Questions about GEC back square on new knife

Markesharp said:
Eric who builds knives everyday for a living asked if it could be "scraped off". I trust his judgement.
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That's nice. I was going by what the OP said about his knife that he has in hand. Still no need for name callin'
 
rma100 said:
That's nice. I was going by what the OP said about his knife that he has in hand. Still no need for name callin'
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Yes, he is not happy with it.....I don't blame him. As a knife salesman, it seems you would be less obtuse about his dilemma.
 
Metal is like many other materials; when you hit it with blunt force it doesn't always separate where you want it to. Thus, if they stamp them fairly close to finish size and it doesn't separate cleanly, there will be little places that are essentially where the metal tore free. The rest of the blade will have the swedges and edge cut, so they are stamped with a little extra. But the places that are not generally graded and many times hidden have never been a concern that I have noticed. I have seen knives of every brand with little seams in them from time to time. Some brands that tumble their blades for that perfect mirror shine also shine this so it doesn't look so bad; but many will not be a uniform flat if you look closely.

This is just another example of an issue that has only become an issue because we look at them so hard these days. We turn a common occurrence into a QC issue simply because we hear everyone talking about how great GEC's are and then we find this little pimple on the inner workings. The buyers get to decide what is acceptable and what is not; I just feel for the factories that get new criteria laid on them every time someone notices something they didn't notice before. If you have 10 knives from the 1970-2000's and 5 of them do not have a little inconsistency on the backspring or blade - you have definitely beat the odds. Just to check myself I grabbed 3 knives (and only 3) - Case, Schatt/Morgan, and a GEC. All three had this same look with the Case being much worse than the others.
 
I just looked at a handful of my knives. Every Case, Queen, and GEC I looked at had tangs that looked about like that, more or less. Canal Street, Buck (301/303) and Victorinox had smoothly finished tangs in that area. It was a small sample size so I don't know if it is that statistically significant.

I have never given it a second thought. I always just thought it was normal on the few I noticed it on, and I don't really go looking that closely for things like that.
 
Gents, at this point you may need to agree to disagree. And let it go.
 
QUOTE=chickenfried;14362051]it's a divot/cut/gouge in the metal, an absence of material. Not a lump sticking out. Sorry for the poor photo tried a few different things that was the best I could do to show it.

Doesn't seem to affect function. First traditional, asked for thoughts since I was unsure of the level of F&F to reasonably expect.[/QUOTE]

Ahh, now I understand, from the photo it actually looked like a lump of metal was stuck to the run up. I should have realized what a divot was, duh. In that case it shouldn't affect the function of the knife at all. Normally the spring is dressed at a slight angle so the main contact point to the blade is at the very top. Likewise there's usually a gap under it as well where it rides over the backsquare. That's what gives the blade that tight tension when it's open. If the spring was resting on the flat of the backsquare when the blade was in the open position, the blade/spring joint would wind up being somewhat loose or floppy. This inherent gap is also why you're not running into any problems with the lumpy stuff on the tang. The only trouble you might run into is a slight rocker/not quite tight joint if the spring should ever start resting on the lumpy stuff in the future. At that point you should be able to file it down with a square diamond file. Of course if it really bugs you an exchange might be the way to go, IMO their knives are top notch.

Eric
 
DocT said:
None of my slipjoints have this issue, but none of them are GEC. I was going to buy a GEC but started reading about quality issues and spring problems.
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I wonder where you read about QC problems? Of the 50+ I've had my hands on, only one truly warranted a factory repair because of a loose blade. It was back on my doorstep one week to the day that I mailed it to them. Overall, I find that GEC has, bar far, the most consistent QC of modern made traditional knives.

I'm curious about what you mean by 'spring problems'? Some knives just have heavier or lighter pulls by design. I guess the heavy pulls are a love it or hate it though. Personally I love it.
 
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