Pins and their depth on traditional knives

Thank you Knifeswapper for coming into this discussion- extremely useful from a guy of your experience seeing things and dealing with both internal and external customers giving you a broader vision than what we as end users see.

In all - a look at the whole picture. Never will one single Cutler company be able to cater for everyone’s needs and thoughts., but to do the very best by producing the best available knife within n their means of business survival and meeting the greater percentage of customer demand.

In New Zealand here I am simply a middle class type of guy- not a lot of spare money at all.
I apologise for swaying back to GEC, but I have to pay 50% more for a Knife because of currency exchange differences - and also extremely expensive freight to NZ - and yet I am so extremely grateful for such a remarkable company that has been able to produce the amazing quality Knife they do, the local USA people are so lucky to have this within.

Thank you everyone for the input of this topic so far.
 
The GEC's with sunk pins that I have snagged as used work just fine and don't mind being in my pocket one bit:) I may look at them and wish they weren't so, but once the steel hits the sharpening stone it really doesn't matter one bit to me regarding the pins.
 
D7941211-76BD-4A46-BAD2-1DD2D713B986.jpeg I have many GEC’s with sunken pins and this 73 probably has the deepest ones, I lost my car keys in there once.

It isn’t the most pleasing thing to look at but I’ll take this any day over loose or cracked covers.

Really for me it is a total non issue, as long as GEC keeps up all the other things they do right I’ll continue buying their knives.
 
supratentorial said:
I wonder what you guys think of the hand peened pins on 100 year old knives. Lots of skilled labor done by hand on high quality oldies... though the pins were not always well struck... even on very well made knives.
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Check out the teeny tiny pins on my Camillus engineers knives. I call them "stingy pins". Camillus was wasting no extra steel on needlessly large pin heads. :p:p:p When the pin heads are that small, nobody notices whether they're struck well or not.

Z882Qwrh.jpg
 
If it really bothers you, take some fine brass filings, mix with super glue and fill the void. You would have to look REALLY close to notice it at all, and at least the hole would be filled and flush.
 
black mamba said:
If it really bothers you, take some fine brass filings, mix with super glue and fill the void. You would have to look REALLY close to notice it at all, and at least the hole would be filled and flush.
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Hey, that's a pretty good idea. You can get brass rod in various gauges at a hardware store, too. Just clip a millimeter or two and epoxy it in the hole. :thumbsup:
 
Why buy something you ultimately have to fix and or repair new fresh out of the tube? Buy Case and just use it regardless of condition. (Probably should add that my last BF knife 2013 GEC, after light use, popped the pivot pin and made a round trip to the factory. Now very light use only. Letter opening only. The pin is visible once again.)
 
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that faulty GEC would be a rarity jakemix, every Cutler company does this ( have sunken pins at times )- Im not too sure why GEC is getting the finger pointed at being the only one with sunken pins?
I tend to think because GEC are so good and have such a massive strike rate- that its actually easier ti fault a very good Knife if it has only one or 2 very minor flaws, check out Cases History, Queens History of huge amounts of extremely bad faults going past their QC check - if they had too much of one?

Its a bit like looking at a very nice repaint- then finding one little thing wrong- and everyone likes to point it out.

Looking at GEC's seconds- try and find the fault with that knife , I have a few- and I know many people who do and just cannot fault the knife- yet GEC put it as a second, that tells you theres very good quality control going on in the Factory.
I think things should be kept into perspective here- a Sunken pin is not a fault, its a minor flaw - theres a big difference, and I can line up many knives with spun pins, sunken pins- from the broad range of past Very esteemed Cutlers - its a knife thing.
 
Campbellclanman said:
that faulty GEC would be a rarity jakemix, every Cutler company does this ( have sunken pins at times )- Im not too sure why GEC is getting the finger pointed at being the only one with sunken pins?
I tend to think because GEC are so good and have such a massive strike rate- that its actually easier ti fault a very good Knife if it has only one or 2 very minor flaws, check out Cases History, Queens History of huge amounts of extremely bad faults going past their QC check - if they had too much of one?

Its a bit like looking at a very nice repaint- then finding one little thing wrong- and everyone likes to point it out.

