Opinions on Greco knives

Orion

Orion

Joined
Oct 4, 1998
Messages
529
So what is everyone's opinions of Greco knives? I was especially concerned with the heat treating...?
I picked up a couple at BladeShow and am quite impressed with them. I really like the materials and the designs and the simplicity of the manufacture. Any info on the heat treat would be appreciated.

Thanks-
Orion
 

You usually get what you pay for. In the case of Greco knives I think you get MORE
them what you payed for.

The two I have owned were very well made for the price and I wouldn't worry about the heat treat. I think Greco knows what he's doing.

If you have questions about his heat treat, you might contact him.

 
Hello,

Ive always heard pretty good things about johns knives,, He is the one who turned me on to the Clear hardcoat i use on my blades,,,,,,works great too!! I do know he uses a well known quality steel A2, but not sure if he heat treats himself or has it done.

My.02
Allen

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Allen Blade
Spokane,WA USA

" You can make great knives and sell a few, Or make Great AFFORDABLE knives and sell many"
WEB SITE : http://hometown.aol.com/bladecutlery/index.html
 
Nice design, good steel. Don't use it too hard, though, cause if you damage it, good luck. If you are interested in buying a bowie/utility/hard use knife, you may want to look elsewere. They have some really nice fighter styles though. So it depends on your use. Heavy work, I wouldn't buy it. Fighter or light field work, it may be viable.

I have been interested in their designs, since they make some really nice ones.
 
Hey Cobolt:
Have there been warrenty issues? I havent heard anything good or bad about service and support after purchase. I would be interested.

I just purchased two grecos. An MSTII 5 inch from Hammerheads, 65 bucks I couldnt say no, and a companion from Bladeart. I bought them because I have many "nice" knives but at the price you can get these I dont mind a little hard use and abuse. The fit and finish varied wildly between the two. The MST was very well fitted with the scales meeting up nicely and the grinds of the knife including its profile fairly smooth. The companion scales did not line up nearly as well with one scale being slghtly over and one scale under?? So when holding the knife edge up you could slide your finger nail over the tang from right to left and it would catch on the tang as you passed from the scale on your right to the tang and then again your nail would catch on the left scale as you continued from tang to left scale.

At the area that would be the bolster one scale was under cut with a 45 degree bevel? One scale beveled down smoothly to the blade and the other was taking its trip to meet steel but for some reason then cut under itself about 1/16 inch from the steel. The profile was also a little sloppy as you could feel undulations in the steel in the belly part of the handle. This is not all that uncommon even in higher priced knives but it was especially noticable here.

I asked about how the Companion felt compared to the Mst here on the newsgroup since the companion is about an inch shorter. I was looking, as always for a daily carry and wanted something a little easier to carry than the MST. I was told that in addition to the Companion being an inch shorter oal the handle was more slender top to bottom and side to side. Not on mine ! The handle on my MST though a little longish for my hands had a smaller circumference and just felt more locked in. I was able to get a good wrap in all grips including saber. The companion was wider side to side and the belly of the handle was large enough to not only feel a little wierd it looked awkward also. The blade edge was also somewhat less than that on my mst.

For 85 dollars I dont mind taking tools to it !!
smile.gif


The scales are not epoxied but screwed. Cool.I took the scales off and I took a little meat off the back of the handle
Starting at the ricasso i shaved down toward the thong hole so that the steel was removed on an arcing angle toward the thong hole. I smoothed out the undulations on the handle belly and in the proccess took it down a bit. I then threw a burr in the drill press and made the pinky grab a bit more pronounced. I sanded the scales until they fit the handle. Not much steel was removed. I then reattached the scales and sanded the hell out of them adding a little contour. Now that I ground the steel all around the handle I had gray cribsafe in spots and steel in others. I dont really care for coatings so I took the scales back off and sanded down the crib safe only leaving it under the scales. With the gray as I started I noticed that with creative sanding it was reading like patina so instead of taking it down all the way to clean steel I used the crib safe almost like woodstain. Good thing I really liked the look because you can hide alot under coatings and when I removed a good deal of it you can see deep grind marks going in ten directions. The grib safe lays flat so you would never notice but the knife is not brought down to any kind of smoothness. Trying to get all the cribsafe from within these deep grindmarks would have nessesitated power tools and I would have been afraid to mess the temper. Again I like this rawish look and had bought a Madpoet skinner specifically for its raw quality.

I am VERY happy with how my knife came out and now that it has seen the tools I really have no excuse not to enjoy the hell out of it. I still think that greco knives are a bargain and a half and will have a better indication after this summers use. What I guess I would like to make you aware of is QC. You can get one that is finished and made beautifully and buy another and its something else. One Companion can have on circumference for the handle and another a different one. If you get one you are not thrilled with reach into the box again. Still ... semi custom A2 1/4 inch stock for under 100.00. Not bad at all.


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ALex

http://home.att.net./~a.boriqua
 
I own three Greco knives (MST II 5", Companion Cub and Little Baron) and I love them. You cannot beat the value of these knives. John's finish isn't as good as some, but for the money you cannot beat the quality. Especially for the smaller knives, compare John's work to a $200+ Griffith knife and your jaw will drop and how one can charge so much and the other can charge so little for similar quality! I recommend any of John's knives highly, and they take VERY good care of their customers. Customer service is very prompt and I was very happy with it.

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Madpoet (Mel Sorg, Jr.) Tribute page:
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All righty, I'll be keeping my head low after that last post.

I've had a couple of Grecos for three years now, and, other than the fact that the sharp corners on the exposed tang keep gouging my flabby fat roll (So, am I too lazy to burn the flab, or too cheap to buy a covered sheath?), they are an excellent knife value.

In price-for-performance, they are hard to beat.

