Show off your favorite GECs!

[Quick Steel]

[kootenay joe]

Ivoryman, quite a display of straight edges !
And Q.S. WOW ! i think you dug deeply into your pockets. The Lumberjack is pretty unique. I would like to know if the saw blade saws.
kj

[Quick Steel]

kj, Wish I could answer your question about the saw but for obvious reasons I will refrain from testing it. It appears and feels as though it could do some light sawing.

[m0nk]

Ivoryman, that's a mighty fine looking collection you've got there. Thanks for sharing the pics. How long did it take to amass such a swarm of wharns?

[Ivoryman]

Thanks mOnk, seems like about the last five years or so that the addiction to wharns has been strongest. Seems to me they are a little more rare and a little more sought after so it's a double whammy but I like the blades and they do whatever I need and then some. Thanks and keep your eyes out for them because people like me are always competing for them.
Thanks KJ, coming from you considering your pile, that means something. Appreciate it.

[sunknife]

Very nice collection of wharns Ivoryman, thanks for giving us a look.

A lot of knife in those two QuickSteel, pretty unique pattern.

[Ivoryman]

Couple more, thanks guys

[kootenay joe]

Ivoryman do you also have vintage Sheffield folders with a Wharncliffe master ? It is a relatively short stout blade, i.e. what a purist would refer to as a "true Wharncliffe".
I hope your Wharncliffe ways have taken you to Sheffield, home of "The Wharnees".
kj

[Ivoryman]

Sorry no English knives in my roll. Relatively new to the game.

[kootenay joe]

"Sorry no English knives in my roll. Relatively new to the game"
The vintage Sheffield knives will impress and even amaze you especially when you realize all made with hand tools including a bow drill to make pivot holes etc., yet as precise as laser guided robots.
Knife collecting offers millions of knives and thousands of knife types. It is not possible to investigate them all but it is worthwhile to be 'open' to all knife styles.
kj

[Ivoryman]

To tell you the truth I had friends/acquaintances growing up who had Triumphs, Nortons, MGs and Minis. That cured me. After being around them and seeing what they were like I have shied away from British manufacturing and production and never wanted a British product/machine/tool for myself. I know some like Sheffield knives, but I have Norton, MG and Minis ringing in my ears, kind of ruined it for me. Maybe their knives are better than some of their cars and bikes. I don't know and haven't bothered to investigate.

[kootenay joe]

Knives made in Sheffield from about 1830 up to WW I are the best knives EVER made, including today's high end customs. And they were made with old hand tools, no power tools. For example the pivot holes in blade tangs, steel liners etc, were done with a 'bow drill', move the bow back and forth and the string rotates the drill bit and they got a hole as precise as a laser guided robotic drill.
This of course is not the case for every knife made in Sheffield, but it is for a great many of them.
WE tend to think that 'progress' means that articles made currently are better than they ever have been. But the opposite is true. Carpentry like furniture making 150 years ago had tradesman more highly skilled than they are today and in general the same is true for cutlers.
kj

[QTCut5]

Knives made in Sheffield from about 1830 up to WW I are the best knives EVER made, including today's high end customs. kj

Roland, I would really like to see a side-by-side comparison to prove your fantastic claim because I am highly skeptical of your incredibly broad generalization about the ultimate superiority of pre-WW I Sheffield knives over modern high-end customs. They may be the best knives made entirely by hand tools, but the best EVER, unconditionally...seriously?

~Q~

[DM11]

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Quick Steel, both of those are very nice! That Lumberjack is great.

[Quick Steel]

Thank you David. They do have the too common GEC issue of being way too difficult to open. I consider this a defect, not a mark of quality.

[kootenay joe]

Q, the zenith of the cutler's art was acheived in Sheffield now over 100 years ago. This is not my claim. There are thousands of knife collectors who know this. There is no debate anywhere among experienced collectors.
There is a stunning book you can buy for under $40 "Sheffield Exhibition Knives" by Claussen, Watts, McMickle.
Actually many of the knives shown are not from exhibitions but were available for purchase by wealthy Brits. It is from a time when Britain had stolen the wealth of countries worldwide and was a wealthy and highly skilled nation. The knives reflect this beautifully just as being in the Tower of London and seeing the Crown Jewels shows you what Monarchy was.
If you buy the above book and do not like it, i will buy it off you for double what you paid. You will be amazed at how clunky GEC knives are in comparison
kj

[QTCut5]

I'm definitely intrigued. However, it will require more than a book to convince me; I would need to experience these Sheffield Uber knives in person to be fully convinced. I'm not saying it's not possible, but I have seen/held some truly superlative custom knives in person that left me awestruck by their level of quality, precision engineering, materials, innovative design, etc. (I'm not talking about modern production knives like GEC). Call me a doubting Thomas; but, until I actually see an example of the ostensibly superior Sheffield knife in person, I will have a hard time conceiving of such a creation. Nevertheless, I'll try to get my hands on a copy of the book anyway; it sounds like something I would like. Thanks for the reference.

