All About Pocket Knives

Roland's right about Bill Howard. He wanted to make this pattern and enjoys the same aspects of knives we do , except more mechanical than most.

Here's your other thread about this Roland.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=49572&hilit=Tom+Crites

Earlier in this thread the # 81 Moose pattern, made in 2017 is noted to be still available at most GEC dealers and in fairly large numbers. There are still handle choices: Stag, Gabon Ebony, Antique Amber Jigged Bone, Moose Green Jigged Bone, Appaloosa Bone, Osage Orange Wood, Natural Canvas Micarta and Red Linen Micarta.
This might be The Least Popular GEC pattern: available at the dealers for over 1 year, maybe almost 2 years. This is drastically different from patterns that sell out in under 5 minutes.
The Moose pattern has always been very collectible. Find an old Case 6275 in good condition and you will see a high price.
Based on how poorly these GEC #81 are selling i doubt GEC will ever do another run.
I think once these are all finally sold, those who don't have one will wish they had bought one while the supply was plenty.
This is a long way of saying: I just bought a GEC 811217. It was a toss up between the Ebony or the Antique Amber Jigged Bone. I have perhaps more Ebony than jigged bone so i chose the Antique Amber Jigged Bone. I feel good for having made this decision to buy one.
This would also make for an excellent user knife. It is well suited for field dressing deer.
kj

You won't be disappointed, Roland. You'll find that the 81 makes for one heck of a carry knife. My Appaloosa bone version has served me very well for the last year. I figure eventually the rest of the knife collecting world will figure this out.

kootenay joe wrote:Earlier in this thread the # 81 Moose pattern, made in 2017 is noted to be still available at most GEC dealers and in fairly large numbers. There are still handle choices: Stag, Gabon Ebony, Antique Amber Jigged Bone, Moose Green Jigged Bone, Appaloosa Bone, Osage Orange Wood, Natural Canvas Micarta and Red Linen Micarta.
This might be The Least Popular GEC pattern: available at the dealers for over 1 year, maybe almost 2 years. This is drastically different from patterns that sell out in under 5 minutes.
The Moose pattern has always been very collectible. Find an old Case 6275 in good condition and you will see a high price.
Based on how poorly these GEC #81 are selling i doubt GEC will ever do another run.
I think once these are all finally sold, those who don't have one will wish they had bought one while the supply was plenty.
This is a long way of saying: I just bought a GEC 811217. It was a toss up between the Ebony or the Antique Amber Jigged Bone. I have perhaps more Ebony than jigged bone so i chose the Antique Amber Jigged Bone. I feel good for having made this decision to buy one.
This would also make for an excellent user knife. It is well suited for field dressing deer.
kj

Roland, I think the Moose and Muskrat patterns would be useful for the right tasks and the right person. I tried to carry one of each at one time and just didn’t take to either of them. I much prefer a long blade and a short blade. Having two blades the same length is just not useful to me. I can see how each one would be good in certain situations. The Moose is more appealing and I can see it for field dressing just about any animal since it has two different long blades. But for me in most situations, I will stick to my EDC that has two different size and types of blades.
In the past year of so I sold off the few Muskrats and Moose knives that I had and it didn’t matter who made either of them, they took awhile to sell. I think these are just two unpopular patterns in general.
Just my opinion.
SSk

"I think these are just two unpopular patterns in general."
Perhaps they are when it comes to buying new knives but vintage ones do get good prices, more so than some other patterns.
The advantage of 2 big blades on Moose or Muskrat is that when one gets dull you switch to the other blade. No need to stop and re-sharpen blade. This applies to the dedicated trapper or hunter and very few people run a trap line now and hunters often use a fixed blade with new super edge holding steel.
kj

Lots of good discussion here. I have a #98 Whittler only because I like GEC's split backs, and want to have an example of each. Probably won't ever carry it. It is definitely a belt sheath kind of knife.
As far as the #81 Moose - I have been itching to try one in the green. It seems it would be be the perfect knife with both a large clip & spear. There are a couple of well respected dealers that have said that GEC did a superb job on these. But, with a #82 Dixie stockman coming, I may not ever pull the lever.
I'm surprised the #82 Dixie Stockman's are not selling faster also. I don't think GEC made a very large batch of each of these.

FarSide wrote:Lots of good discussion here. I have a #98 Whittler only because I like GEC's split backs, and want to have an example of each. Probably won't ever carry it. It is definitely a belt sheath kind of knife.
As far as the #81 Moose - I have been itching to try one in the green. It seems it would be be the perfect knife with both a large clip & spear. There are a couple of well respected dealers that have said that GEC did a superb job on these. But, with a #82 Dixie stockman coming, I may not ever pull the lever.
I'm surprised the #82 Dixie Stockman's are not selling faster also. I don't think GEC made a very large batch of each of these.

