Lets talk GEC!

biomed said:
I am happy today. While packing for a trip this morning I ran across my ebony crown lifter. It has been missing for nearly two years. I found it in a little used camera bag. I guess I won't have to mention what is going to be in my pocket this week. Happy Thanksgiving to all.
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Here's a photo of my long missing crown lifter.

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Wow you folks have been busy posting...

just my two cents on the multi blade discussion: sometimes I’ll be away for a weekend, so I’ll grab a scrap of wood and a two blade like my much beloved #35 Churchill. The two blades provide different functions when whittling. The Clip’s belly is great for carving big flat surfaces where it’s all but impossible to get enough pressure to plane it all at once. It’s also longer and thicker so it can reach further across or deeper into whatever I’m working. It also has a narrow tip perfect for coping through tight curves. The sheepsfoot has the right tip for V cuts, making knife lines and chip carving. It’s thin blade is optimal for making whittling easier on the hands and a good general carving blade. Anyway, it’s nice to have more sharp blades when i won’t be able to sharpen/strop.

Whittlers usually need a little variety in blade shapes to do what we want. Not to mention one blade usually can be dedicated to daily cutting tasks so as to save the other for wood carving.

If I’m working in the basement or mowing the lawn I toss a single blade in my pocket. I can do a lot with one blade; just not everything. It’s kind of like the reason felling axes and splitting axes exist: ideally you have both, though you might get by with just one.
 
MCar said:
Awesome. It's a good color green you've chosen. All too often, an evergreen-colored, ornament, which is very "Christmas - looking" on the store shelf, become completely lost against an evergreen tree. That green will pop, however. :thumbsup: Even you chosen knife is feeling the season to come. :)
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Used just a paint wash this time. (Tree on Left) I like it, another/different effect.

Knife content, received this Wednesday been in my pocket since. Bigger but not too big, I will be carrying this for a while.
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Anyone use one of those pull through sharpeners for their GECs? I have a Smith's portable sharpener but I'm not sure the angle is right for GEC blades. Maybe its blasphemy to sharpen a GEC with a pull through sharpener but it's a commitment to pull out the wet stones and soak them.
 
I use stones...but I guess it depends how much you care about a $100 knife.
 
I’ve touched up 1095 edges on the bottom of ceramic coasters as well as smoothing out a tip or two. Works a treat.
 
AZCoyote said:
Anyone use one of those pull through sharpeners for their GECs? I have a Smith's portable sharpener but I'm not sure the angle is right for GEC blades. Maybe its blasphemy to sharpen a GEC with a pull through sharpener but it's a commitment to pull out the wet stones and soak them.
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1095 will take an incredible edge that is easy to maintain with a fine ceramic hone and a strop but IMHO a pull through sharpener is not going to get you the edge that a quality knife of any brand deserves. When I sharpen for others I find that the knives that have been sharpened using pull through often have uneven edges that require complete reprofiling to bring them back to usability and often they have chips taken out of the edge due to chatter that is very common with any kind of pull through sharpener. Pull through systems often remove significantly more material than necessary. There are many sharpening options and opinions are as widely varied. That said it is your knife find what works best for you.
 
Pàdruig said:
Well, to be fair (queue Letterkenny chorus), you aren't wrong. But what happens when you begin to reach towards the bottom of the jar? :eek: I can't stand gumming up my knives with sticky stuff...



Thank you, my friend.

There is a lot of stuff in your post that I relate to and respect, particularly your last statement, which I set in bold.

I know plenty of folks, particularly those who work in construction or some sort of trade, that rely on utility knives. The name says it all - utility, and nothing is more utilitarian than slapping a new blade on your knife when you beat the crud out of the old one.

I have one GEC with a caplifter, a Radio Jack and though I love the knife, I find that I don't use it much. I have a caplifter built into my bar at home and so the Radio Jack sees little use.

I love the Beer Scouts though and would love to hunt one down in Red Sawcut. Every day, I carry one of the GEC 15s on a chain. It is attached to my jeans. Though it isn't the first knife I go to when I need to cut something, it is always there if I happen to forget my primary cutting implements - which happens on occasion. If I were to get a Beer Scout, I'd put that chain on it instead of the single blade 15 it currently is on. I'd make a guess that I'd use a caplifter far more if that were the case when I am out and about.
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I carry a Beer Scout daily attached to a leather lanyard hooked to a front belt loop on my britches. The leather seems lighter than the chains and I often run it through a side loop and then into my back pocket. Carried that way everything sits pretty high and tight, and the lanyard blends in with my belt.
 
