#78 American Jack

The 78 has definitely become my favorite GEC pattern. It's like a grown up boys knife with an even better clip blade, especially on the Northfields with that long pull. The pull can be pretty stout on some, but I've found it easy enough to lighten.

Below is my small collection of an ebony, 2 blackwoods, and my new stag. The ebony has had the pull lightened to about a 7 and the blackwood on the left to about a 6. The other blackwood and stag are unchanged and come in about 8 and 7.5 respectively. I think if these came with a little lighter pull standard they'd be much more popular, but 5 minutes with a little wedge between the tang and back spring and you can pretty easily tune these to you preference.

9800829F-518E-4D94-B876-3081B532FD7F.jpg
 
but 5 minutes with a little wedge between the tang and back spring and you can pretty easily tune these to you preference.

I agree, if the pull was lighter, more folks would be purchasing this fine knife.
No tell me how exactly one can lighten the pull? I tried giving one away to my son,he turned it down. Bear trap!
 
Interesting that the forthcoming Forum Knife is a kind of variant cousin of this Jack but single-blade (fortunately ha!ha!) Looking forward to it already!
 
I'm looking forward to the forum knife for that reason too!!! Very similar!

As for lightening the pull, the way I did it is this:

Open blade 1/4 the way

Place wedge tool between the tang and back spring, apply light pressure to keep it wedges in the corners made by the 1/4 open blade

Open blade more toward half-stop position

With the wedge in place this will force the back spring beyond it's normal extension

Go slow, tape the blade, and do multiple small adjustments check tension each time. Things could break....though it took a fair bit of effort to just lighten it by a step or so, still, at your own risk and all that. :).

Now, for what to use for said pry tool, I had trouble finding something and eventually tool a large key ring and bent a section away from the circle, then taped it with a little masking tape (more to increase diameter a little, but I'm sure it helps keep it from marring the back spring and tang a little too).

Hope that makes sense. It's really quite easy. I wouldn't be able to comfortable carry most of these in stock form without taking excessive time opening it to preserve my nails. But with a little work it's very useable. My blackwood that I lightened is the ideal pull for a knife this size, it will make a great carry blade.
 
I really dig how those #78's in blackwood sporting the cloud shields look, super handsome, definitely working it's way onto my want list. :thumbup:
 
slide13 said:
I'm looking forward to the forum knife for that reason too!!! Very similar!

As for lightening the pull, the way I did it is this:

Open blade 1/4 the way

Place wedge tool between the tang and back spring, apply light pressure to keep it wedges in the corners made by the 1/4 open blade

Open blade more toward half-stop position

With the wedge in place this will force the back spring beyond it's normal extension

Go slow, tape the blade, and do multiple small adjustments check tension each time. Things could break....though it took a fair bit of effort to just lighten it by a step or so, still, at your own risk and all that. :).

Now, for what to use for said pry tool, I had trouble finding something and eventually tool a large key ring and bent a section away from the circle, then taped it with a little masking tape (more to increase diameter a little, but I'm sure it helps keep it from marring the back spring and tang a little too).

Hope that makes sense. It's really quite easy. I wouldn't be able to comfortable carry most of these in stock form without taking excessive time opening it to preserve my nails. But with a little work it's very useable. My blackwood that I lightened is the ideal pull for a knife this size, it will make a great carry blade.
Click to expand...

This will also void your Warranty on a GEC knife. Just sayin.
 
I just got one last week, It was highly recommended.
The pull is a little strong, but mine seems to be breaking in. Like every GEC I own, the stag is perfect.

 
rma100 said:
This will also void your Warranty on a GEC knife. Just sayin.
Click to expand...

Good point, I'm sure this is true and is good to keep in mind. That being said, I'm guessing if there was an issue completely unrelated to the backspring GEC would probably still help you out if there is no reason this adjustment was the cause of the warranty issue, I know that is how we handle warranty at the company I work for. If you break a spring you're out of luck though, but I'm confident that with care the risk is very minimal. I wasn't sure of that at first, I experimented with the ebony one I picked up used for $50 first just to see if I was comfortable doing it to one of my blackwoods so I could carry it. After doing it once I realized how easy, simple, and low risk it was. Still, no plans to do the other black wood or the stag at this time...I'll leave those as the factory set them for now. The stag one is actually quite useable as it is, the other blackwood is just a little too stiff for comfortable use.


JDP1998 - that is some great looking stag on that one, very nice!
 
Last edited:
Bullion said:
I really dig how those #78's in blackwood sporting the cloud shields look, super handsome, definitely working it's way onto my want list. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Yes, the blackwood are my favorites, I love the plain cloud shields in them, that was why I bought a second one! You can't see it well in the above photo but the one on the left above (right in below photo) is very black while the other one has some beautiful brown toned grain. Love both, but like the extra character of the one with the dark brown streaking.


6670EF7D-C2A6-418F-B758-9E3B05BDFDF1.jpg
 
slide13 said:
Love both, but like the extra character on the one on the right.
Click to expand...

Totally agree, I think I prefer the clean black with that shield, although they are both nice snags for sure! I'll have to keep my eye out for a non-serialized one of these, I haven't seen them around for a while.

The primitive bone are also beautiful, but a little out of my price range.
 
I have the pheasant feather acrylic and would love to see a shield pinned to Copperhead Jig Bone on this workhorse of a knife. I love everything about this knife including the stiff back spring on the main blade. Well done Great Eastern Cutlery!
 
The pull on mine is very strong. I tried to lighten it up but had little luck.

I couldn't get myself to do anything outside of working it a lot and leaving it open. So I just sent it back to gec, they said they would try to lighten up the pull.

Really hoping they can .... cause I'm loving the knife. But not the pull.
 
onejim said:
The pull on mine is very strong. I tried to lighten it up but had little luck.

I couldn't get myself to do anything outside of working it a lot and leaving it open. So I just sent it back to gec, they said they would try to lighten up the pull.

Really hoping they can .... cause I'm loving the knife. But not the pull.
Click to expand...

Really sorry to hear that. I made the mistake of trying to open mine after having my hands in water for awhile when my knife was new:mad: Fortunately it lightened up and is smooth as silk although still snappy. :D Hopefully you will love it as much as I do when you get it back. :thumbup:
 
It was a Christmas present from my wife. My first GEC. She hit it out of the park, one of her best purchases for me. Really hoping they can lighten things up.
 
Wow, GEC rocks.

Two week turn around time. Just got my 78 back in the mail, with a lighter pull. Still very strong and still the snappiest knife I own.....but with a pull that allows me to use it.

First time really carrying and using this Christmas present.

Very happy man. Thinking this will be getting lots of pocket time.

Jim

 
Fantastic to hear that GEC took good care of you....
The #78 is one sweet knife, maybe somewhat underrated.

image.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top