The 2024 F**** K****?

EngrSorenson said:
Are you referring to the fact that the knives are hafted after they're assembled?
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Not sure what you mean (I'm still that clueless about making these).

Put in the scale after assembling? And then grind/sand it flush with the bolsters? That part I can do (and almost do well... ;-))

The seam I am talking about is between the bolter and the scale, lengthwise on the knife. So, if you have double bolsters, then that scale must be sized PERFECTLY so there is no gap.

How do they do that so well?!?!?
 
2012 Forum Knife #74 Saddle Trapper

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ErikMB said:
Not sure what you mean (I'm still that clueless about making these).

Put in the scale after assembling? And then grind/sand it flush with the bolsters? That part I can do (and almost do well... ;-))

The seam I am talking about is between the bolter and the scale, lengthwise on the knife. So, if you have double bolsters, then that scale must be sized PERFECTLY so there is no gap.

How do they do that so well?!?!?
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Bill Howard magic dust.
 
ErikMB said:
How do they do that so well?!?!?
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It's all about the desired tolerances for a given set of parts. The people who contract Rough Ryder knives from the factory that produce them allow for greater tolerances in the received knives, especially when it comes to fitment, than Bill Howard does for knives leaving his factory.

The Law of Diminishing Returns insists that after a certain point, further input (effort exerted in maintaining rigorous tolerances, in this case) is rewarded with less and less output (perceived overall level of finish, in our example). I imagine one of the many balancing acts the folks at GEC perform regularly is between the time and effort required for each knife to achieve an expected finish level.

Even so, Swiss watchmakers probably aren't overly impressed with the tolerances present in even the most finely crafted slipjoint knives, but would also recognize that extremely precise tolerances aren't needed for the application.

GEC makes mistakes. Everyone does. If you get a knife that seems like it was put together by magic, it wasn't. I'd encourage you to continue honing your skills and be on the lookout for that sweet spot where the effort exerted matches the desired level of finish for you.

Now that that's out of the way - can the forum knife just have marrow bone covers already? I'm fairly certain that's the only way I'm ever getting my hands on one. 😂😭
 
birdsbeaks said:
It's all about the desired tolerances for a given set of parts. The people who contract Rough Ryder knives from the factory that produce them allow for greater tolerances in the received knives, especially when it comes to fitment, than Bill Howard does for knives leaving his factory.

The Law of Diminishing Returns insists that after a certain point, further input (effort exerted in maintaining rigorous tolerances, in this case) is rewarded with less and less output (perceived overall level of finish, in our example). I imagine one of the many balancing acts the folks at GEC perform regularly is between the time and effort required for each knife to achieve an expected finish level.

Even so, Swiss watchmakers probably aren't overly impressed with the tolerances present in even the most finely crafted slipjoint knives, but would also recognize that extremely precise tolerances aren't needed for the application.

GEC makes mistakes. Everyone does. If you get a knife that seems like it was put together by magic, it wasn't. I'd encourage you to continue honing your skills and be on the lookout for that sweet spot where the effort exerted matches the desired level of finish for you.

Now that that's out of the way - can the forum knife just have marrow bone covers already? I'm fairly certain that's the only way I'm ever getting my hands on one. 😂😭
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Exactly this.

GEC makes nice knives. In general their fit-and-finish is excellent for a production slipjoint pocket knife. But I will say (and this opinion has historically not been popular when I’ve expressed it in the past on this forum) they are not perfect. I am actually what you might call a micro-mechanical engineer by trade, and of my GECs, only a few have been “perfect.” There’s almost always some little thing, like a shield with a gap (filled with something, but sticks out in some light/angles) or a backspring that’s ever so slightly sunken when the knife is open, or covers that are sufficiently mismatched to be annoying/beyond my acceptable tolerance for visual randomness.

I think they’re probably the best knives that have ever been made in the U.S., but I do wish, for the price they now command, that they were “perfect.” 2019+ production seems higher in fit-and-finish compared to earlier years and none are “bad.” I do prefer them to other U.S. makers though because they are better.
 
GaiusJulius said:
Exactly this.

GEC makes nice knives. In general their fit-and-finish is excellent for a production slipjoint pocket knife. But I will say (and this opinion has historically not been popular when I’ve expressed it in the past on this forum) they are not perfect. I am actually what you might call a micro-mechanical engineer by trade, and of my GECs, only a few have been “perfect.” There’s almost always some little thing, like a shield with a gap (filled with something, but sticks out in some light/angles) or a backspring that’s ever so slightly sunken when the knife is open, or covers that are sufficiently mismatched to be annoying/beyond my acceptable tolerance for visual randomness.

I think they’re probably the best knives that have ever been made in the U.S., but I do wish, for the price they now command, that they were “perfect.” I still prefer them to other U.S. makers though because they are better.
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Not unpopular at all. I get it and have recieved a few with some slight issues. I don't mind that at all. There are alot of hand (craftsman) operations involved. I look at those imperfections as part of the fact that they are traditional knives made in a traditional manner. We could all argue that nothing is perfect. Nothing. I have some beautiful customs that I could find imperfections in. I am drawn to the fact that GEC knives are made by GEC at GEC. I have other makers' knives but haven't bought very many in the last few years. Hard to get excited about maybe a Case that was maybe made by Blue Grass or something along those lines. I don't think we'll ever see a GEC made by anyone else and I commend them for that perfect or not.
 
GaiusJulius said:
Exactly this.

GEC makes nice knives. In general their fit-and-finish is excellent for a production slipjoint pocket knife. But I will say (and this opinion has historically not been popular when I’ve expressed it in the past on this forum) they are not perfect. I am actually what you might call a micro-mechanical engineer by trade, and of my GECs, only a few have been “perfect.” There’s almost always some little thing, like a shield with a gap (filled with something, but sticks out in some light/angles) or a backspring that’s ever so slightly sunken when the knife is open, or covers that are sufficiently mismatched to be annoying/beyond my acceptable tolerance for visual randomness.

I think they’re probably the best knives that have ever been made in the U.S., but I do wish, for the price they now command, that they were “perfect.” 2019+ production seems higher in fit-and-finish compared to earlier years and none are “bad.” I do prefer them to other U.S. makers though because they are better.
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I imagine GEC would need to come up with new equipment designed for machining within tighter tolerances. It's been a while but the video I saw years ago had workers on pretty old equipment doing a lot of steps by hand. I'm impressed they produce knives as nice as they do that way.
 
Fanglekai said:
I imagine GEC would need to come up with new equipment designed for machining within tighter tolerances. It's been a while but the video I saw years ago had workers on pretty old equipment doing a lot of steps by hand. I'm impressed they produce knives as nice as they do that way.
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Again unpopular opinion; but traditionally if a company was unable to grow and scale appropriately, modernize when needed, and MOST importantly produce enough knives to meet demand,

That company would go out of business. GEC makes nice knives. But make no mistake about it, they absolutely could produce enough for everyone to have one if they wanted to. They manufacture demand by keeping the market scarce. This is easy to do and is 100% the reason behind why they dont make more knives. The equipment they have is fine for making the small numbers they need to keep people fighting over their product
 
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