I'm a newbie and just thought I'd start sharing some of my collection. I started collecting traditionals ONLY and even then just the main 4: Case, Queen, Boker and GEC in an effort to try to keep everything US made. I loved the fit and finish of GEC, but ended up trading out a lot of my slip joints because they were too difficult to open. I had a couple 73's, a 72, the Schrade/GEC Fire and Ice collab (in the 23 pattern), and a couple others that all ended up on the trading room floor. This is what I have left and all have manageable pulls.

A very nice round up of knives Richard. A good range of patterns and blade styles (I have the exact same white bone Beaver Tail #23) 

Thank you! I nearly traded it...Actually I DID trade it (for a ZT 0350) and felt really bad doing so, but luckily the ZT owner thought the 23 was too big for him, so I exchanged it for a 72 spearpoint lockback in ebony, which was still a nice knife, but if I had to choose, I'm taking the 23 every time. It had a very difficult pull at first, but I sent it back to GEC and it came home much improved, from a 9 down to a 6 or 7, still stiff but manageable. The Ben Hogan is a dream, I'd love to get a blue camel version. I'm still looking out for a 63 templar in green kirinite...

Richard.  I live the pictures. You taste in knives is about the same as mine. Be careful of the Boker knives as many are not made in Germany. I found this on their web site:

• Boker knives: Solingen, Germany
• Boker Arbolito knives: Argentina
• Boker Plus knives: Taiwan and China
• Cinch knives by Boker: Solingen, Germany
• Magnum knives: Taiwan and China

Yeah, I found that out the hard way. Most of the Bokers I have are the Boker Tree brand trapperlocks which are German, but I made the mistake of getting a few Boker Magnums and MAN, what a difference in the fit and finish - very rough, loose fittings, bad tolerances (handle material stopped 1/8" from the bolster). BUT they were cheap, so at least I didn't lose my shirt on them. I tighten and smooth what I can and superglue the rest.

There are some great GEC deals being offered here

http://iknifecollector.com/forum/topics/queen-schatt-morgan-benchma...

GEC Tidioute Huckleberry Boys Knife Rust Red Jig Bone 1-Arm 2-Blade #15A214SL     $70

GEC Tidioute Huckleberry Boys Knife Rust Red Jig Bone 2 Blade # 153215     $70

GEC Farm & Field Farmer Lock Black Delrin #992114LB  $50 

GEC Farm & Field Farmer Lock Orange Delrin #715113   $50

and more

   I was recently introduced to Great Eastern and I picked up a Stag Sunfish at Village Cutlery in the Pennsylvania Dutch country. My collection has other stags and bone handled knives and an occasional Ebony by other manufacturers, many aged.

    Some well known manufacturers do not offer much in wood handled knives.  The collector value seemed to be less in value. Today wood is gaining an audience...it is less likely to crack if dropped and looks good.  Great Eastern has a large line of wood handled knives. I was told that there are 80,000 kinds of wood. It was told to me that ebony is difficult to come by in large pieces-small pieces could be smuggled and hand  carried.

Paul,

Some Ebony is easier to come by that others.  

Gaboon is a cites listed wood but Madagascar is not.  Most of what we see in recent years is Madagascar

I am a wood handle fanatic!  I love it and I collect them.

http://www.rarewoodsusa.com/

Rare Woods USA is an extremely large importer of rare woods in Mexico, Maine (town in Maine USA) that stocks three kinds of Ebony (all are available in stock):

Ebony Macassar-Having a variegated stripy figure, this wood is highly sought after for decorative purposes. Good for turnery, knife handles, and musical instrument fingerboards. Extremely rare.

EbonyAfrican-This timber has very high bending and crushing strength, with high stiffness and resistance to shock loads. This is a very hard wood to work with hand or machine tools, with severe blunting effect on cutting edges. Gluing is good, and it can be polished to an excellent finish. Uses-Tool, cutlery and knife handles, piano and organ keys

Ebony Indian-Extremely dense and heavy which makes it difficult to work, but beautiful to turn. Almost pitch black, this is the wood formerly used for piano keys. Turns and carves well with sharp tools. Used for decorative purposes, knife handles and musical  instrument fingerboards.

Rare Woods USA has any wood a knife maker could imagine. They have 500,000 bd ft of exotic hardwoods.  They have specialty areas such as a music room that supplies wood used in music. I have been there.  

    The info supplied is from The Rare woods web site.

Paul Satkowski,

Where in Pa Dutch Country is Village Knives? Do they have a website? I have heard of County Knives in Intercourse Pa.

I like the look of knives with handles made of quality rare wood. My EDC is a Case with what I believe is chestnut.

Contact info follows.

   I stopped at Village Knives after visiting the Keystone Knife show in Lewisburg, Pa in Feb this year (2016).

   The the show and a stop afterwards at the Pennsylvania Dutch Country which is a few hours away was a great off season inexpensive vacation. Off season hotel prices were way below what we have in New England. 

COUNTRY KNIVES

*snicker* Intercourse.... *heh, heh*

Paul some great info on woods there  !!  Thank you

I have no idea and I wont be able to make it, so it comes to you to let us know on day one Dan!!  (pretty please)

The Whittler and the Speaker Jack will both be two spring knives.  The Single blade Clerk will be…a single spring.   The single blade Clerk will have the laser engraving as shown in the GEC mock up.  Handle colors haven’t been determined yet.

