What Makes a Good, Traditional Barlow?

waynorth said:
For Inquiring Minds :confused::confused::
the II after Tom's choice, is the second version of Tom's favorite blade.:eek:
Long vs. common nail nick.
Click to expand...

Thanks Charlie but I'm still confused ... my yellow bone has the common nail nick but no "II" in the etch. IMO there is a slight difference between the one with the II etch and those without. The II has a slightly lighter pull and the halfstop is perfectly flush while the others are ever so slightly proud.
 
Chief said:
Thanks Charlie but I'm still confused ... my yellow bone has the common nail nick but no "II" in the etch. IMO there is a slight difference between the one with the II etch and those without. The II has a slightly lighter pull and the halfstop is perfectly flush while the others are ever so slightly proud.
Click to expand...

Hi John. Your Barlow shows a Toms Choice II, but it is actually a Toms Choice III. The II's came out with the yellow bone and clip/spey combination as one of the configurations.

I hope this helps.

Best,

Mark
 
Markesharp said:
Hi John. Your Barlow shows a Toms Choice II, but it is actually a Toms Choice III. The II's came out with the yellow bone and clip/spey combination as one of the configurations.
Click to expand...

I think you got that one a little backwards, Mark. There have only been two versions of the clip made, the longpull (Tom's Choice I), and the nick (Tom's Choice II). The nick clips made with the Day's Work run and the ones from this last run are both Tom's Choice II, as there is no difference between them (besides scale materials). The etch was updated for this last run.

Chief, the difference in the pull weight and half stop is just an example of small variation that occurs during production, I am sure it was not a deliberate change.
 
esnyx said:
I think you got that one a little backwards, Mark. There have only been two versions of the clip made, the longpull (Tom's Choice I), and the nick (Tom's Choice II). The nick clips made with the Day's Work run and the ones from this last run are both Tom's Choice II, as there is no difference between them (besides scale materials). The etch was updated for this last run.

Chief, the difference in the pull weight and half stop is just an example of small variation that occurs during production, I am sure it was not a deliberate change.
Click to expand...

Can you explain why there is no "Tom's Choice II" on the yellow bone with nail nick? This was a previous run that include the days work Barlow I mentioned. The knife John has is from the 3rd run that included the Stew's Blade....am I right?
 
You are right about it being the 3rd run, but that is not why the knife is named so. As Charlie previously mentioned, the nick clip is named Tom's Choice II to signify Tom's 2nd favorite blade, being the clip point with a nick as opposed to a long pull(his favorite). I assume that the etch was not used on the first run of nick clips because the idea had not been in place to name them differently, so technically, the first run of nick clips are also Tom's Choice II, with the LP clips being the only "true" Tom's Choice.

I'm not 100% on all of this, but I'm pretty sure this is how it goes... Someone correct me on this if they know I'm off on this one... Charlie? Barry? Anyone??
 
This gets a little complicated, but Charlie ran a short run or two of the single clip blade models due to demand. They are etched with the Tom's Choice label on the blade. There were smooth yellow bone and che chen rosewood with this first etch and common nick. The single walnut and later versions are the TCII etched variety. I think.... :confused:

There's no etch on the clip blade of the Day's Work model, as the etch is on the spey blade. Some of the two blade models are marked 151213 and some are marked 154213 so there is some confusion, but they are the same knife with the spey being the master. :eek:

Don't take this as absolute, as I'm going from memory.
 
Am I missing something? It looks like GEC redid their website and did away with the online production schedule. I know that Mike at Collector Knives still has his version of the production schedule, but how does one scout for any upcoming charlows? I am thinking about adding one of Charlie's Barlows to my collection.
 
Mort Canard said:
Am I missing something? It looks like GEC redid their website and did away with the online production schedule. I know that Mike at Collector Knives still has his version of the production schedule, but how does one scout for any upcoming charlows? I am thinking about adding one of Charlie's Barlows to my collection.
Click to expand...

Best way is to keep an eye on this thread. I believe Jan or Feb is the next release??
 
gunstockjack said:
This gets a little complicated, but Charlie ran a short run or two of the single clip blade models due to demand. They are etched with the Tom's Choice label on the blade. There were smooth yellow bone and che chen rosewood with this first etch and common nick. The single walnut and later versions are the TCII etched variety. I think.... :confused:

There's no etch on the clip blade of the Day's Work model, as the etch is on the spey blade. Some of the two blade models are marked 151213 and some are marked 154213 so there is some confusion, but they are the same knife with the spey being the master. :eek:

Don't take this as absolute, as I'm going from memory.
Click to expand...

Barry is correct from looking at my collection. I don't have the che chen rosewood but the others match up from his post comment.
 
ThievesLikeUs said:
Best way is to keep an eye on this thread. I believe Jan or Feb is the next release??
Click to expand...

Jon,
Thanks! The demand and relative scarcity makes it a little crazy trying to chase one down, especially for someone who has not been following this trend for any length of time.

May the four winds blow you safely home! :thumbup:
 
Mort Canard said:
Jon,
Thanks! The demand and relative scarcity makes it a little crazy trying to chase one down, especially for someone who has not been following this trend for any length of time.

May the four winds blow you safely home! :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Hi Mort Canard. Drop me an email.
Cheers!
 
Parke1 said:
Good to see you around, Linus! I hope you're doing well. :)
Click to expand...

Hi Dan. I'm well as can be. It's hard to stay away too long when there are so many beautiful Charlows on display here. Actually I wasn't "away" away, I just stopped posting for a while but I still read most of the posts ;)
 
A little clarification. When we did the Day's Work run we made the Clip and the Spey both with common nicks because it looked best in the two blade knife. Since I always order part of the run in single blades, using the main blade, I did the same there. But technically there were two main blades!!
What to do?? Why, make both of them of course!!
Since we ran the clip blades with common nicks, we did the the "alternate" single blades with those blades. Of course the primary single blade knife had a Spey blade.
Since that Day's Work was part of the initial Sawcut series, I hadn't thought of the concept of "II" yet. Stew's Blade finished the Sawcut Series, with the 5 historically used Barlow blades, Spear, Clip, Sheepfoot, Spey and Razor!

Next, we started the Jigged Bone series. To keep them different, we used nicks, as well as jigged bone. We re-used the etches, which worked ok for the spear, but with the clip, I thought it was a different enough blade to change the etch some, so the "II" was born! In a way it's the third version, but arguments can be made either way.
I am debating the Jigged Sheepfoot details now, for early next year! I'm not too fond of a nick on a Sheepfoot blade, so we might do a long pull, and vary the knife some other way........ just not sure yet!
Hope this helps with understanding what motivated the detail changes. Not always purely logical!:eek:
 
Today's mail:
4gmced.jpg


219o36b.jpg


:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top