Lets talk GEC!

For the record @MerryMadMonk i have absolute confidence that you are cautious, know your stuff, and know what you want to buy and where to find it. The word of warning was for those newer to the sickness that might not know so they can learn from the mistakes of those that have made them already.

Since pocket knives are a man made thing, and not a scientific discovery of naturally occurring phenomena, I would say the only thing we have available is a prescriptivist definition of what a knife is. A consensus must me made and after that we use that term by the rules we made, which is the only reason why I care. We would probably rise up as a community and smite the individual who makes a stockman and calls it a whittler, only because we wish to preserve a meaningful but subjective definition.

You would probably agree with me that there have been two legitimate publications that could be referred to; one with a broader definition than the other. You’d also probably agree that they are both subjective- so who is the authority?

As I’ve said prior, I can live with the broader definition. At this point I can only say that it would be a reasonable conclusion for an amateur user or professional knife collector to look at the GEC #29 and say “huh, three springs and they are calling it a Whittler?”.

Anyway, thanks for the information. I’ll consider the matter closed and I recant my initial statement. I no longer worry that the name will mislead anyone and I’m certain everyone who buys a #29, including me, will get a Whittler no matter what their expectation is.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go sit in a darkroom and meditate on what makes a half Whittler.o_O:rolleyes:;)
 
Haha, on a hilarious note, just as I posted about how I’m going to consider 1/2 Whittlers you guys beat me to it.

We can all certainly agree some monikers mean more than others. I’m going to go play with my #35 pen knife... or opposite ended jack... or is it a 1/2 whittler?

Badee badee badee ba- That’s all folks!
 
I like this article. Whittlers, as with other knife monikers,is more of a general guidance than a definition. I could consider my Tidioute Congress Clerk Office Knife to be a half whittler, or a half Congress, or just an amazingly cool, historical pattern. Or all of the above.
Just to open up another can of worms...Bernard Levine himself once admonished me: There is no such thing as a Half-Congress. A Congress knife can have two blades, or four blades, or even six blades, but a two blade Congress is not a Half-Congress.
We would probably rise up as a community and smite the individual who makes a stockman and calls it a whittler, only because we wish to preserve a meaningful but subjective definition.
Unless you are talking about a "Carpenter's Whittler" ;) Which is a clip/coping/clip in a Stockman configuration.
BEjfrWj.jpg


I hope you understand that I point these things out not to be argumentative, but because I enjoy pedantry and semantics. :D All in good spirit, I hope. :)
 
Just to open up another can of worms...Bernard Levine himself once admonished me: There is no such thing as a Half-Congress. A Congress knife can have two blades, or four blades, or even six blades, but a two blade Congress is not a Half-Congress.

Unless you are talking about a "Carpenter's Whittler" ;) Which is a clip/coping/clip in a Stockman configuration.
BEjfrWj.jpg


I hope you understand that I point these things out not to be argumentative, but because I enjoy pedantry and semantics. :D All in good spirit, I hope. :)
If everyone agrees on everything then there’s nothing to discuss. Makes being on a discussion board a little silly. I like pedantry and semantics as well.
 
So what do they mean by “ hammer tested “ ? ( I googled steel hammer testing etc by can’t find the answer as it would relate to knifes )
 
Just to open up another can of worms...Bernard Levine himself once admonished me: There is no such thing as a Half-Congress. A Congress knife can have two blades, or four blades, or even six blades, but a two blade Congress is not a Half-Congress.

Unless you are talking about a "Carpenter's Whittler" ;) Which is a clip/coping/clip in a Stockman configuration.
BEjfrWj.jpg


I hope you understand that I point these things out not to be argumentative, but because I enjoy pedantry and semantics. :D All in good spirit, I hope. :)
 
Pedantry? I’m there! Got me in trouble more than once but I love words, precision and history. I never liked “half Congress” anyway. Thanks.

That is a pattern I have been interested in for a long time. I’m lucky to have found it.
 
So what do they mean by “ hammer tested “ ? ( I googled steel hammer testing etc by can’t find the answer as it would relate to knifes )

I’m no expert, but since no one has taken a stab at this yet, I will. I believe hammer testing refers to the test to determine the hardness of a metal’s heat treat. There’s various tests, but I believe the Rockwell hardness scale uses a dimpled striking surface and the idea is you can correlate the hardness scale with the measured indent in the metal.
 
Unless you are talking about a "Carpenter's Whittler" ;) Which is a clip/coping/clip in a Stockman configuration.

Except of course for the Schatt & Morgan Carpenter’s whittler... soo it’s all starting to seem meaningless to me.
 
It is an old style test where they place the blade in a vice and then strike it with a certain force with a hammer to insure it doesn't break from being too brittle.
TY Mike !
It’s satisfying to get to know little details like this about the knives we love :thumbsup:
 
It is an old style test where they place the blade in a vice and then strike it with a certain force with a hammer to insure it doesn't break from being too brittle.
Do you think they actually still do it the old way? That’s fascinating. Seems like a method to test the tempering rather than the hardness.
 
Do you think they actually still do it the old way? That’s fascinating. Seems like a method to test the tempering rather than the hardness.

I actually had this conversation not that long ago. They do still do it periodically, although not as often as they once did. They have found such consistency out of Peter's Heat treatment; that they have found little need for stringent "hammer testing" and mainly just verify the treat with in-house hrc testing on each run.
 
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