Help with GEC #73 situation...!!!

[RWJonesy]

I just received a beautiful GEC #73 Northfield Trapper Knife with cocobolo handles from Knives Ship Free. First let me say how beautiful and well built it is...I love it! The problem is that the nail nicks on the bull nose blade side are parallel with the handle, making it very difficult to "get at" with your fingernail. The next issue is that it is nearly impossible to pull the one blade out! I called Chris at GEC and told her the problem. She said place a few drops of WD40 in the proper instructed places and see if that works. If that doesn't help send them the knife and they will make the necessary adjustments. So I did as she instructed and cut my finger pretty bad. I have never seen such tension on a knife! I then proceed to call Tyler at KnivesShipFree and he said that this knife is known for this very difficult tension. My question is...if that is so, why isn't this issue advertised as such for the consumer's sake? Tyler said to send the knife back and look for another knife near the same price to "swap" one for the other as they prefer not to charge me a restocking fee and resubmit credit card work that needs to be done for a full refund. They will refund but recommend swapping one for another. Well because I love this knife and wanted it for Christmas, I went back a few hours later and checked to see if the WD40 did anything to help alleviate the tension problem. I was being extremely careful because I already cut myself once....the tension was still so difficult that I had the knife almost opened and I slipped and cut myself badly again!!! I polished the knife up, packaged it, and sent it back to KnivesShipFree today. Has anyone ever had an experience like mine? Any helpful advice? GEC makes a killer knife but this particular model needs to be re-thought and fixed I believe. It shouldn't be so difficult and dangerous to open a blade?!....should it?

 

[Sonnemann]

This will get more traction in the Traditional Knives forum. Overall, the 73s of various years are known for tough pulls. E.g., those with lanyard holes have lighter pulls than the others. In my experience people either like the strong pulls, are collectors only, or have learned to address the issue. On that last point, there are 3 steps that will eventually reduce the pulls one way or another.

1) Flush out the joints with very hot water and dish soap. There is manufacturing junk left over in the joints on some knives. Keep going until you stop seeing black gunk coming out of the pivot, then dry off with canned air and oil it again with a lube of your choice.

2) If no improvement then keep the blades open at a 45" angle (i.e. almost all the way open) for a day at a time, checking the tension each day and re-oiling as needed. This method is aimed at lessening the backspring tension.

3) Finally, a small square diamond file can lightly break down the sharp tang corners of each blade. This significantly reduces the maximum flex distance of the backspring and thus the overall toughness of the pull.

4) When all else fails, GEC is accustomed to taking back these knives to lessen the pull.

Sorry you weren't satisfied, they are great knives once you get them to where you're comfortable with the pull.

 

[SaintlyBrees]

I had the same problem. Nothing seemed to work although I tried 1 -3 in Sonnemann's post above. Only when I sent it back to GEC did I get some resolution. As Sonnemann suggests, they are accustomed to this request. Mine is still a bit stiff, but no longer bends my fingernails back so I'm happy with it. They took care of it for me with a fairly short turn around time (2 weeks?) and were pleasant and very customer centric through the process.

[Edit: Suggestion #2 worked well on my GEC #23]

Best of luck.

 

[RWJonesy]

Thanks for the thoughtful replies. I want that #73....it is a fantastic beautiful knife. I plan on asking for a clean swap for another. GEC makes amazing knives! I'm not slamming them at all! I was disappointed that the pull was unbelievably tough and had to send it back and wondered how others feel would feel if they were in my shoes and the right path to choose.