Light Side 98 A.jpg

Ha! That pic was so weird, and funny. Totally appropriate for your screen name and avatar. Well done. What are the two secondary blades on that 98 Whittler. I'll never pass up a chance to lament the fact that I didn't buy the lone remaining 98 Cattle Knife from GSJ early this year while I had the chance.

As for the large clip/spear combo, I have a 54 Big Jack that has the large clip/spear, and I really like it. I just wish that the spear was a sheepsfoot... which is why I'm so excited about the new #86 with the large clip and large sheepsfoot. If you like the serpentine pattern and squarish corner bolsters, then you should give the 81 a shot. I don't have one, but I've looked at the red micarta examples many times and thought, "hmmm..."

-Lee

Lee - the #98 Whittler has a large pen & coping blade that could be called a wharncliffe too I guess. GEC did an amazing job on the split-backs as usual.

Steve Warden wrote:Maybe some day.
I've always admired the looks of most of the GEC offerings.

It's a new year Steve. Perhaps your luck is about to change...

__________
Mike

Only our good Lord knows!

Concerning the #81 Bull Moose, I was for a while among the folks who wouldn't have one. I finally came across an osage orange Tidioute at a really good price, figured I'd try it out. Turns out I'm quite fond of it. Yes the pulls are light (too light) but the action is just so incredibly silky smooth. After working the blades enough, they've developed a fairly satisfying snap upon opening as well. I especially find it handy around the kitchen..

Then a few weeks ago, I came across a NIT ebony Northfiled at like 65% retail. Snatched it without a second thought. This one has the same smooth action, but the clip has so little snap that I almost push it to full stop. No amount of working It has helped either. Very disappointed.

Ajd3530 wrote:Concerning the #81 Bull Moose, I was for a while among the folks who wouldn't have one. I finally came across an osage orange Tidioute at a really good price, figured I'd try it out. Turns out I'm quite fond of it. Yes the pulls are light (too light) but the action is just so incredibly silky smooth. After working the blades enough, they've developed a fairly satisfying snap upon opening as well. I especially find it handy around the kitchen..

Then a few weeks ago, I came across a NIT ebony Northfiled at like 65% retail. Snatched it without a second thought. This one has the same smooth action, but the clip has so little snap that I almost push it to full stop. No amount of working It has helped either. Very disappointed.

Sorry to hear you got a bad one.

I will join in the confusion as to why the 81 moose is not popular. I like the pattern and have two, it's historic, looks good and is well made. I did really want another run of 81 stockmans but the moose is a nice knife.

Am I the only one who thinks that the 06 pattern was remarkably popular considering the relative flop of the 18 pattern from a couple years ago? Considering how similar the stag 06 is to the natural stag 18 (same length, identical blade, etc ) I am really surprised that the 06s sold out as fast as they did. Meanwhile, you can still find 18s from first-run dealers all over the internet.

Is the coke bottle frame really that much more popular than the dogleg?

T.B. i too am surprised that the Pemberton at 2 3/4" is selling well. I have one, very nice but at this size i prefer a pen knife set up.
The #18 is the same size and came out in 2016. I think there now are more people on the 'GEC Bandwagon' and there is a fear of 'loosing out'. You need to snap one up right away in case it turns out to be popular and quickly gets sold out. Even if a GEC collector does not really like it, i think there is a feeling of competition to get one of every new pattern.
I think this degree of GEC collector compulsiveness was not as strong in 2016 as it is now.
kj

Tsar Bomba wrote:Am I the only one who thinks that the 06 pattern was remarkably popular considering the relative flop of the 18 pattern from a couple years ago? Considering how similar the stag 06 is to the natural stag 18 (same length, identical blade, etc ) I am really surprised that the 06s sold out as fast as they did. Meanwhile, you can still find 18s from first-run dealers all over the internet.

Is the coke bottle frame really that much more popular than the dogleg?

Both are great little knives. Where are you seeing these 18s all over the internet?

robbobus wrote:

Tsar Bomba wrote:Am I the only one who thinks that the 06 pattern was remarkably popular considering the relative flop of the 18 pattern from a couple years ago? Considering how similar the stag 06 is to the natural stag 18 (same length, identical blade, etc ) I am really surprised that the 06s sold out as fast as they did. Meanwhile, you can still find 18s from first-run dealers all over the internet.

Is the coke bottle frame really that much more popular than the dogleg?

Both are great little knives. Where are you seeing these 18s all over the internet?

Makes me wonder if he's talking about 56 doglegs, identical shape but larger than the 18, and can still be found at distributors?

