Traditional BladeForums Knives made by GEC

[JoKr]

Here is the place where you can post, show and talk about your GEC Great Eastern Cutlery annual BladeForums knives.

thnx for the list Will Power

2011 (191 pcs.) #85 Spear/Caplifter Bone jigged
2012 (262 pcs.) #74 Jack Wharncliffe/Clip. Bone jigged
2013 (173 pcs.) #13 Irish Jack Sheepfoot/Pen Synthetic
2014 (354 pcs.) #77 Clip single, Stag
2016 (346 pcs.) #35 Spear/Punch single-spring, Bone Wormgroove
2017 (519 pcs.) #15 Single Sheepfoot Barlow Micarta
2019 (399 pcs.) #86 Single Sheepfoot (Sabre grind) Blackwood
2021 (506 pcs.) #86 Single Clip Barlow Saw Cut Bone
2022 (550 pcs.) #39 Same end Jack Clip/Pen Ebony Barehead. First non Barlow Barehead Forum Knife from GEC.

 

[JoKr]

 

[jlauffer]

View attachment 2034311

 

[BigKurtHaze]

 

[Heynowwww]

 

[glennbad]

 

[Alex.Y.]

Good thread man, I predict it to be very useful!

View attachment 2034070

What's the meaning of dots and stars on some knives' tangs? Is that a homage/reference of some kind of Case's dot system?

 

[JoKr]

Good thread man, I predict it to be very useful!

What's the meaning of dots and stars on some knives' tangs? Is that a homage/reference of some kind of Case's dot system?

great, that someone finally noticed... all the different stamps

i would like to complete the row with all the different tang stamps (and information about), with the help of the forums members.

 

[tejasandre]

Aren’t they the year?

 

[JoKr]

Aren’t they the year?

you see a correlation between the year and what?

 

[JoKr]

#748212 BF Knife Saddle Trapper Green Tea Jig Bone

Curved BladeForums Tang Stamp 6(8) Dots

 

[Will Power]

Far as I recall, Charle C. had a special tang-stamp made with the arched letters 'Bladeforums' and a number, ten, of dots which were used in the CASE fashion to denote year. One taken off for each year. This continued until 2020 when Viper, Italia made the knife and I suspect the die was unsuitable for stamping hard M390 steel, not much room on the tang either. Thus the 2021 knife had no dots.

It began with the 2010 Forum Knife from Queen a Swell Centre Moose with Clip/Spear Ebony. I had one but gave it away.

I also had this from 2011 the first (of many) GEC Forum Knives but sold it. 85 with NS liners. One dot removed.

Good to see this thread as a serious discussion/appraisal and not anecdotal chit-chat

 

[Will Power]

2013 The Irish Jack not one you see about much, also has NS liners

 

[JoKr]

Far as I recall, Charle C. had a special tang-stamp made with the arched letters 'Bladeforums' and a number, ten, of dots which were used in the CASE fashion to denote year. One taken off for each year. This continued until 2020 when Viper, Italia made the knife and I suspect the die was unsuitable for stamping hard M390 steel, not much room on the tang either. Thus the 2021 knife had no dots.

It began with the 2010 Forum Knife from Queen a Swell Centre Moose with Clip/Spear Ebony. I had one but gave it away.

I also had this from 2011 the first (of many) GEC Forum Knives but sold it. 85 with NS liners. One dot removed.

great info, that makes sense! thnx Will Power
your information is one of these gold nuggets i hope and try to find between all that out of hand getting chit-chat.

now your information just has to stand up to scrutiny

#153117 TC Barlow Natural Micarta "2017 BF Knife": no stars no dots
edit: thnx jlauffer

Good to see this thread as a serious discussion/appraisal and not anecdotal chit-chat

oh well, as we in germany say: It is not over till the evening!
it just takes the right guys to change that

 

[ms3902]

2013 The Irish Jack not one you see about much, also has NS liners

What were the handle slabs on these? Such a great looking knife.

 

[jlauffer]

great info, that makes sense! thnx Will Power
your information is one of these gold nuggets i hope and try to find between all that out of hand getting chit-chat.

now your information just has to stand up to scrutiny

#153117 TC Barlow Natural Micarta "2017 BF Knife": no stars no dots



oh well, as we in germany say: It is not over till the evening!
it just takes the right guys to change that

My 17 has 3 stars

View attachment 2035135

 

[Kiteman72]

My 2017 barlow has stars.

jlauffer beat me to it.

 

[JoKr]

My 17 has 3 stars

View attachment 2035135

oupsssss, my fault!
this time the BladeForums stamp with dots is on the back side of the blade... didnt expect that.
thnx for clarification jlauffer
thats why i love the Forum!

 

[jc57]

What were the handle slabs on these? Such a great looking knife.

Those were in ivory paper micarta.

*edited

 

[Will Power]

Yes, the 2013 was a nice cream colour micarta/synth. a very rare patterns actually and GEC did not revisit the 13 pattern until some years later with its Clerk, Speaker Jack variants.

JoKr n
aha, maybe I'm partially vindicated then? My 17 Forum knife certainly has 3 stars/dots on the tang denoting the year series. I was thinking you had an ultra rare model that had missed the stamp making for a collector's rarity as in postage stamps The 2018 by Buck has two stars/dots -which I have the 19 from GEC I passed on but assume it has just one.

Tang size of course would play a role, the 2008 knife from the then Northwood was a Small Stockman (actually a Queen Cutlery pattern No.26 but made by Northwoods) has really small tangs as the blades are correspondingly small. Then the blade carried a simple etch and on the pile side it had the No. in my case 39/50.

Thanks, Will