Lets talk GEC!

[Stropping Young Lad]

I was complaining the other day about the arid climate of Arizona shrinking horn knife handles, but it sure is nice for carbon steel.

Nice to see that GEC clarified the CKC thing. I can't say that I entirely understand the purpose of that stamp, but I suppose there've been stranger things stamped or engraved onto pocket knives.

I think GEC does a lot of things to mark the “era” of production.

 

[Sabercat]

I'd love for the rug to come true and have an acorn shield stainless version of the Bull Moose, but thankfully for me, my climate up here in Maine is such that as long as I remove my knife before I get soaked to my underpants while out in the rain all day, I'm good. Never had a spot of rust, and I never oil my blades, just the pivots.

Even in northwest PA (40 miles from GEC) my knives will get a spot or two even when oiled, and in an air conditioned house. I don't hate 1095, but it can get tedious to keep them nice.

As far as the #81 rug, Bill made it quickly clear to me at the rendezvous that it was just to put their acorn logo on the rug, and that a stainless #81 isn't happening.

That's what might bother me the most about the possible end of stainless there...are they going to stop the GEC labeled folders altogether, or keep making them with 1095? Not sure how they would differentiate them from Tidioute or Northfield if they make them in carbon steel.

 

[Camillus]

Carbon KEEPS Cutting

The explanation for the CKC acronym is kind of disappointing.. you do wonder sometimes about GEC's direction. Lots of misses among the hits - and rightly or wrongly, I see every misstep as a missed opportunity to roll out another sensational knife or another cool feature that really makes me want to add a knife to the collection..

 

[knifeswapper]

The explanation for the CKC acronym is kind of disappointing..

Did someone explain it? We now know what it stands for, but does anyone know why? I assume they are only replacing the "TIW" with "CKC". TIW was just a marker for carbon versus Cyclops for SS. So, for whatever reason, CKC seems like just as good a marker for carbon as putting "Carbon" on the blade (which was probably one of the alternatives). Maybe GEC should have had a contest and taken recommendations - then gave a free knife to the winner. I wish they would have asked me, I could have come up with something with a little more flare or pizzazz.

 

[Tennessee Vol]

I wish I'd gotten in on that 74s run. Wonder if GEC will do a stainless run sometime next year?

I would have loved to see a stainless 43 in the orange camel bone. Just a hopeless wish though. The 43 looks to be a good, useful pattern size. Still thinking of grabbing one, but then again I have acquired too many carbon blades lately.

 

[WoodManGM]

Tried this in the Song Sung Blue knives thread and didn't get any response so I'm trying again here:

Does anybody else feel like GEC has almost totally abandoned blue handles? I recall that there was the Northwoods blue camel bone recently but I don't feel that that really counts since the handles were specified by the dealer.

They still seem to like green: the new #81, the #35 Hummingbird, the #38, the #48 (really like this one), and the omni-present OD green Micarta to name a few.

I understand the small run of blue #48s this year was a factory mistake.

It's getting so I would be happy with blue acrylic.

Am I seeing a GEC trend here?

 

[black mamba]

It's not even a recent trend. Blue covers have always been rare, and when they did show up more often than not they were acrylic. I'd be surprised if there has been more than half a dozen blue bone covered knives in their whole 11 year history.

 

[Kiteman72]

I once snagged a 25 single spear Northfield EO with "river blue" bone handles that I really treasure.

It's the only GEC I have ever purchased in person. The dealer had the tube, but I had to convince him that it went with the knife. Pretty comical.

 

[black mamba]

Here is the only blue boned GEC I've ever had, a Cuban in River Blue stag bone from 2008.

 

[Will Power]

Blue is generally a rare colour for knives, don't know why though?? I have to admit I'm not a massive fan of this colour on knives.

Some blue CASE knives including the American Workman series. GEC did a Neptune acrylic for the 38 Whittler and there were faux Turquoise knives too, the 16 perhaps? Can't think of any Queen knives in blue offhand and no Canal Sts either.

Burl seems a more common wood for blue on fixed blades though.

 

[btb01]

There was a blue jigged bone #14 last year (may have been an SFO?), but if you were looking for blue, it was a bit of a disappointment.

 

[LastRodeo]

There was a blue jigged bone #14 last year (may have been an SFO?), but if you were looking for blue, it was a bit of a disappointment.

I suspect reason we don’t see a lot of blue bone from GEC is they haven’t been very successful with producing it. I’m guessing the older knives with the nicely dyed (and jigged) bone was sourced from a supplier (Culpepper?).

 

[Pomsbz]

Carbon Keeps Cutting? When referencing their 1095 it might beg the question 'in comparison to what'? It's an easy steel to sharpen and get a razor edge on but edge holding is hardly it's strong point.

 

[Buzzbait]

Carbon Keeps Corroding?

 

[cbr1000]

or Colonial Knife Company

 

[Will Power]

Carbon Keeps Corroding?

About It

 

[spyderg]

I think perhaps the Carbon Keeps Cutting thing might be GECs way of saying they want to stick with old school traditional 1095 rather than giving in to all the requests for modern steels. I’d love to see a GEC in M4, CruWear, or M390 but there’s a certain charm to a traditional knife in traditional steel too.

 

[Kiteman72]

I am loving my new hummingbird acrylic Churchill, and I hope it shows up on some more patterns in the future.

But where is the patriot acrylic? The Neptune? Even the kryptonite hasn't been used for a while!

I would really like to see the patriot especially make a comeback, the "American Patriot" blade etch was pretty nice too.

 

[Camillus]

I think perhaps the Carbon Keeps Cutting thing might be GECs way of saying they want to stick with old school traditional 1095 rather than giving in to all the requests for modern steels. I’d love to see a GEC in M4, CruWear, or M390 but there’s a certain charm to a traditional knife in traditional steel too.

I am happy for GEC to use older steels and make traditional knives which were cool once and so are cool now, and I don't hanker for a blend of old/new materials. But CKC as a tang stamp doesn't fit in. Would a traditional knife have CKC as a tang stamp in reference to its superiority over modern 21st century steels? No, because there were no modern steels to compare to. So why use that tang stamp if your claim is that everything about your work is traditional? IMO its a bad read by GEC and a misunderstanding of their market.

 

[Stropping Young Lad]

I am happy for GEC to use older steels and make traditional knives which were cool once and so are cool now, and I don't hanker for a blend of old/new materials. But CKC as a tang stamp doesn't fit in. Would a traditional knife have CKC as a tang stamp in reference to its superiority over modern 21st century steels? No. Of course not. So why use that tang stamp if your claim is that everything about your work is traditional? Its a bad read by GEC and a misunderstanding of their market.

I disagree, to an extent. Taking a look at vintage ads, pocket knife companies were pretty braggadocious.