What I really want to know is, what's GEC going to make next, after the 97s?

kootenay joe wrote:T.B. i too am surprised that the Pemberton at 2 3/4" is selling well. I have one, very nice but at this size i prefer a pen knife set up.
The #18 is the same size and came out in 2016. I think there now are more people on the 'GEC Bandwagon' and there is a fear of 'loosing out'. You need to snap one up right away in case it turns out to be popular and quickly gets sold out. Even if a GEC collector does not really like it, i think there is a feeling of competition to get one of every new pattern.
I think this degree of GEC collector compulsiveness was not as strong in 2016 as it is now.
kj

Roland I think you are correct about the competition to get every new gec for fear of losing out, many people seem to do it. I used to be the same way but have since started only seeking out gec's that I really wanted to have and knew it was unlikely for me to trade or sell it later.

robbobus wrote:

Tsar Bomba wrote:Am I the only one who thinks that the 06 pattern was remarkably popular considering the relative flop of the 18 pattern from a couple years ago? Considering how similar the stag 06 is to the natural stag 18 (same length, identical blade, etc ) I am really surprised that the 06s sold out as fast as they did. Meanwhile, you can still find 18s from first-run dealers all over the internet.

Is the coke bottle frame really that much more popular than the dogleg?

Both are great little knives. Where are you seeing these 18s all over the internet?

I can attest that there have been a lot more #18s going on eBay since this run of Pembertons has been released.

m0nk wrote:
What I really want to know is, what's GEC going to make next, after the 97s?

Scuttlebutt is a run of #12 Powderhorns, possibly with some new acrylic.

robbobus wrote:Both are great little knives. Where are you seeing these 18s all over the internet?

Agreed, both are great little knives. I wish I could have gotten more varieties of the 06. I am loaded with 18s and enamored in particular with the two camel bone variants.

Just an example from one of the stores I generally use to try and acquire the popular new patterns. I have one of these already: https://www.knivesshipfree.com/amp/grea ... n-micarta/

About this time last year collectorknives, which I believe gets smaller orders than KSF, had no fewer than 4 variants of the 18 (including the unserialized stag Coyote) available. Looking at some other dealers it appears that they've finally emptied their stock for the most part...after nearly 3 years.

I suspect we won't be seeing any new 06s available at first-run dealers come 2022.

Ajd3530 wrote:

m0nk wrote:
What I really want to know is, what's GEC going to make next, after the 97s?

Scuttlebutt is a run of #12 Powderhorns, possibly with some new acrylic.

Also, possibly some SFOs as well.

Ajd3530 wrote:

m0nk wrote:
What I really want to know is, what's GEC going to make next, after the 97s?

Scuttlebutt is a run of #12 Powderhorns, possibly with some new acrylic.

Geez, #12s? I hope not. I'd rather buy a 38 Special, which have also been unpopular and are readily available. Toothpick patterns have never appealed to me.

m0nk wrote:

Ajd3530 wrote:

m0nk wrote:
What I really want to know is, what's GEC going to make next, after the 97s?

Scuttlebutt is a run of #12 Powderhorns, possibly with some new acrylic.

Geez, #12s? I hope not. I'd rather buy a 38 Special, which have also been unpopular and are readily available. Toothpick patterns have never appealed to me.

I'd probably be game for a 2 bladed Northfield in Cocobolo or something of the sort, but it would take some really neat looking acrylic, or abalone, to get me interested in a single blade.

Two blade large Coke bottle knives are not common. The only ones I've noticed are Cases with a long broad spey for their second blade and Mahuer & Gorschs (?spelling) with a spear second blade. At least one seller wrote the latter were made by Queen. In knives this large I strongly prefer the second blade be smaller. A pen blade is about the size of a spear master blade in a medium size slip joint. A big advantage of the second blade is the thicker handle makes the knife more comfortable to handle.

Since I prefer a fatter handle on a long folder I might buy a 97 if I spot one with fat stag that catches my fancy. However, large Coke bottles are easy to find in less expensive brands. The two things that set the 97 apart are its shorter length and its blade slopes down from the handle more. Both features are not desirable. I like my large Coke Bottle knives but this one is hard to justify. If some were assembled with secondary blades I'd have no trouble justifying buying a few of them.

To hoist this thread back up onto the tracks I'll write it appears the least popular GECs are all models with more than two blades. For me the more blades the merrier but last year's 66 Stockmans are still plentiful at dealers and December's Dixie Stockmans are selling very slowly.

Modern Slip Joints wrote:To hoist this thread back up onto the tracks I'll write it appears the least popular GECs are all models with more than two blades. For me the more blades the merrier but last year's 66 Stockmans are still plentiful at dealers and December's Dixie Stockmans are selling very slowly.

The 66 and 82 stockmans are my favorite recent GEC's, but it seems many people don't like three blade knives very much. The most popular ones are one and two blades. I'm glad they're making stockmans at least. One of these days they'll do another 81 stockman run and I'll be very happy, and broke.