All About Pocket Knives

I was looking at some of the nice GEC knives posted in this forum and was wondering on some of the stag and bone handle knives the pins holding the handles on are sunk pretty deep. I am assuming these are fastened using a machine or press?

It seems to be mostly on the stag and jigged bone handle knives, the wood and acrylic do not seem to have this as much, probably because they can sand it down during final assembly.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Miller Bros,
I have only one GEC and have only carried it a few times. It was a used knife I got in a trade with an AAPK member. I noticed the center pins adjacent to the well were set very deep, on the pile side it is 5/64ths below the stag, the mark side not so deep but still not flush. i suppose it would look better if they were flush as the other 3 pins on each side. There must be a reason for this as you mentioned, looking through the pics on the forum quite a few show this characteristic. I can see where this would trap a lot of "junk", (blood, guts, dirt, etc..) if used in the woods, just a little harder to keep clean . Still a mighty fine knife .
Treefarmer

yes i have noticed it, and one of the reasons i don't have any

I have noticed that in some pictures on here Dimitri.

I for one don't really like the looks myself.

Although the bone and stag models that I still have, have nice flush pins.
Not sure when that started or the reasoning behind it

YUP ............. I noticed it on the one and only, and I aint fixin to buy any more for a few reasons, knife I got.

Joe.....that knife you posted is a Canal Street Cutlery piece.
On GEC knives it is almost always the top center pin and varies from knife to knife. Some stags are flush and some woods are a bit sunk. The acrylic is almost always sanded and flush.

IM

Oh boy, did I get that mixed up. I apologize for that. Thanks IM for setting me straight.

Well ............ I guess I'm fixin' ta fix things.

Treefarmer, thanks for the picture that is exactly what I am talking about

Cutty wrote:I for one don't really like the looks myself.

Although the bone and stag models that I still have, have nice flush pins.
Not sure when that started or the reasoning behind it

Brian, I prefer flush or spun pins myself

I think the two examples you have shown are perfect

Joe, I never noticed the same thing on Canal St. knives!

Joe’s picture is the 2011 Canal Street pinch lock with white tail antler. I think it was harder to work with and the pins were spun in place on the knives. My 2012 AAPK knife by Canal Street has stag and the pins are not sunken like my 2011 knife.

I know it is difficult not to sink the pins on some stag. It just depends on the texture of the stag. It you leave the pins too high they feel really weird in the hand to me. Sometimes the pins have to be sunken to feel right in the hand.

I have not seen the type of sunken pins Treefarmer posted in any Canal Street.

I found this video on YouTube that shows the handles being attached in wood handles and it can be seen how they are sunk.

Not a big deal for me!

Dale, so right on this point. I have seen some guys that didn't like the spun in pins that are capped and even tried to buff or sand them down on a wheel and wind up taking the cap off that all critical back pin. Next thing you know, your handles are weakened more and more with each opening and closing, soon the covers fall off! I'd rather them be too deep than too proud though.
Perry