I for one had the pleasure of speaking with part owner and President Bill Howard about the first 2 knives I bought. They were miserable, so bad I did not even realize they had half stops. It's real hard to tell a guy how bad a knife his company made. Well, we did have a good conversation and came to the agreement that the customer is usually right if he has a complaint. We also agreed that no knife is perfect, but that they must meet certain standards. All in all, I enjoyed talking to him and surprised that he took the time to talk with a collector. I sent my knives out and Bill Howard looked at my knives on a Saturday and they were back 4 weeks later, both much better than average but not near custom either. I did feel that they were worth more than I paid for them by about $20.00.
Since that time I have purchased 34 more through various sources, 1 set being for my son. I for one am very happy that I did not let 2 bad ones cloud my judgement, this is a REAL START UP, not like Canal Street Cutlery, whose knives I also like and collect, I must have at least 30 including a first years mint set. But Canal Street Cutlery is not a pure start up, it is mostly former Schrade employees in a building where millions of knives have been made. Not so with GEC, where there was not already a trained pool of master cutlers to pick and choose from.
Out of 36 knives now ALL are sharp, not a dull blade in the bunch. If I have but one gripe it is that quality in my 36 ranges from average to virtually near custom for 7 of them. I make knives and sheaths, have little time for forums, and I have a critcal eye. The fact that I can tell the difference between #2 and #20 is something that can drive a former QC guy WITH start up experience, up a wall. The knives I bought, are they worth it? YES all but the first 2 at first, which were reborn and after all was said and done, they were worth it. Some of these knives have less than 100, less than 80, some even less than that. Whether GEC falls or survives (looks VERY promising for a long survival), these 2006 knives look to be very sought after collectables and should be a great investment, either way the ball bounces. I know the pitfalls of production, I know start ups and I definitely know QC.
What I do keep seeing is the venomous rants about GEC from rosconey2 here at Blade and just recently at allaboutpocketknives.com as rosconey where he continues to deliver rants about poor quality knives he supposedly got but we have never seen a picture of yet. We have called him on his rants at AAPK a few times where I'm a moderator and I have numerous complaints via the pm system and we are near blocking him out. Only a fool will rant about knives that the general populace likes. I don't know why folks are prone to listen to negative comments more than they are the positive. I do know those that listened are now ticked off because they feel like they lost thier chance to own a collectable that is surely to increase in value with time.
I got 4 PM's complaining about rosconey just today alone at AAPK, keep him over here, we don't want him or his inciteful rants, enough is enough!
BTW, which company is paying rosconey to rant? I mention this because it is not normal to rant over a couple of knives for months, starting 3 posts here and who knows how may over there that have been deleted for content (language).
Buy one and decide for yourselves, the latest ones have been great. Anyone that knows Bill Horn, knows that they will get their money back if they don't like.