AZCoyote said:
...Maybe its blasphemy to sharpen a GEC with a pull through sharpener but it's a commitment to pull out the wet stones and soak them.
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As a rule I never trust those types of sharpeners; I think of them in the same lot as those belt sanders they call sharpeners. Much like choosing a life partner, beware of fast and easy!
That said I don’t invest in waterstones, either. too fancy for my taste and I have yet to see a meaningful difference in the finished product. I have some 6” DMT whetstones from extra course to extra fine: the last two being continuous surface. I don’t use water or oil and I freehand sharpen. After the initial sharpening any touch ups take very little time. I Always strop the knives I use at the end of the day. Nothing fancy, but my knives are hair whittlers To be sure.
Don’t think of it as an investment in time- think of it as participating in maintaining a fine tool. if you were talking about a rough rider, or any other cheap knife that would be a different story. Right now I’m cringing at the thought of running a GEC blade through one of those contraptions... but to each their own! Not everyone needs the same level of sharpness or fine tuned bevel geometry. One of my close friends presses blunt steel through plastic, calls that steel a knife, and is perfectly happy.
 
EngrSorenson said:
As a rule I never trust those types of sharpeners; I think of them in the same lot as those belt sanders they call sharpeners. Much like choosing a life partner, beware of fast and easy!
That said I don’t invest in waterstones, either. too fancy for my taste and I have yet to see a meaningful difference in the finished product. I have some 6” DMT whetstones from extra course to extra fine: the last two being continuous surface. I don’t use water or oil and I freehand sharpen. After the initial sharpening any touch ups take very little time. I Always strop the knives I use at the end of the day. Nothing fancy, but my knives are hair whittlers To be sure.
Don’t think of it as an investment in time- think of it as participating in maintaining a fine tool. if you were talking about a rough rider, or any other cheap knife that would be a different story. Right now I’m cringing at the thought of running a GEC blade through one of those contraptions... but to each their own! Not everyone needs the same level of sharpness or fine tuned bevel geometry. One of my close friends presses blunt steel through plastic, calls that steel a knife, and is perfectly happy.
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So just to be clear, I never ran one of my GEC knives through one of those pull through sharpeners. I use them for my SAKs to get a working edge back on them but I was concerned about the point brought up by gaj999 gaj999

Living in an apartment, the time and real estate investment involved with soaking multiple waterstones and the cleanup/drying afterwards was a little much but I'll definitely look into picking up some DMT whetstone knowing they work well without the use of oil or water. I do appreciate the advice as I am a new collector of GEC knives.

Cheers
 
AZCoyote said:
So just to be clear, I never ran one of my GEC knives through one of those pull through sharpeners. I use them for my SAKs to get a working edge back on them but I was concerned about the point brought up by gaj999 gaj999

Living in an apartment, the time and real estate investment involved with soaking multiple waterstones and the cleanup/drying afterwards was a little much but I'll definitely look into picking up some DMT whetstone knowing they work well without the use of oil or water. I do appreciate the advice as I am a new collector of GEC knives.

Cheers
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There are a lot of options of stones that don't need soaked. I have my whole main sharpening setup in a little 4"x6" bag. Another option is the Spyderco Sharpmaker.
 
I think if I were I decide on one single sharpener for my traditionals, it would be a simple 2X8 combination India stone, and some Norton sharpening oil. I might run into some small problems on GEC's occasional recurves, bit it would handle pretty much everything else that wasn't a modern super-steel.
 
AZCoyote said:
Living in an apartment, the time and real estate investment involved with soaking multiple waterstones and the cleanup/drying afterwards was a little much but I'll definitely look into picking up some DMT whetstone knowing they work well without the use of oil or water. I do appreciate the advice as I am a new collector of GEC knives.

Cheers
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I hear you, brother. If I was made of money I’d get a whole set of DMT 8” bench stones from extra extra coarse to extra extra fine. Break them in first by sharpening a couple of your SAK’s on there. Occasionally DMT stones will have diamonds that are just a little too large compared to the average grit on any given stone. Breaking them in busts those larger ones up a bit and makes for a better finished product. And don’t forget you can use them to resurface your water stones! I think after you use the DMT on your GECs you might never go back to the water stones.
 
Dear GEC,

What I'd like to ask for Christmas is a splitback whittler on the 35 frame, clip main, small clip and coping secondaries. I'd like the shields to be centered on the knife, and I'd like the pull weights to be 6-7s, similar to how they were on the clip main 57s. The last whittlers we saw were either the 13s or the 98s, so it could be time for one, and, after handling the 98, I think the 35 frame would make for a hugely popular, exceptionally useable knife.

Thank you very much,
- Andrew
 
Here's one that must have an interesting technique for sharpening!! It's my only Cotton Sampler, and I can't imagine carrying it. There are some nifty details -- ALL hardware is Brass, except for the blade of course!! Bolsters, rivets, liners and shield are all Brass!!!
Usually I prefer steel, but all combined, the look is striking!! Especially with the (Antique Amber - wrong cap supplied - edited!) actually Mustard jigged bone in that unusual pattern!!:)
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To me, this knife is sort of a GEC curiosity, but maybe someone can tell me if they use one, or how it is meant to be used??:rolleyes:
 
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