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AKTI Member #A000832

"Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes, the bear eats you."
 
I havent seen a Greco knife that was ground evenly yet. But for the money, I would not hesitate to use them. I just wish he would use steel other than 1/4" stock!

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Danbo, soul brother of Rambo
 
I'm with Cobalt. There are some killer designs, no doubt, but nothing quite right for hard use, due in part to the type of steel and the knive's styles.

Good bang for your buck though, just depends upon your use for the knife.

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You could put nacho cheese sauce on it...
 
I have had a number of John Greco's knives over the years. The most recent addition is a 10" camp knife I acquired at the blade show. The grind lines have never been perfect on his knives. But the finish is good and his designs are excellent

They are good honest using knives at reasonable prices. For about a $100 I can get a factory in 420J (or similar) or a Greco knife in A2. His designs range from purely fighter types, to heavy camp knives, and hunting patterns. Pick one that is best suited for your intended use and you will have a knife that will serve you for many seasons.

About the only weakness I have encountered has been that the sheath work has been inconsistent. Some of the knives are provided with good solid sheaths while others (sometimes in the same pattern) come with cheap poorly executed nylon sheaths.

overall, it is a good solid knife at a very reasonable price, and I have found John and his wife Sherry very easy to work with. So go ahead and try one you won't be disappointed.
 
I met Greco and his wife at the blade show. Really nice people and very knowledgeable about there product. I could not decide between the MST II and Companion II, close in design but different feel to each knife. So I bought them both for the price. Both came with nice leather sheath. The grind line are not even on the knives, but the fit and finish is good. These knives are not elegantly finished highly polished show pieces. What they are is a heavy duty, excellent design and geometry, good feeling, handmade knife that looks handmade. They may well be the best bargin out there in a handmade knife. His designs and the feel of his blades rivals a lot of customs costing 3 times as much. Just my 2 cents.
 
M's link above is to a review I did of my MST II. Like I said, it was nicely taken care of by John and Sheery and I have since purchased two more of their knives. To put it bluntly, they know how to get and keep customers! If I thought their knives were prone to breaking I wouldn't have bought two more. The MST was used, and talking with the original owner it was used quite hard, so who knows what stresses were in the blade! The bottom line is that they offer great knives. For the number of knives John makes in a year I would think that one or two would sneak out now and then that may be prone to breaking, but he is very prolific and if it happens they repair or replace VERY quickly.

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Stompy :

nothing quite right for hard use, due in part to the type of steel and the knive's styles.
Click to expand...

A2 is a decent choice for a hard use knife. There are better steels, but that certainly is not a bad one. However, I wouldn't go near a Greco considering the way he responded to what happened to Chiro's blade :

http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum54/HTML/000080.html

If that happened to me, and I would have done a much deeper stab with a much steeper pry, I would have simply asked "Should that have happened?" There are only two answers that would leave me with a positive impression :

"That should not have happened. There must have been a problem with the steel, or the heat treat. I will give you a new blade. Be sure to do the same thing to this one to verify it was just a fluke."

or

"The geometry is not meant to take that kind of stress. I would expect that kind of damage."

If it is the second one, the blades had better not be advertized for any kind of similar use - the Greco's had been. As well you have to make a judgement call - this depends on experience. From what I have seen with regards to blade geometry, I certainly would have not accepted it as a cause of that particular problem problem because of the extent of the stress (depth of stab, low angle or pry and type of wood), and the way it broke (should have been in the wood, not above it).

-Cliff
 
Cliff,

I fully agree with your comments. Given that Chiro knife had been previously owned and used, and given that it represent but a single report, I am a little hesitant to draw conclusions. Have you had the opportunity to run some testing on one of John's knives. It would be good to put this incident to bed (which ever way it works out).

 
I've got one of the smaller Greco's that is 3/16" thick. I am not concerned about the strength of this knife, actually I wish it were weaker (well at least thinner). I wanted a hunting knife with an A2 blade, due to the excellently sharp edge that A2 will take. I took my Greco, thinned the edge, and made it shaving sharp (I have shaved my face with it a couple times).

I believe that the blade is around 58-59 RC. I would expect it to be pretty tough. I haven't tried to break it yet.
 
not2sharp:

Given that Chiro knife had been previously owned and used, and given that it represent but a single report, I am a little hesitant to draw conclusions.
Click to expand...

This is an important point. For example the Project I currently have has a very weak edge because I have not sharpened it yet but have just been steeling and stropping it. Because of this it now rolls quickly during chopping and even visibly indents (sub .1 mm, you can just see light reflectng from the edge). If I steeled and then stropped well and then gave it to a friend and told them it was NIB they would have a low impression of it after a little work.

However it was not what happened with Chiro's blade that was critical to me, it is quite possible to get a fluked blade, however the way it was handled is certainly not something I would want to be faced with.

Have you had the opportunity to run some testing on one of John's knives.
Click to expand...

Not as of yet no.

-Cliff

[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 06-06-2000).]
 
I will not comment on Chiro's knife, but I can tell you that I personally have had experience with John Greco's customer service. I had bought a new Cub Companion with Stag handles earlier this year from a dealer. When I received the knife I looked at it very carefully,(I'm very picky about fit & finish) & discovered that the Stag had chipped out by one of the screw holes. I called the dealer to talk to him about this & he contacted John. I was then directed to contact Greco myself. I contacted John & he was most friendly & gracious about the situation. I sent the knife back for a new set of grips & he also reground the blade edge & reprofiled the tip as I wanted a finer point on the knife. All of this he did at no charge to me. I find this to be outstanding customer service. By the way, my knife as far as I can tell is ground correctly with NO misgrinds. I think Greco knives are a great deal for the money

Doug

[This message has been edited by Hart (edited 06-07-2000).]
 
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