The online community of knife collectors, A Knife Family Forged in Steel
Collectors of Great Eastern, Northfield and Tidioute Knives
Website: http://greateasterncutlery.net/blog/
Members: 269
Latest Activity: Jan 7
Started by Ken Mundhenk. Last reply by Fred Kemp Jan 17, 2023. 41 Replies 4 Likes
Started by Kenneth W. Hill. Last reply by Fred Kemp Jan 17, 2023. 15 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Beth Medeiros. Last reply by T. Smith Apr 14, 2022. 2 Replies 1 Like
Started by Ugly Old Guy. Last reply by Andy King Jan 31, 2022. 2 Replies 5 Likes
Started by Kenneth W. Hill. Last reply by Andy King Apr 6, 2021. 30 Replies 4 Likes
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LOL,
Mine are on the prepay college plan. I pay for the knives, when I am gone they can pay off their college.
Jan,
I like your primitive whaler better than my own. I do like mine but when they polished the bone to taper it into the bolster they kind of overdid it. It left the primitive portion looking kind of blocky and unnatural. The polished primitive does look and feel really good but the transition between the two seems too abrupt. I guess that is one of the downsides to not seeing the knife that you are going to buy when you get it mail order. We need a GEC dealer in the Sunshine State - or at least more photos! It would be really awesome to be able to look at your favorite GEC knife de jour before deciding to buy it.
Borrowed this from Ryans Facebook...
Many of our production processes and equipment here at Great Eastern Cutlery are the same or very similar to those used in the cutlery factories of 75 years ago. We continually strive to make our pocket knives reminiscent of that era, an improbable task without the use of bygone manufacturing, but also, a bygone terminology. Just as with all other types of manufacturing, there are names and terms specifically used in the cutlery industry. We use it here at Great Eastern Cutlery on an everyday basis. This terminology from 100 years ago was conveyed by highly skilled cutlers from one cutlery company to another throughout their careers. But in the 21st century, skilled cutlery workers are nearly nonexistent, and there are no trade schools for cutlery manufacturing, so new employees here at Great Eastern Cutlery have the difficult task of not only learning the manufacturing process but also the terminology.
The Knife Makers Who Went West by Harvey Platts is an excellent book to read about the cutlery manufacturing history in the United States. The book follows the lives of four generations of the Platts family in the cutlery industry. A portion of that book that includes pocket knife assembly diagrams and terminology handed down through generations is copied below. We use the same terminology here at Great Eastern Cutlery
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