Newbie Question about a GEC Beagle

L

Lincoln Grant

Joined
Jan 16, 2017
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2
I'm brand new to the porch. Been spending way too much time here looking and drooling over all the pics of the great knives all of you have. I just picked up my first GEC (a TC Peachseed Barlow) from the exchange and I am fighting very hard not to fall hard down the rabbit hole that awaits. That said, I have my heart set on picking up a Beagle. I'm a fan of the smaller/Peanut class of knife and the Beagle is definitely calling out to me. The problem I am having is deciding between a couple of options. (Yes, I know the obvious answer is to get both, but that is just not in the cards at this point.) I am torn between the Cola Jigged or the Red Linen. I keep coming back to the Red Linen, but I have never handled one. How does the Red Linen hold up over time when carried everyday in a pocket or small slip? I'm thinking the Cola would hold up better in the looks department over time than the Red Linen. I would appreciate hearing from those who have experience in this area. Thanks for letting me sit down on the porch with you for awhile.
 
Welcome!
As far as holding up- it is hard to beat micarta. It is one of the toughest materials in use. The bone might look a little better (depending on your tastes) but the micarta is tougher and has less chance of cracking/breaking when dropped. IMO.
The Beagle is a great little pattern and I find the tiny coping blade to be very useful. Enjoy it if/when you get it!
 
Red Linen is Red Linen Micarta. Micarta is some seriously tough stuff and will easily out last you. It's made by taking layers of cloth or paper and impregnating them with phenolic resin. When it's ground down the very ends of the fibers are exposed but nothing else. When you wash a micarta handled knife with soap it, it will clean the fibers and they get lighter. If you oil it with mineral oil or just carry it, the "fuzz" soaks that back up and darkens again. Other than that the appearance shouldn't change much over time.

Someone tested wether it was impervious to chemicals by soaking it in gasoline for a few days. Nothing happened. To clean it off he lit it on fire and when gas burned off and the carbon rubbed away the micarta was fine. If you drop the knife I'd be more concerned about marring the nickel bolsters. I have managed to scratch mine (very shallowly) by scraping it on jagged concrete, I could buff it out but my stainless/micarta 42 lockback is just a workhorse.

Jigged bone on the other hand is made of cattle bone. Pretty sturdy, but not impervious to chemicals, chipping, scratching, cracking or fading. If you like the aesthetics and want a tough handle material go micarta without worry.
 
Welcome to the porch.
I bought both but despite all the technical stuff about how tough Micarta is I just could not get on with it, so the jig bone Cola alternates with my Yeller peanut according to how I feel on the day.
 
Micarta is tough stuff. I happen to like jigged bone though. I have one in that Cola bone and it's a sweet knife. I really like how it ages.
 
As others have stated, micarta is incredibly tough stuff. There is a video from a knifemaker out there somewhere putting a simple pivot through two slabs of micarta sandwiched around a very thick blade and torqueing it to see which gave first - the blade snapped with no damage to the micarta "handle" at all. My experience with several micarta shadow pattern knives I've done as mods holds true to this. I over-peened the pivot on one knife and have not been able to torque it enough to loosen it. I put significant lateral pressure on the blade and could not budge the pin to micarta connection, but the blade was flexed to the extent that I thought it was going to pop any second.

That said, micarta is not terribly difficult to mar. I put a bail on my micarta Bullnose, and in the process dug into the material pretty badly. It's also easy to sand and work. I'm sure there's some fancy engineering term for it, but it seems to hold up really well against lateral pressure - It is hard to break. It is not very hard to scratch and ding up in my experience.

I would say get whichever one is more appealing to you visually though. All of the things I said about scratching Micarta are equally, if not more true of bone. I think that beat up, worn out bone looks great, not so much for Micarta but that's just an opinion ;)
 
Welcome! As mentioned micarta is super tough stuff! Bone is durable too, but will crack and chip if you are really tough on you knife or drop it.
The beagle is a great knife, here is mine in cocobolo:
 
I'm with Ernie on this. I have the same knife, and I love the cocobolo. Cleaned & a touch of oil now and then....it will outlive you.

Peter
 
Thanks for all the replies fellas. Much appreciated. Not sure I am any closer to a decision, but the cola jigged bone might be sneaking out in front.
 
In the end it shouldn't matter all that much on such a small and light knife. Plus, the end cap will pretty much protect the most vulnerable spot from cracking. They can also be brought back to relatively new condition pretty easily by buffing them with some high grit paper and/ or polishing compound. The bone might loose a little color, though.
I've been very tempted to pick up one in stag. I feel like this tiny little knife would benefit from the extra width of some thick stag slabs. I really need to get around to getting one before all the stock dries up...
 
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