Looking at GEC's seconds- try and find the fault with that knife , I have a few- and I know many people who do and just cannot fault the knife- yet GEC put it as a second, that tells you theres very good quality control going on in the Factory.
I think things should be kept into perspective here- a Sunken pin is not a fault, its a minor flaw - theres a big difference, and I can line up many knives with spun pins, sunken pins- from the broad range of past Very esteemed Cutlers - its a knife thing.
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I understand. The majority of what you say is true except that GEC is not “so good”. It’s like the tastes of those beer and wine and liquor connoisseurs. Small runs, and limited distributors only peak the interest of those that have yet to obtain or examine one closely. Inflated prices and inflated opinions of quality are the result. As far as quality control is concerned it may be only a matter of time for them to have their turn in the “barrel” and maybe not only the future holds the answer.
 
jakemex said:
I understand. The majority of what you say is true except that GEC is not “so good”. It’s like the tastes of those beer and wine and liquor connoisseurs. Small runs, and limited distributors only peak the interest of those that have yet to obtain or examine one closely. Inflated prices and inflated opinions of quality are the result. As far as quality control is concerned it may be only a matter of time for them to have their turn in the “barrel” and maybe not only the future holds the answer.
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So. Let me get this right. You're damning their QC for something that may happen in the future?
 
Point taken my friend.
I guess what GEC is doing is smart business- as we know the Cutler industry from the beginning has been absolutely cut throat and survival of the fittest.
Small runs produce demand - IF the product is good - so far so good. It keeps the audience hungry which is an important thing for survival - I most certainly don’t want to cause arguments and appreciate the fact people have their own opinions- that’s what has made this thread quite an interesting one at that.
I believe from what we have seen from GEC is a company run by an extremely talented individual who has bought back to us some beautiful renditions of classic Traditional Knives.
I’m so grateful to have this firms survival especially after loosing Schrade, Camillus, Canal Street and now Queen.

I actually doubt that GEC will run into a QC problem - they are doing things in a very smart manner where they are in control.
If you try to cater to all demands and make huge runs of this and that then I’m thinking the problems will start.
So far so good.
I disagree about GEC being too pricey for the Quality and material and patterns ( that can be vicious to produce ) that GEC make available by talking to the Knife World.
In the past days - let’s say early 1900’s Labour was inexpensive - today that has done a complete turn around and labour is massively expensive - let alone everything else any manufacturing company has to deal with such as Material costs, logistics - wow the list goes on.
Touring through GEC really opens the eye to see one knife being individually handled by man in each of their processes over 50 times per knife excluding any other cost.
 
Campbellclanman said:
Point taken my friend.
I guess what GEC is doing is smart business- as we know the Cutler industry from the beginning has been absolutely cut throat and survival of the fittest.
Small runs produce demand - IF the product is good - so far so good. It keeps the audience hungry which is an important thing for survival - I most certainly don’t want to cause arguments and appreciate the fact people have their own opinions- that’s what has made this thread quite an interesting one at that.
I believe from what we have seen from GEC is a company run by an extremely talented individual who has bought back to us some beautiful renditions of classic Traditional Knives.
I’m so grateful to have this firms survival especially after loosing Schrade, Camillus, Canal Street and now Queen.

I actually doubt that GEC will run into a QC problem - they are doing things in a very smart manner where they are in control.
If you try to cater to all demands and make huge runs of this and that then I’m thinking the problems will start.
So far so good.
I disagree about GEC being too pricey for the Quality and material and patterns ( that can be vicious to produce ) that GEC make available by talking to the Knife World.
In the past days - let’s say early 1900’s Labour was inexpensive - today that has done a complete turn around and labour is massively expensive - let alone everything else any manufacturing company has to deal with such as Material costs, logistics - wow the list goes on.
Touring through GEC really opens the eye to see one knife being individually handled by man in each of their processes over 50 times per knife excluding any other cost.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your insights. Great posts.
 
black mamba said:
If it really bothers you, take some fine brass filings, mix with super glue and fill the void. You would have to look REALLY close to notice it at all, and at least the hole would be filled and flush.
Click to expand...

Been there done that! :D:D:cool:

But it's drag I have to.....:rolleyes:
 
Buzzbait said:
Check out the teeny tiny pins on my Camillus engineers knives. I call them "stingy pins". Camillus was wasting no extra steel on needlessly large pin heads. :p:p:p When the pin heads are that small, nobody notices whether they're struck well or not.

Z882Qwrh.jpg
Click to expand...


Hahaha! :D Nice knives!
 
Buzzbait said:
Check out the teeny tiny pins on my Camillus engineers knives. I call them "stingy pins". Camillus was wasting no extra steel on needlessly large pin heads. :p:p:p When the pin heads are that small, nobody notices whether they're struck well or not.

Z882Qwrh.jpg
Click to expand...

Yes but they ARE struck well and properly:cool: Nice small nail like pins and a small centre dome, all in harmony, all GOOD LOOKING. Similar can be seen on Winchester Black Box knives e.g.:thumbsup:

nTnKQb9.jpg
 
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