waynorth
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2005
- Messages
- 32,445
Over the years I've been watching that upstart company across town from the Historic (1903) Knife Factory in Titusville, PA, and I've enjoyed seeing some evolutionary changes that are mostly for the good!
Being a collector and lover of antique pocket knives, the details that made those old knives, and continue to keep them darn near objectively beautiful have filled my brain cells with images to which I compare all others.
So it is always with hope that I view new releases from all currently operating cutleries.
The hope is that the designers and makers in said cutlery plants will understand all the details that made the antique knives so great.
Maybe it was the fact that knives were more crucial to every day life 100 and more years ago, that the knives got so much attention to detail. Or maybe it was the competition of 100 or more cutleries vying for the consumer dollar!
Either way a Golden Age of Cutlery was created back then.
Of course Wars and Depression took their toll on the industry, and it did a lot of stumbling in recent years, providing flashes of greatness, but too much mediocrity in my opinion.
So it's always gratifying to see nice examples of modern-made but old-style knives show up in the market.
This is one nice example.
The appearance is great, incorporating some of the "upscale" features old timers would have expected on a premium knife. Slanted and detailed bolsters, and a nice shield, a graceful easy to use handle pattern, and some elegance to the blade shapes as well as them being task-specific. This is after all, a knife designed to take the skins of smaller animals.
I haven't used the knife yet, and wonder if I will! I have a raft of EDCs right now, and have grown to appreciate the carbon steel that GEC uses. I am carrying my "boiled" Barlow, and a 100 plus year old Sheffield knife I suspect of having some Ashkenazi history!
I have sharpened and used both, and find them remarkably similar in performance!
One stand out feature for me, is the Bone handle details, both jigging and dying.
When you look at old Remington, New York Knife, Schrade Cut Co, Empire and other, knives, it is amazing what you eventually notice. The jigging is often very distinctive, and often very beautiful. Sometimes wear only serves to enhance the jigging and bring it to life. Many examples from more recent years have proven to be poor sketches of what the "good old stuff" looked like and continues to look like!!
GEC's jigging is evolving. The "jigs" or cuts have changed shape over the last few years, and this has improved the overall appearance.
Recently, I've been told the colors of old handles are difficult to duplicate because the chemicals that produced those colors are very toxic (that is they were toxic while wet/active) - solvents that went straight to the brain and liver if contacted or breathed - sheesh! But nonetheless, this budding cutlery has contrived to safely make very pleasing bone colors that harken back to the "Golden Days"!
Needless to say, I really like this knife! I like its single backspring, which keeps it light and slim. I like how its serpentine shape makes it easy to grip securely.
Heck it makes me want to go out and catch a Muskrat!
Maybe that pesky city 'Coon that keeps trying to get into my roof will do!!
I'm ready for him!!
Being a collector and lover of antique pocket knives, the details that made those old knives, and continue to keep them darn near objectively beautiful have filled my brain cells with images to which I compare all others.
So it is always with hope that I view new releases from all currently operating cutleries.
The hope is that the designers and makers in said cutlery plants will understand all the details that made the antique knives so great.
Maybe it was the fact that knives were more crucial to every day life 100 and more years ago, that the knives got so much attention to detail. Or maybe it was the competition of 100 or more cutleries vying for the consumer dollar!
Either way a Golden Age of Cutlery was created back then.
Of course Wars and Depression took their toll on the industry, and it did a lot of stumbling in recent years, providing flashes of greatness, but too much mediocrity in my opinion.
So it's always gratifying to see nice examples of modern-made but old-style knives show up in the market.
This is one nice example.
The appearance is great, incorporating some of the "upscale" features old timers would have expected on a premium knife. Slanted and detailed bolsters, and a nice shield, a graceful easy to use handle pattern, and some elegance to the blade shapes as well as them being task-specific. This is after all, a knife designed to take the skins of smaller animals.
I haven't used the knife yet, and wonder if I will! I have a raft of EDCs right now, and have grown to appreciate the carbon steel that GEC uses. I am carrying my "boiled" Barlow, and a 100 plus year old Sheffield knife I suspect of having some Ashkenazi history!
I have sharpened and used both, and find them remarkably similar in performance!
One stand out feature for me, is the Bone handle details, both jigging and dying.
When you look at old Remington, New York Knife, Schrade Cut Co, Empire and other, knives, it is amazing what you eventually notice. The jigging is often very distinctive, and often very beautiful. Sometimes wear only serves to enhance the jigging and bring it to life. Many examples from more recent years have proven to be poor sketches of what the "good old stuff" looked like and continues to look like!!
GEC's jigging is evolving. The "jigs" or cuts have changed shape over the last few years, and this has improved the overall appearance.
Recently, I've been told the colors of old handles are difficult to duplicate because the chemicals that produced those colors are very toxic (that is they were toxic while wet/active) - solvents that went straight to the brain and liver if contacted or breathed - sheesh! But nonetheless, this budding cutlery has contrived to safely make very pleasing bone colors that harken back to the "Golden Days"!
Needless to say, I really like this knife! I like its single backspring, which keeps it light and slim. I like how its serpentine shape makes it easy to grip securely.
Heck it makes me want to go out and catch a Muskrat!
Maybe that pesky city 'Coon that keeps trying to get into my roof will do!!
I'm ready for him!!
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