Trestle Pines Grand Portage

WhittlinAway

WhittlinAway

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There's finally a picture available of the upcoming Trestle Pine Grand Portage:

Pic-Grand-Portage.jpg


I believe it is 3.5" closed, CPM154 steel, and will be available in a variety of wood handle covers.

I find the Grand Portage to be quite appealing. What do you all think?
 
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I'm excited about this one! I've been waiting for a caplifter jack with natural handle materials for a while now. :)

I've got reservations about a couple things, but they're on hold until I can at least see more pictures; there's a lot to like about this knife, too.
 
I really like the looks of this knife. I don't use a straight edge enough to carry a knife with only that blade profile, as I found out after Evan had made me a TC with a sheepsfoot and caplifter, so I don't think I'll be picking one up. I do like the looks of it though, and think it'll be very popular. Adding the bolster stamp was a great decision, and it looks fantastic. Barlows, caplifters, and wharncliffes have all been very popular lately, so this is one that just makes sense.
 
Here is a little more info that was posted by Trestle Pine's founder for anyone interested. Theses are in fact made by Queen.

Here ya go…..
3.5″ OAL Closed
CPM154 Wharncliff
Caplifter
Cut Swedge top of blade
Match Striker Long PUll
Brass Bolster
Mosaic Pin
and LOTS of handle options…

"We made a last minute adjustment to the production by dropping the mosaic pivot pin. It was so small that it didn’t show up well and really didn’t add anything to the appearance. The Old Growth Ash, Oak, Maple and Yellow Birch will be limited to less then 30 pieces of each and most of the ‘exotic’ woods will be around 5-20 piece".

Personally won't be grabbing one, but looks like a pretty unique little knife with a lot going for it. I carry my Portage at least 2-3 times per week and have been really happy with it.
 
I think it's an improvement on the original Portage design. This blade and handle fit much better together. And it incorporates a lot of features that seem to be popular now. Hopefully, it is a success for Queen and Trestle Pines.
 
there looks to be a slight swayback design there, but that is probably just the shadowing and exposed spring playing tricks with the camera. Can't wait to see how the yellow birch handles turn out!
 
jrawk said:
there looks to be a slight swayback design there, but that is probably just the shadowing and exposed spring playing tricks with the camera.
Click to expand...

It does look that way, but I'm pretty sure that's Queen's 69 frame which is a standard 3.5" barlow frame.
 
I'm gonna be honest here. This and their last barlow offering are possibly the ugliest barlows I've ever seen. I like what they do with the old growth woods, and as a concept this is a great knife (beerlow anyone?), but the execution is just terrible! :barf:
 
I love Queens 69 frame but those brass bolsters are killing it for me.

I think it would have looked better with a satin finished steel bolster and blade too.

I may have to get one just to have a factory made bottle opener barlow though.
 
I like it but then I am a founding member of the C.L.U.B. (Central Location for Ugly Blades). Seems like a pretty sweet user.
 
I find this quite difficult, I've been a loyal customer of Greg's for a long time and when he started the Trestle Pines project I was very excited about it.

- First offering was a fixed blade which I think looks great and ticks all the boxes but I know it would sit on a shelf and never be carried so I passed.

- The second just didn't look right. The size was great and I like barlows, love the high end steel but the blade didn't look proper on a barlow and I'm not a fan of EO notches, especially not on barlow's so I passed again. I've often gone back and thought about it but again I know it wouldn't get used.

- The third just makes no sense to me as a traditional pocket knife fan at all. Sort of a hybrid of the three most popular current trends. Barlow, tick. Wharncliffe, tick. Caplifter, tick. I don't get it; I like milkshakes, orange juice and whisky but wouldn't put them in the same glass. I must say that the bolster stamp looks good though, and if more barlows are forthcoming I hope he keeps it.

I feel bad because I think the old reclaimed woods are brilliant, and when the concept of using high end super steels on traditional patterns at an affordable price was first brought up on his blog I was very supportive, but can't see any way that I'll go for the end product here. I feel guilty about it because Greg has gone a long way to assist me in the past but I can't buy one of these. I'm sure that it will be a hit with many though, it does tick plenty of boxes.

:(
 
I am a fan of both Wharncliffe blades and a Caplifter but on a Barlow they just don't look right and the Brass Bolsters against the SS blades to my eye turns this knife into a complete train wreck. :eek: Needless to say there will not be one in my collection. Just my 2 cents.
 
Rough crowd. I don't really disagree but it's an improvement over the predecessor. The pattern is similar to the beerlows that were made in small numbers by GEC for Charlie. They sold fast. Sure it has a Wharncliffe blade instead of a sheepfoot but the biggest difference is the manufacturing. I think Queen does its best work on well established patterns. This is a bit experimental.

They incorporated a lot of seemingly popular things into one knife...

Wharncliffe blades
Barlows
Caplifters
Copper bolsters (I don't get this one at all but the Ka-Bar/Canal Street knives seem to have a following)

This knife is all of those popular things in one knife. Maybe too much for one knife. The mosaic pins would have definitely been too much in my opinion. It doesn't follow tradition but none of their knives have followed tradition. I think they are on a better track than the original Portage. If they replaced the Wharncliffe with a Clip blade or Sheepfoot and dropped the copper, I think it would work a bit better together. But at least it's a functional design. The original Portage was a flawed design. This one shows promise.
 
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