Thoughts on GEC knives.

rdave said:
Affirmative. Shame on you for voting for a Buck knife over GEC. There's a lot of cheap Chinese junk out there crowding the market and/or parts made in China. But GEC is made in the US, not in the "custom shop" for US made Buck knives.
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o_O I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic. Buck outsources some knives to China, and makes some knives in the USA. They clearly mark which is which, and the USA knives are production models, not just the ones out of the "custom shop."

GEC makes great knives to use or to collect. Some models (certain SFOs and the Northwoods line) are harder to get, and go for crazy high prices on the secondary market. That market may be over-inflated right now, I don't know, but I can buy most models from the dealers without much trouble. If that situation changes, I guess I won't be buying many, but I'm not going to fret about it.
 
rbeggs said:
I love my GEC knives and honestly I don't buy a whole lot of anything else. I carry and use mine everyday. I have NEVER had any blade play develope but I also have never used a ballpeen hammer on any of them ccsavage ccsavage . They are very tough dependable knives and a joy to own. If a person don't like the process of buying them then don't buy them....simple enough I think. I've bought around 30 gec knives in the last 4 years and I pick and choose which ones I buy because I can't afford to buy every model that comes out....but if I had the means I would because they're the best knives I've ever bought! Buy what you like but don't grip about it.
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yea, if they loosen up i whack them with a hammer..thats what i do with a sloppy slipjoint. And I think they are great knives. well made for sure. just seem delicate to me. maybe because they are so pretty
 
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Hear, hear! Excellent analysis of the situation, Camillus!!
 
I carry a GEC knife most of the time, and sharpen it once a year whether it needs it or not!! I use it every day, and strop it now and then.
I also have 5 or six hammers, many chisels, prybars of 6 -7 sizes, infinite screwdrivers, a machete - on and on, and I use the right tool for the job.
Funny, I never had a loose joint!!
 
rdave said:
Affirmative. Shame on you for voting for a Buck knife over GEC. There's a lot of cheap Chinese junk out there crowding the market and/or parts made in China. But GEC is made in the US, not in the "custom shop" for US made Buck knives.
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The Buck Custom Shop is in Idaho and that the parts they use are also made in Idaho.
Unseemly comment removed. My apologies to rdave.
 
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waynorth said:
I carry a GEC knife most of the time, and sharpen it once a year whether it needs it or not!! I use it every day, and strop it now and then.
I also have 5 or six hammers, many chisels, prybars of 6 -7 sizes, infinite screwdrivers, a machete - on and on, and I use the right tool for the job.
Funny, I never had a loose joint!!
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Right on! I had a 43 get real loose on me from sharpening blade rap out of it when it was new on an eze-lap diamond rod. It took awhile and when it finally quit flattening the edge it had play. Awesome I thought! Sorry if the hammer comment ruffled feathers..I'm not a boy or a pencil pusher. I come from a logging, ranching family and have been building houses for 25 years. I know what the right tool for the job is.
 
I wonder if instead of GEC, this thread was about Case or Buck if it would have been moved here....like the thread in the trad forum titled
“Case recent quality examples & orderinng unseen”
 
Superdave1 said:
I wonder if instead of GEC, this thread was about Case or Buck if it would have been moved here....like the thread in the trad forum titled
“Case recent quality examples & orderinng unseen”
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There's a lot of discussion about sales in this thread, including dealers selling on the auction sites at hugely inflated prices. Not really a discussion for the Traditional forum. The Case thread is more knife discussion.

I've been known to make the wrong call on occasion. I'm not sure I did here.
 
I have owned one GEC years ago. It was a beautiful knife, but the only way I could open it was with a pair of pliers so I eventually got rid of it. I know you certainly can't judge a whole brand by 1 knife that didn't appeal to me, but they were just too hard to purchase so I never got around to getting another to give them a second chance. It was just easier for me to by a vintage knife by another brand for collecting than to try to get into the GEC thing. Another thing was I tried to look at a webpage on them and it was just kind of confusing. I'd find something I really liked, and then get ready to order and it would be unavailable. I usually see a knife on here that I like from GEC and then I see if Case or Buck has something similar. I don't mean to sound gripey. Most everything about GEC appeals to me, just not the process of trying to buy one. I am more of a Case and Buck guy, and I can probably find as much to gripe about with them or more so than I can with GEC :)
 
I do not see the buying process as that difficult unless you are trying to buy an SFO (barlows, certain single blades. etc). There are still plenty of great GEC knives on dealer shelves. The 78 pattern is still at dealers in plenty of cover options along with the 56, 66, 71 and 81
 
In addition to the above, there aren't that many GEC dealers, so it's not that time consuming or labor intensive to go to the dealer list on the GEC website and check each one to see what models they have in stock. Many even have a filter to browse by model number so if you're only interested in one style, that's even easier to check.
 
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I have not yet owned a GEC as currently the models being produced do not interest me at this time except the Whaler but I missed it plus I probably would have fondled it then flipped it. They have models they have made I would be interested in and hope to have an opportunity to pick one up when/if it is rerun in the future. I would consider buying used more if the prices for used didn't see so inflated at this time for any model I an at all interested in. I could see myself getting frustrated over the scarcity of them or the difficulty in getting them as they come out but that would be directed at my fellow consumers and more so at the flippers that I must compete with.
 
Camillus said:
Let’s imagine a world without GEC. Buck and Case and a few other makers dominate with joe - average production knives.

Now postulate what you would ask for if you wanted a new company to start making American traditional knives using traditional methods (and you were being realistic about the costs of doing that and the pressures to stave off Chinese competition!).

What would you come up with? Would it be all that different to what we have? Would you not want that company to produce small runs and generate excitement over special knives?

The point I am making is that for all these complaints about GEC price and availability, I am not convinced there is anything to actually complain about that isn’t simply a commercial reality of this type of business.
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I would come up with this scenario "A group of GEC employees quit, buy Queen and run it right, taking over GEC in 5 years." That would be truly American Traditional Knife story ;)
 
Too cool!

I am one of many who have suddenly taken an interest in Queen now that it has gone....
 
Yeah Queen made, or was capable of making, a good knife and I was interested in them but now I almost feel inclined to hunt down good pieces to collect them now that they are no more.
 
I place the blame mostly on consumers for the "issues" with buying certain patterns. When people are willing to pay inflated prices on the secondary for a knife that's been out a week, it encourages other people who have no interest in owning those knives to buy them up and sell them at those inflated prices. And there isn't a lot that can be done on the supply side unless GEC increases capacity in some way.

It would be nice if dealers were allowed to place larger orders for SFOs than the current 500 but I understand why GEC has to limit these, otherwise there would be little room for what they want to do.

Things might also be better if certain runs were done all in one cover, like the BF TC Barlow, but even that doesn't always help. The upcoming Ancient Barlow is almost all one cover and I still couldn't get onto any dealer's pre-order list.

But again, this is really limited to a few choice patterns. I was able to get a multitude of awesome knives on the latest runs of 78s with very little work and they are amazing knives.
 
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