A couple of days ago I posted this:
"I received the Tidioute ebony whaler last week, and the Northfield stag whaler just today. They're both good looking knives with flush joins all round, but they both suffer from all the defects Wullie mentioned---hard, gritty, uneven opening especially on the main blades, and no closing snap at all ---they have to be pushed all the way into the closed position. Scratch marks that are evidence of blade rub on all blades. To think that I paid $285 (for the stag alone) and got this kind of shoddy, third-world product in return! This is a serious fall from the good level of fit & finish I'd come to expect from GEC. At these prices, a knife's operation should be silky smooth, but obviously GEC has become complacent."
Well, now I have to eat my words, mostly.
During the past few days I've spent several hours (while doing mindless things like watching TV) oiling these knives, then opening & closing them a dozen times and wiping them down, and then repeating this, and repeating and repeating.... And the result is that their action is....pretty smooth (a few hesitations during the opening arc, but not much), the sensation of moving the main blade through wet sand has disappeared, and the main blade closes lightly but positively when moved to within a 3/4 inch of the closed position. The main blade is still a bear to open & close, but...
I've done some outside reading, including
www.elephanttoenails.com and other sources, and found that all the toenails ever made have required considerable effort to open and close, because of the sheer massiveness of their main blade. And for one reason or another, all toenails were given a light closing action (except for the legendary Platts and early Case sunfish, which close like bear traps). I suppose that like Wullie I expected the action to be more like the Model 23 Pioneer (of which I own a half dozen), but considering the huge size of the main blades it was unreasonable of me to demand that they have the silky action of a 1930s Bruckmann whittler, even considering their high price.
After all of this work, what is my conclusion? These are truly fine, beautiful and impressive knives. I'm still pissed that I had to do so much of my own finishing work to make them usable, and puzzled that GEC would allow their costliest folder to leave the factory in this condition But I own something north of thirty GEC knives and this was the first real trouble I'd ever had with them, so this one QC mistake was hardly a reason for me to condemn them wholesale. I still think that GEC makes the best traditional folders on the market...and I know from the past that I sometimes use intemperate language during a lovers' quarrel.
Sounds like they really dropped the ball on this one. I would not be happy with that response either 
...I plan on getting one...but not until they address this blade rub issue. 
and I guarantee you won't regret it.. 
