyone.
It is the overrated GEC of TV shows in my book lol 
