All About Pocket Knives

Owd Wullie wrote: I didn't hear anything from Mr Daniels today on the e-mail I sent him Saturday.

Call him at home. First thing in the morning, or right before you go to bed. After all, you're not only a customer, you're an (unpaid) member of his QC department!

Jim

cmon ,, you cant call him at his own home.. he didnt make the knife. his people did and he has people who will take care of it. and they will.
ike i said before,, absolutely no issues with my whaler anniversary knife

chetr1200c wrote:cmon ,, you cant call him at his own home.. he didnt make the knife. his people did and he has people who will take care of it. and they will.
ike i said before,, absolutely no issues with my whaler anniversary knife

Would these be the same people who didn't take care of it before it left the factory? (Seriously--I don't know if GEC has their QC department handle issues like this, or if it is some other department.)

That the knife got out says that something was missed; Drzarkov having two knives, and big Monk having another, of the same pattern with the same problem suggests that maybe this is not an isolated incident . . . As you acknowledged, the pen blade on your whaler rubs if you don't open the main blade first--that really sounds like a design problem not a QC issue.

Why not call him at home? Maybe instead call the designer (and who would that be?)?

Jim

coffeecup wrote: Why not call him at home?

Jim

Why not? Because it's not that urgent. GEC is a small company that appreciates their loyal customers. I believe they'll take care of the situation. During business hours without calling the owner at home.

Edit: Ryan Daniels posts his phone number on the home page at GEC so people can call him directly. How many other companies do you do business with that would do that?

"(740) 418-0142, please contact him at (740) 532-3912."

when i said my pen blade rubs if i dont open the big spear first.. i meant that it is very hard to open with that small nail nick and i need to exert pressure on it therefore actually pushing it into the spear.. i wont take the chance and doing that. my fingers are too big and that nail nick is too small.. i brought that issue directly to the attention of ryan daniels two years ago when i saw him at the 3rd anniversary... i need to have the big long pulls on my knife to make it easier to open......
it isn't the only kife i have that i need to do the sequence with

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.

I understand that many people feel that GEC makes a superior product, and that in their experience GEC's customer service is excellent. In my limited experience, when I contacted GEC with a problem the first person I spoke with said that as most of their customers were collectors, they didn't see it as a problem. An email to Mr. Daniel's requesting confirmation of this was never answered.

I admit that I'm a jerk but I do try to solve problems through channels. My experience was that this didn't work, hence the suggestion to call Mr. Daniels at home. (The suggested timing of the call was just my inner jerk rising to the forefront.)

I think that GEC makes some of the most attractive knives on the market today; had my experience been otherwise I might well be one of those loyal customers that GEC appreciates.

i admire your honest opinions and you did a great thing by solving the problem yourself. gec would be proud of you..

I just don't think that they are doing their homework. Any new product deserves some development time. You build a couple of prototypes and put them through the paces. After playing with them for a while you do an examination, note all the shortcomings and fix them. You build another product with all the shortcomings fixed and go through the evaluation again, noting any problems. When you've finally built a sample with no problems, you go into production. That's the way all new products are introduced.

I emailed Chris with the content of the my original e-mail and a link to this thread.

The response received is not what I expected.

Good Morning Willie,



I am sorry that you are not happy with the knife you purchased. To try and alter the knife will not work very well since the knife is so big. The best thing I can suggest for you is to return the knife to the distributor that you bought it from for a full refund. If I can be of any further assistance to you please feel free to let me know.



Christine Tucker

Sales

I believe I will call Mr Daniels tomorrow.

YIKES!! Sounds like they really dropped the ball on this one. I would not be happy with that response either

wow is all i can say,send it back to the seller for a refund?looks as if gec might be gettin to big for there britches,i talked to ryan daniels at the event a couple of weeks ago,he appeared to be a very nice, well spoken young man,we talked about how much advertising cost and how they were a significant cost of doing business, among other things,(they have to realize just a couple of pissed of customers on the internet can really hurt the bottom line),since the founding in 06 thats all anybody seems to talk about gecs on any forum,they might make nice knives but when you walk across the street with a very skilled experienced workforce,thats used to making 600 to a thousand knives in a run,you should be able to put out 30 flawless ones with no problem , i passed on a whaler at the rendvous as i noticed these same issues there on there counter gritty on closing and the rub,i also have a 53 cuban stockman that i tried as an edc but cant seem to get and edge on it,funny ive been carrying a pk for 35 years and have only had that problem with imports,i will also say that during the tour i found out they do not do there own heat treating they send blades and springs out,u would think a cutlery co,would want to do that in house,but if u think the knives are gonna only be collected it might not be that big a deal most of the time ,

i agree, that is a terrible response. time to go over sme heads. and i believe dr zarkov should send his email to them also. and ask for at least minimun wage for the time spent when he worked on that whaler

johnnierotten..

Thanks for the information. I've seen plenty of your knives displayed here and if GEC is satisfying you I'll most likely give them a try. I'm not sure what my first GEC will be, but I know that it will not be a Whaler.

I'm not sure what my first GEC will be, but I know that it will not be a Whaler.

Yeah..thats probably a good idea. ...I plan on getting one...but not until they address this blade rub issue.

.

I've seen plenty of your knives displayed here and if GEC is satisfying you I'll most likely give them a try.

Thank you.. and I guarantee you won't regret it..

Update;

Called Ryan this morning. His very nice wife answered and said he was busy at the moment. She asked if she could help and I explained a bit of the problem without going into much detail. She said he'd call me back. At his time I haven't heard back from him.

I sent Bob at Old Hundred and e-mail and letting him know what was going on. He stands behind his customers 100% and told me that he'd gladly refund my money or help me with trying to get it right.

Personally, I don't think there is any chance of making the Whaler a working knife.

I'll wait and see if I hear from Ryan tomorrow. If not, I'll be sending it back for a refund and be done with GEC.

My same experience with my GEC Conductor. I'm back to the old ones where blade rub, spots, etc are the norm but just add character.

Here is an ad from Ulster in 1922.

Note the 5th paragraph down about inspecting a knife before it reaches the consumer.

Maybe modern knife companies should take lessons from the old timers

I bought two more stag whalers two days ago, this time from Gary Norton of Northwest Knife Company. They arrived today, and both had very smooth actions, out of the box, which makes me think that my first two whalers were isolated QC failures, perhaps from one guy trying to make a late Friday afternoon deadline. (Same minor blade rub, clearly a design failure---they should make that secondary blade stiffer.) Beautiful knives all told, with outstanding stag scales!

drzarkov1,

Lets see some pics of those Bad boys

BH

i had just got a primitive bone one today. everything fine,good clearance on blades . i,m glad at least Wullie got a refund

SWEET!!
That one is great Paul.
Mark

Ramrod wrote:SWEET!!
That one is great Paul.
Mark

Mark thanks! a lot of bone went into it

Very nice Paul_____

Terrific primitive bone, Paul!

Here are my stags. Sorry for the crappy pix, I'm not set up for good photos right now. I'll try to post a picture of my primitive bone whaler next.