- Joined
- Mar 9, 2013
- Messages
- 422
I decided to finally dive into my first non-Case knife a few weeks ago and purchased a Canal Street Cutlery threaded congress knife.
I buy knives as users, and specifically for whittling. The first thing I do when I get a new knife is see how it whittles. I will tell you that by looking at a knife and just feeling how sharp it is, you cannot know how it will do as a whittler. You have to whittle with it, and that is the ultimate test.
Of all whittlers I have used, the ones made by Flexcut (like the Carvin' Jack), which are specifically made for whittling and nothing else, are the best...hands down. NOTHING in a slipjoint even comes close.
...but I do not want to carry a Flexcut knife as an EDC. I want a nice looking traditional slip joint, preferably in the congress pattern (which I am hooked on). Sowbellies, traditional 3 blade whittlers, and stockman patters are also nice, and I do occasionally pocket one of those...providing they are good whittlers. The congress is my favorite, however. The shape, look, and 4 blades are the whole package for me.
Of all congress pattern knives made, my favorite overall is the Case medium congress (64052). It is a good size to pocket, and for on the road whittling, it fits the bill. Both the CV and Stainless blades take a nice edge, and hold a nice edge. Fit and finish on EVERY case knife I own is at least excellent, and sometimes world class to the point of no comparison with other factory folders. I have some Tony Bose Case knives that are the definition of flawless and perfect in every way imaginable. Case does make some world class knives, to be sure.
The nice thing about Case congress knives is that you get 4 different blade shapes/sizes. This comes in handy because different blade shapes are good for different parts of the whittling project. A nice sized sheepsfoot or spear is good for roughing out. Smaller coping and pen blades are great for finer detail.
Regardless of what anyone says, the surgical stainless takes an edge and holds it well for my purposes. Their CV also remains shiny with minimal care from me.
...but I digress.
I decided to buy a Canal Street cutlery threaded congress knife on eBay, because I found what I felt was a good deal. It arrived shaving sharp out of the box, and is the best non-Flexcut whittler I have ever owned...bar none. The fit and finish are amazingly good. The only flaw I found is that one of the springs is not perfectly flush when one blade is open. It is just barely out of flush. It is far from annoying...just not perfect. All blades are super tight, super sharp, and walk and talk like they should. I can whittle with it for hours, hone it on a strop, and still shave hair off my arm. This is despite what I have heard (in this very forum) about 420 stainless being inferior steel. For me, it works like a dream.
This led to my purchase of a CSC whittler (got a great deal on it), which also takes a great edge, but is not as good a whittler as the congress pattern knife. The congress knife has a very thin grind, which makes it ideal for whittling. The whittler is a bit thicker, and works as a whittler, just not as good. Fit and finish are, again, fantastic.
So this led me to pull the trigger and purchase a GEC Tidoute 610410 congress knife (seen pictured below). It was, by far, the most expensive knife I have ever purchased, but all the talk about GEC I have seen here made me decide to move forward.
I was very impressed by the great packaging, including the hand signed certificate, nice tube, and waxed paper. It is important to impute with great products, and GEC has that in spades. It sort of reminded me of buying an iPhone, where you are led to admire the packaging before the device itself.
The knife is truly a work of art. Perfectly jigged bone with fantastic finish on the handle, bolsters, pins, shield. The knife also has very solid heft to it. It just feels like it is indestructible. I spent more than a few minutes just admiring the cosmetics. The blades have a wonderful satin finish and very clean lines. The blades also sit very nicely in the handles, and the nail nicks are super, and well placed.
The first thing I noticed is that the blades where somewhere just north of dull. Trying to whittle with this knife was an exercise in futility. I pulled out my trusty IdaHone ceramic sharpener (which has both 17 degree and 30 degree angled holes) and tried to touch up one of the blades. This did not work with ceramic sticks, so I went with the diamond sticks. After about 30 minutes of slow sharpening, I was able to get an edge that would shave hair, but I could not get it to whittle well at all. It simply would not grab the wood and glide through. I have olive trees, so I whittle lots of olive wood (which is very hard wood), and the GEC just was not ideal.
The other issue I had was with blade wobble. Both of the large blades have some minor side to side play in them. On a whittler this is a very bad thing, because the act of whittling puts a lot of side tension on a blade, and ANY wobble at all will quickly get worse. I was very shocked that this is an issue with this knife (which was unused), since none of my Case knives, nor the CSC knives I have, have any wobble whatsoever.
Anyway, I have sent an email to GEC, and asked what they can do to resolve these issues. The knife is gorgeous enough to warrant keeping just as an art object, but I would like it to be sound and hopefully usable as a whittler. At the price they fetch, they should at least perform at the level a Case knife does at half the price.
