How does GEC respond to quality control issues with their knives?

[draggat]

They may be reading it, but they have also read for years the hatred the majority of folks have for blade play. Some tuning may be in order, but they won't be shimming the joint anytime soon.

That makes perfect sense. Since they are so tight, I think the tang stamps need to be looked at as possible friction points, as well as the actual blade being stamped out usually leaves a raised edge around the kick area on one side of the blade. I have had luck sanding these areas down a little.
I think this is one of the ways a knife is able to "break in". As the tang stamping, (and kick area mentioned) rubs against the liners and gets situated. It is good that it starts tight because it is only going to loosen up.

All of this does make sense. I see people constantly saying how much they hate blade play. To be completely honest, I’ve only experienced overly tight pivots on 3 or 4 knives but they’re all recent production.

I’m not sure I want to take sandpaper to my blades though. Maybe some flitz worked through the joints and opened/closed 100x would do the trick?

When I first started buying these 6 years ago, I got a 73 that shredded my nails. I guess I figured out how to open them since because now I miss that gator snap on the new knives.

Sorry I derailed the thread here!

As to the original topic, my experience with their customer service has been stellar, despite a couple of emails that never received a reply. I’d recommend just calling. It’s faster.