Welcome Home...THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF OUR COMMUNITY

iKnife Collector

The online community of knife collectors, A Knife Family Forged in Steel

GEC 73 , a beartrap ?

My brother who now lives in New Zealand recently bought himself a GEC 73 in cocobolo . As he is getting rather old ,I guess I am not too far behind, he has had problems using the knife. The main point being the spring seems to strong for him and he describes it as a "Beartrap" and has given up on it . The knife is on it's way to me in the hope that I can tame it .The question is should I be afraid or get used to the idea of having a few less fingers ?

1 member likes this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Selph on February 9, 2014 at 18:13

John I have one of these knives and that spring is strong for sure. I am very careful with it. I love everything about the knife but have to admit I really give it a lot of respect when opening and closing it.

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on February 9, 2014 at 18:21

John,

While I own many, I have never had a problem with a 73. The 23 is a different story, I had forgotten how hard they were to open until I had to open one for some pics this weekend. I kept thinking, this is the reason we went to the 72 model when we made the iKC knife.

David that sure is a beauty!

Permalink Reply by David Selph on February 9, 2014 at 18:27

Thanks Sue.

Permalink Reply by John Bamford on February 10, 2014 at 10:20

Thanks for the advice Jan and David , great looking knife by the way David , I will let you know how I get on with it.

Think Rodger will be going back to Canal Street after this experience. Anyway that is two new knives I have to look forward to ,#73 and #47 should be good !

Permalink Reply by Billy Oneale on February 10, 2014 at 22:47

I have a 73 in Blood red bone that has that tight spring. I thank God every time I open it, that it has a half stop. I have cut myself with it once or twice. It is a great knife for a user because I don't have to worry as much about it folding up as one with a loose spring. But it is a bear to open.

Permalink Reply by John Bamford on February 11, 2014 at 9:47

Billy Oneale said:

"I have a 73 in Blood red bone that has that tight spring. I thank God every time I open it, that it has a half stop. I have cut myself with it once or twice. It is a great knife for a user because I don't have to worry as much about it folding up as one with a loose spring. But it is a bear to open."

Thanks for the advice Billy. The Beartrap should be half way across the Pacific now, it's a well travelled GEC thats for sure. Depending on which way it travels it may head across the States again !

I seem to cut myself mostly playing with my Congress ,need to stop opening more than one blade at a time.

Permalink Reply by John Bamford on February 15, 2014 at 3:27

I have just received the knife in question and it doesn't seem too bad on first trial, but then it's not sharpened yet .

Permalink Reply by Ron Cooper on February 15, 2014 at 5:29

@John,

Your cocobolo 73 is a really nice looking knife. The fluted bolsters and that shield certainly place it a class by itself. I hope you'll let us know what your impressions of this pattern are after you've had a chance play with it and put it to use for a while.

@David,

Whoa! The stag on your knife is nothing short of spectacular! The handles are well match, front and back. And the color is amazing!

These are two great examples of why Great Eastern knives are flying off the Dealer's shelves!

Permalink Reply by John Bamford on February 15, 2014 at 7:35

Ron Cooper said:

@John,

Your cocobolo 73 is a really nice looking knife. The fluted bolsters and that shield certainly place it a class by itself. I hope you'll let us know what your impressions of this pattern are after you've had a chance play with it and put it to use for a while.

@David,

Whoa! The stag on your knife is nothing short of spectacular! The handles are well match, front and back. And the color is amazing!

These are two great examples of why Great Eastern knives are flying off the Dealer's shelves!

Thanks Ron ,

I like cocobolo, but have only seen pictures before.

I probably wouldn't have ordered this knife for myself because of the linerlock , in this country locking knives are even more frowned upon than slipjoints, but my old brother was struggling with it !

Having said that it has all the usual GEC benefits of flawless fit and finish and a feeling that the knife will be around when I am not, and probably just getting broken in !

I am just giving it a good clean up at the moment , all the manufacturing grease and suchlike .

I will report back when I have had it for a while.

Am also waiting for a #47 to arrive , ordered from Greg at TSA just the other day .

Permalink Reply by Graeme on February 17, 2014 at 0:50

Call me crazy but I love a really strong spring.

Gotta say both knives in this thread look very nice (I'm not the biggest 73 fan but these look great).

Permalink Reply by John Bamford on February 18, 2014 at 9:57

An update on the "beartrap",

I have worked the knife an awful lot over the last few day's and constantly been dipping it in mineral oil and then working it some more. Lots of black gunge has worked out ,I presume from the grinding ,and the knife is now usable will sharpen it tomorrow and then it can take it's place in my edc rotation . Lovely Cocobolo handle scales and boy am I glad to get it free'd up enough to use, it's too nice to be just put in a drawer.

Permalink Reply by Billy Oneale on February 18, 2014 at 21:13

wow, sounds like you have it working a lot easier. I never thought about dipping mine in mineral oil. Here's a picture of mine.