Just my thoughts.
I buy knives as users, and specifically for whittling. The first thing I do when I get a new knife is see how it whittles. I will tell you that by looking at a knife and just feeling how sharp it is, you cannot know how it will do as a whittler. You have to whittle with it, and that is the ultimate test.
Of all whittlers I have used, the ones made by Flexcut (like the Carvin' Jack), which are specifically made for whittling and nothing else, are the best...hands down. NOTHING in a slipjoint even comes close.
...but I do not want to carry a Flexcut knife as an EDC. I want a nice looking traditional slip joint, preferably in the congress pattern (which I am hooked on). Sowbellies, traditional 3 blade whittlers, and stockman patters are also nice, and I do occasionally pocket one of those...providing they are good whittlers. The congress is my favorite, however. The shape, look, and 4 blades are the whole package for me.
Of all congress pattern knives made, my favorite overall is the Case medium congress (64052). It is a good size to pocket, and for on the road whittling, it fits the bill. Both the CV and Stainless blades take a nice edge, and hold a nice edge. Fit and finish on EVERY case knife I own is at least excellent, and sometimes world class to the point of no comparison with other factory folders. I have some Tony Bose Case knives that are the definition of flawless and perfect in every way imaginable. Case does make some world class knives, to be sure.
The nice thing about Case congress knives is that you get 4 different blade shapes/sizes. This comes in handy because different blade shapes are good for different parts of the whittling project. A nice sized sheepsfoot or spear is good for roughing out. Smaller coping and pen blades are great for finer detail.
Regardless of what anyone says, the surgical stainless takes an edge and holds it well for my purposes. Their CV also remains shiny with minimal care from me.
...but I digress.
I decided to buy a Canal Street cutlery threaded congress knife on eBay, because I found what I felt was a good deal. It arrived shaving sharp out of the box, and is the best non-Flexcut whittler I have ever owned...bar none. The fit and finish are amazingly good. The only flaw I found is that one of the springs is not perfectly flush when one blade is open. It is just barely out of flush. It is far from annoying...just not perfect. All blades are super tight, super sharp, and walk and talk like they should. I can whittle with it for hours, hone it on a strop, and still shave hair off my arm. This is despite what I have heard (in this very forum) about 420 stainless being inferior steel. For me, it works like a dream.
This led to my purchase of a CSC whittler (got a great deal on it), which also takes a great edge, but is not as good a whittler as the congress pattern knife. The congress knife has a very thin grind, which makes it ideal for whittling. The whittler is a bit thicker, and works as a whittler, just not as good. Fit and finish are, again, fantastic.
So this led me to pull the trigger and purchase a GEC Tidoute 610410 congress knife (seen pictured below). It was, by far, the most expensive knife I have ever purchased, but all the talk about GEC I have seen here made me decide to move forward.
I was very impressed by the great packaging, including the hand signed certificate, nice tube, and waxed paper. It is important to impute with great products, and GEC has that in spades. It sort of reminded me of buying an iPhone, where you are led to admire the packaging before the device itself.
The knife is truly a work of art. Perfectly jigged bone with fantastic finish on the handle, bolsters, pins, shield. The knife also has very solid heft to it. It just feels like it is indestructible. I spent more than a few minutes just admiring the cosmetics. The blades have a wonderful satin finish and very clean lines. The blades also sit very nicely in the handles, and the nail nicks are super, and well placed.
The first thing I noticed is that the blades where somewhere just north of dull. Trying to whittle with this knife was an exercise in futility. I pulled out my trusty IdaHone ceramic sharpener (which has both 17 degree and 30 degree angled holes) and tried to touch up one of the blades. This did not work with ceramic sticks, so I went with the diamond sticks. After about 30 minutes of slow sharpening, I was able to get an edge that would shave hair, but I could not get it to whittle well at all. It simply would not grab the wood and glide through. I have olive trees, so I whittle lots of olive wood (which is very hard wood), and the GEC just was not ideal.
The other issue I had was with blade wobble. Both of the large blades have some minor side to side play in them. On a whittler this is a very bad thing, because the act of whittling puts a lot of side tension on a blade, and ANY wobble at all will quickly get worse. I was very shocked that this is an issue with this knife (which was unused), since none of my Case knives, nor the CSC knives I have, have any wobble whatsoever.
Anyway, I have sent an email to GEC, and asked what they can do to resolve these issues. The knife is gorgeous enough to warrant keeping just as an art object, but I would like it to be sound and hopefully usable as a whittler. At the price they fetch, they should at least perform at the level a Case knife does at half the price.
Just my thoughts.