All GEC has to say is "Whittler", and that gets my attention :) This pattern looks a little similar to the #62 Courthouse Whittler which I have been looking for.

Tim,

What handle are you looking for in that courthouse? 620211 right?

Yes this would be the same frame, different bolster and blades

Jan,

The Whittler is a 620311. Looking for a Garnet, but heck a Ebony or Stag would honestly be great.

Just ordered my Congress set

#130217 Clerk in Smooth Laser Bone

#133217 Speaker Jack in Ivory Micarta

#130117 Whip in Stag

now the wait begins :)

In case you are interested in options

Clerk (Tidioute- Smooth Laser Bone or Ivory Micarta); (Northfield - Gabon Ebony or Stag)

Speaker Jack & Whip (Tidioute- Rust Red Jig Bone or Ivory Micarta); (Northfield- Gabon Ebony or Stag)

Andy that was some darn good choices of handles for the congress set.  Cant wait to see them when they get home

 Andy, i am on the tablet but tomorrow i will get a good look!

I posted some pics but thought I'd put them here as well. I had 3 Ben Hogans that I thought could be improved. The Primitive bone was not to my liking at all...If If it's not going to be dyed them I like it bleached. The Black Gold was just to dark of an acrylic...didn't set it of in my display at all and it had a spear blade. Nothing wrong with sear blades, just don't like them on my Ben Hogans...I already had one and that's enough. The Red River acrylic was too dark as well. These 3 knives fell into that group of not really knowing if you'll like them until you get to hold them. I sent them to Herman Williams to be re-handled. Plus a little file work on one.

Wow, that's some nice file work.

Thanks Tim, Herman has been a huge influence on my knife collection. It's just boggles my mind that at 80 he is still turning out work like this.

#64 NORTHFIELD BABYLON HILL by HERMAN WILLIAMS

That's impressive at age 80. It's great that he is still pursuing a passion though.

I"ll be blessed just to bend over & tie my shoes at that age.

Doug,

The rehandles all look great.  Your correct that he still does stunning work.  Not being an acrylic fan, for the most part, I can understand having them changed out.  When Donnie collected seahorses we did the same thing.  The G10 did nothing for me but the rams horn replacement did LOL.

Good work on making your collections what you want it to be !

I'm looking for a GEC Tidioute #651112 LB in Spring Green jig bone. This is the clip blade lockback. If anyone has a line on one, I'd appreciate a heads up.

Greg just posted that he found a stash of early GEC protos!!!  Prices look very reasonable to me

http://tsakblog.com/2017/07/13/great-eastern-prototype-discovery/

An interesting discussion here

Here is the first paragraph

I received an email from Chris at GEC this afternoon regarding the upcoming Single Blade 78 American Jacks.  These aren’t expected to ship until mid to late December and just Friday they were asking for early order commitments.  Today, five days later, GEC is committing to building 1800 Tidioute and Northfields PLUS…….. 1000 SFO’s.   That’s almost 3000 single blade 78’s.

Now I know how I feel about a low run company stepping up to 3K production of a single pattern but I am interested to hear how you feel about it?

This is a good many single blade knives. I hope the marketing did their due diligence. I personally like the 78 pattern. It will be interesting to see the final products in each of the three classes.

Looking at GEC's production totals for last year, it is apparent they are stepping up production of each release. That is a good thing since demand is growing for their product. The numbers seem very high however for the #78 if correct. There are a lot more SFO's going on now too. Just have to wait & see how this all shakes out I guess.

I don't collect for investment reasons but for enjoyment. One thing you could pretty much count on though, was that a GEC knife would hold it's original value and generally increase in value which is a rare thing in today's traditional knife market. With GEC ramping up production numbers, on the new 78's at least, I doubt this will still be true. As long as the quality of their knives does not suffer from this increase in production I will still collect GEC's when a particular model appeals to me, but that thrill of having one of only maybe 50 made will certainly be gone. That in itself will certainly make their knives much less appealing to me as a collector.

I agree about waiting to see how this bold move plays out.  Like you Doug we dont collect for investments LOL, I would have started collecting gold 40 years ago if that was my intent.  Your statement that historically they do NOT lose value was a factor in the collectible pieces though.  Since what we have are the first 7 years of production and nothing more than a run of 25 we should still be ok on holding value.  Heck this move may actually make the value increase

Hello All,

Website is up and running, 2 full pages of GEC knives ;)

if I can help anyone with something new or used please let me know

Gary

Well were working on filling page # 3 of knives for sale, new and older :)

cutleryclassics.com

my favorite knives to collect. especially since i grew up in that area

Queen Cutlery made folding woodcarving knives for my business.  I need to find a new source so if anyone or any company is interested in providing knives, please contact me ASAP.

I wondered if I would ever own a GEC stockman pattern knife - especially in Sambar Stag. Today my GEC #66 in Sambar Stag arrived. (Purchased from CollectorKnives.net.) Very happy guy.

Brian,

That is a winner!  I know your happy to have one, how are you liking the knife itself?

Nice one, Brian.

That sure is a super sweet looking Stockman ya got there, Brian! Kudos, mate! Enjoy that beauty in good health, my friend.

Oh dang, now I want one! (Thanks Brian, that's a real beauty!).

Thanks, everyone.

Jan, I'm very happy with the knife and I feel fortunate to geta GEC in stag.

Great knife and knife company.