What Makes a Good, Traditional Barlow?

waynorth said:
Where is that information found, JoKr???
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i cant remember CC, sry.

i collect these little gold nuggets of information from all over the internet, mostly on bladeforums, AAPK, iKnife collector and some more.
(but sadly, all the unsubstantial chit chat in most threads makes it really more and more hard to find these gold nuggets of information)
 
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Augie said:
Harry, Russell did use up their bolster stamps which is why you see such a variety of sharpness to the Russell arrow, my understanding is the fletching on the arrow would be the first to go, I have an example where the fletching is almost gone.View attachment 1993973
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The Fletching should be the first to go because it is not as bold as the rest . If went back to my post # 24866 and looked at my most worn one and the fletching and Arrow both are pretty well worn , but not as much as yours is . Beautiful Old Russells my friend . Now I have to go look at my Old Grandaddy Russell .

Harry
 
From a trade gone amazingly well...with a fantastic person on another forum!

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This is a bit of a longer post. But, boy, am I excited. I recently got my first ever GEC (late to the party) and was over the moon with the quality. I always wanted a nice barlow, as the only one I have currently is a Rough Ryder Reserve which is very nice but not as "pretty" as some of the barlows I desired. However, the Charlie SFO's are not cheap; especially because I liked the length of the 15 as opposed to the 14. I decided to take the money I would use on a GEC barlow and instead invest it in two Case XX barlows.

The first, I admittedly probably spent too much on. But, I have never seen appaloosa bone that looked this nice. Gives two very different looks outdoors vs indoors. From 1980, the biggest flaw on this knife is gaps on the backspring. Walk and talk is amazing, but boy is it a bear trap. I'd give the clip point a 7.5 pull and the pen blade a 9.5. Seems the pen blades are very hard pull on these models, as I've seen many other posters claiming the same.

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The second knife was a first "project" knife for me, of sorts. It was listed with many bone cracks, a "hard to open" pen blade, and blade wobble. Got it at a steal, imo. From 1970, this one has slightly better fit and finish. Still gaps in the backspring, but not nearly as profound. Clearly a user, this thing is pocket worn. The pulls on this are much lighter. I'd say a 6.5 on both clip and pen blades. None of the "cracks" seem severe and I think a lot of what was being labeled as a crack was really just a natural feature of the bone. After a very thorough cleaning with WD40, hot water and dish soap, some alcohol, and canned air, the walk and talk is nice a smooth with strong snap.

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While I felt there were no issues with the pen blade being hard or difficult to open and I was happy with the bone, there was definitely some good amount of blade play. I squeezed the bolsters gently in a vise until the blade play was gone, walk and talk still good, peened the pin, and hand sanded down to the best of my ability. Polished it up with some brasso. First time ever fixing blade play on pinned construction and I think it turned out alright! Definitely got my money's worth on this one and I certainly won't be afraid to carry it. It is a work of my own at this point 😝

Here you can see the pin proud:
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And here is after hand sanding / hand polishing. Still need to get the edge/profile cleaned up.
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And finally, some group pics (taken when the pin was still proud) 😂
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Whether or not these barlows demonstrate what makes a good traditional barlow or not, I'll leave for you to decide. I'm just happy to have these in hand and in pocket.
 
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