Melon Tester Whittler

[jerryd6818]

picked up this Red Abalone Looking Glass, 2 blader, #89.

Don, is that crushed red abalone shell embedded in clear acrylic or is the acrylic colored to look like crushed red abalone??? I really like this knife. I also like that two blade congress shown right after the River Boat.

[knifeswapper]

It is single layer LVS abalone encased in acrylic. Since they can use a much thinner layer of veneered abalone it is much cheaper than the 1/8" LVS they have used in the past. It is not crushed, but if you look closely most have distinguishable seams.

[carvin don]

Thanks for the explanation Mike

Jerry, They are attractive knives. I thought I read on one of the Distributor's sites that they only made "3" of the half-congress in the Red Abalone Looking Glass? If so, you might want to pick one up...

I have some more GEC's I recently purchased I will try to post pics of tonight. I'm turnin' into an addict, more and more, each day...

[jerryd6818]

Thanks for the explanation Mike

Jerry, They are attractive knives. I thought I read on one of the Distributor's sites that they only made "3" of the half-congress in the Red Abalone Looking Glass? If so, you might want to pick one up...

I have some more GEC's I recently purchased I will try to post pics of tonight. I'm turnin' into an addict, more and more, each day...

I haven't been able to find any of the half congress in any handle material of either brand. I've only been able to find one of the Riverboats and it is in RALG.

[carvin don]

Jerry, knifeswapper has a nice selection of both the #89 and the #61 half-congress, here is a link to the page they are on, just scroll down the page a bit and you should see them... http://www.collectorknives.net/greateastern3.html

[jerryd6818]

Great Don. Thanks for the link.

[mito0]

...they only made "3" of the half-congress in the Red Abalone Looking Glass...

i was fortunate enough to get one of those red abalone half congresses.
i'm probably going to part with it, though, since i'm not a particularly big fan of half stops - although they're pretty bearable on their congress pattern.
the "looking glass" treatment on the abalone is sheer genius.
you still get the look of real abalone at a fraction of the cost.

[Jethro Bodine]

mito, let me know if you do want to part with it. That's one slick lookin handle. And GEC is about the only knife maker made nowadays that I don't own a knife of.

The search for my first GEC has begun!!