What Makes a Good, Traditional Barlow?

Pertinux,, you and Lyle are having some fun but it was a good effort on Lyle's part. Won't speak for Barry but I just felt that it should go back home to roost with it's original owner and user since I've been buying all these Northwoods lately. In fact I just bought a matching scales Sambar Stag Forest Jack from Barry and can't wait till it arrives on Friday. That'll make 4 new knives in 2 weeks, that's about right for me.:D Perfect shot of those 2 Smoothies Barry!!:thumbup::thumbup:
 
I really enjoy coming back to this thread. Following the new developments, along with seeing the resultant pictures, makes for a nice diversion.

waynorth said:
We have revived the traditional knives, and brought along some other traditions.
For posterity, I keep an archive of mint examples, but I hope you folks out there use these knives! And I will try to make sure your grandkids can go to a museum somewhere, and check out how that old knife you gave them looked, when it was new!;)
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I think your hopes are being fulfilled Charlie if these three knives are any indication.


image by Campbellclanman

charlowchip.jpg

image by puukkoman

py77.jpg


That's a couple of reprofiled knives, along with one that received an unintended recurve. Some might cry abuse, but these things happen when you use a knife as a tool.

- Christian
 
I recently sought confirmation from GEC regarding their use of stabilized materials. Apparently I had misunderstood an earlier conversation. GEC informs me that:
"The only thing we use that is stabilized is Primitive Bone. All the rest of our bone is not stabilized nor are most of the woods"

I will be preparing several delicious servings of figurative Crow, no birds will be harmed during my re-education. I apologize if anyone was misled by my earlier posts that claimed all GEC bone is stabilized. At this point I dont even know if the CheChen is stabilized or not. Feel free to just ignore anything I say until I graduate from knife materials 101, sometime next year maybe.
 
jon_slider said:
I recently sought confirmation from GEC regarding their use of stabilized materials. Apparently I had misunderstood an earlier conversation. GEC informs me that:
"The only thing we use that is stabilized is Primitive Bone. All the rest of our bone is not stabilized nor are most of the woods"

I will be preparing several delicious servings of figurative Crow, no birds will be harmed during my re-education. I apologize if anyone was misled by my earlier posts that claimed all GEC bone is stabilized. At this point I dont even know if the CheChen is stabilized or not. Feel free to just ignore anything I say until I graduate from knife materials 101, sometime next year maybe.
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That's strange, I have an email from Chris at GEC that says "all our wood is stabilized before they are attached"

edit: that email is from Jan 2013, so maybe things have changed since then
 
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confucius37 said:
That's strange, I have an email from Chris at GEC that says "all our wood is stabilized before they are attached"

edit: that email is from Jan 2013, so maybe things have changed since then
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Yes, the info is not consistent. On July 30, 2013 Chris at GEC wrote me and said

"All our wood is stabilized when we purchase it. We process the bone in house."

I took "process the bone in house" to mean stabilize in house, but can not confirm.

iirc, GEC stabilized the Walnut in house, but I was unable to confirm that either. No matter, stabilized or not, the Charlow bones are gorgeous, as are the woods.
 
Was the person who answered the two separate inquiries the same person? Perhaps it was someone else? Also how is "stabilized" defined might be another thing to determine.

Thanks for the updates/info.
 
kamagong said:
Some might cry abuse, but these things happen when you use a knife as a tool.
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Exactly right! Mine's the one with the chip missing, and I gotta say... it doesn't bother me in the least! The knife still cuts, still feels good in my hand, still going strong! This one DEFinitely gets used! :)
 
Good on you Alex my friend, that was a good job you did in re-curving the blade!, my Red Bone Flat Belly was a result of two things, 1 - stupidity on my part by trusting someone else with my knife and 2, abuse by the person who chipped the blade in 3 places :-(, but as Alex has said with his knife, I love to carry the knife as a Flat Belly optioned SFO :D and it works well.

Now Please......I wont accept any offers for this knife - as they may pour in once people read I have the only such knife By Charlie/GEC in the Flat Belly Red Bone option.
 
Campbellclanman said:
Good on you Alex my friend, that was a good job you did in re-curving the blade!, my Red Bone Flat Belly was a result of two things, 1 - stupidity on my part by trusting someone else with my knife and 2, abuse by the person who chipped the blade in 3 places :-(, but as Alex has said with his knife, I love to carry the knife as a Flat Belly optioned SFO :D and it works well.

Now Please......I wont accept any offers for this knife - as they may pour in once people read I have the only such knife By Charlie/GEC in the Flat Belly Red Bone option.
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Hahaha...the recurved barlow is mine Duncan, the result of an impatient and careless sharpening session.

- Christian
 
kamagong said:
Hahaha...the recurved barlow is mine Duncan, the result of an impatient and careless sharpening session.

- Christian
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Ooops! Christian, I am so sorry, I read that wrong!. I thought it was the re-curve job to remove the chip in Alex's photo!
So if I have read ( again correctly I hope this time ) Alex hasn't removed the chip?
 
I have no idea Duncan, I haven't seen any recent pics of Alex's barlow. I doubt he'd leave a knife in that condition for very long, a chip that big reduces its utility.

- Christian
 
Thanks guys. My little girl did all the hard work making the "Christmas tree." I just wanted to memorialize it with a picture.

- Christian
 
Campbellclanman said:
Ooops! Christian, I am so sorry, I read that wrong!. I thought it was the re-curve job to remove the chip in Alex's photo!
So if I have read ( again correctly I hope this time ) Alex hasn't removed the chip?
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Whoops! Sorry for any confusion... (and for my late reply)
No, I have not removed the chip. I've left it in place, with the only "remedy" being that I've done a little bit of "sharpening" to the inner surfaces, so that the blade will continue the cut right through the chip, instead of snagging (like a single serration, if you will).
With each sharpening, the chip does grow a tiny bit smaller. ;)
I'll try to grab a pic soon.
 
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