Lets talk GEC!

Thanks 'splitter & mamba.

That's very helpful.

Pretty sure I have a 2007 knife that says "cyclops knife works" but blades are carbon. CKW is etched on the blade but the stamp says "Great Eastern Cutlery - Titusville knife works"
Ron, I’m pretty sure what you have is a Cumberland Knife Works SFO. CKW was an early dealer for GEC and they were located in Cookeville Tennessee. I quoted the below insert from another thread. I’m sure what you have is similar to what Ed has posted below. :)

The wife and I went to dinner last night and on the way, we stopped at our road-side mailbox only to discover a wee, white, box from @JohnDF. All through dinner, I was wondering just what could be in that wee, white, box. It turns out that it was a 2007 GEC Northfield #73 Ebony Scout Trappr Serial # 09 SFO for Cumberland Knife Works (CKW) who I believe was an original distributor for GEC. As shown in the pictures, the knife is beautifully etched and when the tube was opened it was discovered that the knife was accompanied by an Eisenhower Silver Dollar.

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This was a selfless and totally unexpected gift from John. A first rate knife that anyone would be proud to own and have in their collection. Thanks John.
 
I thought I read somewhere on here that they weren’t using the cyclops stamp anymore, but I could be remembering wrong.
 
I thought I read somewhere on here that they weren’t using the cyclops stamp anymore, but I could be remembering wrong.

I thought I read that too, but when I asked GEC about it they acted like they just hadn't been using it (without any specific reason).
 
I have a suspicion there will be #22s, you have to assume some #15s this year, and maybe some #73s. But I also think there's a new pattern being brewed up.




I think of eating elderberries by the handful from the bush that grew next to their barn.
I am ready for some #22 single blades. Some GEC#73s would be great two.
 
I thought I read that too, but when I asked GEC about it they acted like they just hadn't been using it (without any specific reason).

Odd that one. But they certainly DID use it and I found it very cool :cool:

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The last knife of theirs that I have that is made of stainless is the 15 Boy's Knife.
It has the Acorn shield but the Squirrels&acorns etch was replaced by a GEC shield with Practical Knives - not very visually inspiring. The tang has interesting script stamped 'Great Eastern Cutlery Titusville Pa' the other side shows CYCLOPS STEEL WORKS in block caps 151116. That's a 3 year stainless famine for me at least, others have been luckier :)

Thanks, Will
 
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Odd that one. But they certainly DID use it and I found it very cool :cool:

dbsYdD0.jpg


The last knife of theirs that I have that is made of stainless is the 15 Boy's Knife.
It has the Acorn shield but the Squirrels&acorns etch was replaced by a GEC shield with Practical Knives - not very visually inspiring. The tang has interesting script stamped 'Great Eastern Cutlery Titusville Pa' the other side shows CYCLOPS STEEL WORKS in block caps 151116. That's a 3 year stainless famine for me at least, others have been luckier :)

Thanks, Will

I might have been unclear there. They didn't act like they'd never used it. They seemed to just not have a particular reason for not using it anymore/recently.

The Special Factory Assembly stainless 74 from this year's Rendezvous has the Cyclops stamp, but the blade is from 2016...
 
GEC is making some great knives right now but I think I like scoring older GECs more than buying a new one. In their earlier days GEC seemed to do more small runs. You look at those production totals pdfs for each year and some of those have extremely low numbers for some of the covers. When you get one of those it is pretty cool.

For example, this 734112T. I don't have a tube for it so I'm not sure what those covers are, but according to the production totals it could be Cocobolo (5 pieces made) or Ebony Wood (2 pieces made). Either way, their are not a lot of them out there. Even if you add in all the other cover options, there just aren't many of those 73s with a spey blade like that.

 
GEC is making some great knives right now but I think I like scoring older GECs more than buying a new one. In their earlier days GEC seemed to do more small runs. You look at those production totals pdfs for each year and some of those have extremely low numbers for some of the covers. When you get one of those it is pretty cool.

For example, this 734112T. I don't have a tube for it so I'm not sure what those covers are, but according to the production totals it could be Cocobolo (5 pieces made) or Ebony Wood (2 pieces made). Either way, their are not a lot of them out there. Even if you add in all the other cover options, there just aren't many of those 73s with a spey blade like that.

Totally agree about the older ones! I cringe at all the low count knives I sold at a loss way back when...

That kinda looks like one of @knifeswapper SFO's. "The Farmer" I believe with the Spey blade. I know they came in Ebony just not sure if that is one of them. I don't remember what shield it had.
Very cool!:thumbsup:
EDIT: I am a little confused though as I bought 3 in Ebony at the same time... they may have been "seconds" so maybe they weren't reflected in the totals?
 
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