All About Pocket Knives

I got my renewal notice the other day for my NKCA membership, and was looking through their flyers for the 2007 club knives, the Museum knife and the Youth member knife.
The 2007 NKCA Youth Member knife is going to be made by Great Eastern Cutlery of Titusville, PA.
Now the knife is supposed to be a "single blade "Jumbo Trapper" 73 pattern with smooth white bone handles. It will have 1 1095 carbon high polished blade, the the front tang being etched "Tidioute Cutlery Co" and the back tang etched Great Eastern Cutlery."

Just thought you may have an interest, and thought I would share!

Adam

I think I read read that they wil be producing under the names:
Tidioute and Northfield stampings will be in 1095 Carbon Steel.
The Great Eastern label will be produced in 440C.
I think they are also tossing around the Cyclops Steel name as a stamp if if I recall correctly.
They should be reaching the market very soon. It's good to see another American start-up. Hopefully they will be as successful as Canal Street.
Nick

where could a person see some of these new knives?
do they have a website yet?

Well here is what I know.

I called Bill Howard one of the owners about a month ago. He is very busy and couldn't talk long. I am currently arranging a meeting with him in Titusville. I had heard last year that he was doing a Tidioute knife. I was concerned as I had mentioned this to Ka-Bar and they weren't aware of the idea. Of course I don't want to be caught up in any coporate war on name ownership so I keep out of that. I do wonder about though. Parker did it not long ago and Ka-Bar did it in 2002. SOOOOOOOOO!!!! should be interesting. Mr. Howard knew who I was from the KW articles and the rumor mill. "HOPE it was all good" I want to see one of the knives for consideration in the book. Although it may be to late if we can't get together soon. I will keep you informed. I don't know about the quality or anything yet so we shall see. I do know that many in the up reaches of the knife industry are concerned about another company producing something that could be misunderstood as originals. Again folks, it is up to us the buyers to know what we are looking at before assuming it is an antique. I hope that ten or twenty years from now I don't have be a on list telling a newbie to realize that his knife is not an original Tidioute knife but a 2007 remake that has be ground off.

Keep your eyes open

It's my opinion that ANY remake should be correctly date stamped DEEPLY. The current maker should be proud enough of the quality to deeply stamp their own mark on the reverse side of the tang or inside on the liners where it can be easily seen and hard to remove without leaving a telltale sign. Unfortunately this contributes to the dark side of knife collecting and I would guess that in 10 or 20 years or so some will be sold as originals by the unknowing or the unscrupulous, it happens all the time today. I think we have all seen knives that are being passed off as original this or.....that.
I think that some of these remakes end up devaluing the original knives and prices fall - across the board because many of these remakes are made to true to the original design.
It's my opinion that these defunct trademarks should be left dead, if resurrected they should not copy old designs, but make new ones. This way some unsuspecting newbie will not be duped out of his hard earned money.
It's up to us collectors to keep ourselves well informed, but when you are new, you're much more vulnerable to being taken.