I know you have a pretty amazing, vast and varied knife collection, kj, does it happen to include any Sheffield knives that would support the multiple experts' claims (and every experienced collector's undisputed knowledge) of pre-WW I Sheffield cutlery ultimate superiority?

~Q~

PS How exactly does a collector become officially recognized as "experienced"? Is there a written exam for that?

[Ivoryman]

25 Barlow is one of them

[kootenay joe]

QT, i had one Sheffield knife that is shown on pg 212, upper left of Sheffield Exhibition Knives, an ivory Multiblade made ~ 1906. I have never felt anything like it, in hand or in smoothness of opening, including the Tony Bose knife i also owned. Sold it for $3000 to a well known collector. The knife is absolutely true 100% MINT and i worried excessively that it would tarnish while i was it's custodian so i 'passed it along'.
Get "Sheffield Exhibition Knives". It is stunning. You will never regret spending the $40 for a very high end book as far as photography and binding go. I would not recommend something if i was not convinced it would amaze the buyer.
kj

[Tsar Bomba]

25 Barlow is one of them

Can't blame you. I nearly returned this polished stag model because of a bit of an issue with F&F on the pile side, but I kept it as a user and it's really become a favorite.

My favorite stag GEC so far is this Speaker Jack with the knobbiest, fattest stag of any GEC I"ve handled. I love the way it looks but it doesn't get much carry because of that thickness. It will barely sit still on one side...

[gsmith7158]

That's a whopper Tony! I nabbed this slim 35. She's getting lots of totin time.

[QTCut5]

QT, i had one Sheffield knife that is shown on pg 212, upper left of Sheffield Exhibition Knives, an ivory Multiblade made ~ 1906. I have never felt anything like it, in hand or in smoothness of opening, including the Tony Bose knife i also owned. Sold it for $3000 to a well known collector. The knife is absolutely true 100% MINT and i worried excessively that it would tarnish while i was it's custodian so i 'passed it along'.
Get "Sheffield Exhibition Knives". It is stunning. You will never regret spending the $40 for a very high end book as far as photography and binding go. I would not recommend something if i was not convinced it would amaze the buyer.
kj

I actually found a copy for sale online for $13.04 (https://www.wildbillwholesale.com/sheff ... over-book/). But, I have placed a request with my state library system to send me its one and only copy from one of the neighbor islands. I'll pick it up from my local library branch on Monday. I am really looking forward to reading it. If I like it, I'll probably buy a copy for my personal library. The one downside that I can foresee is that if it does in fact convince me of the superiority of pre-WW 1 Sheffield knives, I may have to re-think my entire knife collecting focus & strategy. And, based on your previous ownership experience, I don't think I could afford to collect early Sheffield knives even if I were able to find any for sale. Thanks a lot, man...Tantalus much?

~Q~

[kootenay joe]

"Collectible knives" covers a vast array of knives, literally millions of knives and the best Sheffield ones, folders & fixed blades are still considered to be the finest examples of cutlery. Good ones are hard to find because they rarely exit their storage safe. Ebay is not a good source. Knife shows and word of mouth eventually will give you some opportunities. All the knives shown in this book are in USA. There is a story behind how they got here (well, "there" for me in Canada).
kj

[Tsar Bomba]

Newest stag.

[Ivoryman]

25 Barlow is one of them

Can't blame you. I nearly returned this polished stag model because of a bit of an issue with F&F on the pile side, but I kept it as a user and it's really become a favorite."


Hey, Bomba, that's a beauty little 25 man, love those. Get why it's a favorite completely. Sorry to hear there's an issue, what would that be if you don't mind me asking? Out of twenty or so GECs I"ve had, two had issues that broke the deal. If you count the dozen or so Northwoods I've had with zero issues, then it's still only about 5% and one of those was insignificant enough I lived with it so that cuts it to about 2-3%. I would say 50% of all the Queens I"ve had choked. Maybe 10% of the Case stuff. How about you, how many GECs that were sub par to you? I like hearing what others think about similar issues. Thanks again for the compliment, and yours looks great, don't know about the issues.