Monthly Archives: August 2013

GEC Lanyard tube size varies

August 31, 2013Admin CommentsGholmes2

I just finished uploading the recent load of 72 Burnt Stag and Antique Green Jigged bone knives. As I was shooting the pictures, it became obvious the lanyard tubes were quite a bit smaller in appearance (at least) than some of the other knives I’ve looked at. I checked some other 2013’s and went back to some of the 2012 production knives and sure enough, the newer releases have a tube that measures just slight over .1″ The older GEC’s have a tube that’s around .125″. Meaning, beware if you plan on actually putting a lanyard on one of the new production knives.

You can tell the difference quite easily by just looking at them. The new knife (on the left) has a thicker outer wall while the older production (on the right) has a thinner wall. I’m not sure if the difference is consistent in all of the production runs, but it’s worth paying attention to before ordering the leather lanyard material.

I’ll be listing the flat leather belting strips which is obviously smaller than the round cord and works great in the smaller tube. Not as dressy as the braided, but functional and a lot less expensive. In fact, if you place an order for one of the 72’s, there’s an option to add one of the lanyards for just $1.25.

Which brings to mind a question that I was asked regarding the purpose of the lanyard. Is it just to make it easier to get out of your pocket or is there another purpose. There’s another purpose. If you slip the lanyard on your wrist with the sharp edge of your blade facing away from you.

It can save you getting ‘bit’ should the knife slip out of your hand and swing back toward your arm as the blade will fall with the sharp edge away from your arm.

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Finishing your Leather Braided Lanyard

August 30, 2013Admin CommentsGholmes2

Had a great question asking me how I recommended finishing the ends of a leather lanyard. There’s a number of ways to do it and I’ll share one more you may not have considered.

The first and probably most obvious is the traditional ‘knot’. Still pretty hard to beat for simplicity. The biggest problem is that it takes several extra inches of material to make the knot.

Something I’ve experimented with cut down on wasted material is using a fine copper wire to ‘whip’ the ends together.

Here’s what it looks like in progress using a 26 Gauge copper wire.

The nice thing about the 26 ga copper is you can cut it with a small scissor to keep the ends short enough to tuck under. You can find the wire at your local hobby shop for a couple of bucks for around 100 feet. Even better, you can get it in different colors.

When I’m finished, I put a drop of Super Glue on each end of the ‘whip’ to anchor things securely. If you look at the above picture, you’ll notice the leather just below the wrap is slightly scuffed. That’s because I twisted and pulled on things like crazy to see if it was solid. It is. I know there are crimping tubes out there and all kinds of other mechanical methods of connecting the ends.

If you’ve got favorite method of finishing the ends. Share!!!!

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Braided Leather Lanyard Cord listed today, more to come

August 30, 2013Admin Comments, New Products in the Store!Gholmes2

Well, I asked and a number of you responded. I sold out about 1/2 of the cord I’d ordered last nite, fielded numerous questions by email and phone this morning. All before the stuff even went in the store. As a result, I placed an another order and am bring in a lot more colors than the light and dark brown. Coming will be Black, Red, Iris Blue, Natural, Chardonnay/Berry, Black/Grey and Turquoise/Natural.

Just a little while ago, I did list some of the leather braided cord I have left. Rest assured, there’s more on the way.

I’m trying to get things put together to head ‘up nort’ next week so with company coming for the weekend, I’m a bit pressed to get everything done I’d like, but here’s a preview.

I’ve sold a pile of the bracelets and literally sold several miles of parachute cord locally and at gunshows to folks braiding the Survival Bracelets, lanyards, zipper pulls, etc. For some reason, I listed the instructions on how to make a Bracelet, but even though I have 6 or 8 colors on hand, I’ve never listed the Paracord in the store. I’ll try to remedy that situation in the near future.

I was talking to John this AM and he asked me how I recommended ‘finishing’ the ends of the leather cord lanyard. There’s a couple of ideas I’ll share shortly in a separate blog post.

Anyway, lots going on. Should have a box of stag GEC’s coming in, hopefully tomorrow. I’ll make an all out effort to get them listed before I head north but there could be a bit of delay in shipping after Sunday.

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Lanyard Leather Available!!!

August 29, 2013Admin CommentsGholmes2

I’ve talked with a couple of you in the past asking if I could source some sort of leather lanyard material for your knives, etc. Well, I finally got around to finding a good source with a lot of color options ranging from black to pink. I’m starting out modestly to see what the interest level is and if there’s enough, I’ll expand the offerings.

The Dark Brown braided cord in the upper left hand corner is just the right size for the smaller lanyard holes on knives like the GEC slip joints.

The lighter color braided cord, bottom middle, is a little larger and is perfect for the larger fixed blades like Bark Rivers, Hess, Blind Horse, etc.

The flat lace is great for anyone wanting to braid their own flat lanyard. The natural rawhide lace is meant to be soaked in water, wrap your project and let it dry. It’ll shrink back to it’s original size forming a nice tight wrap around a knife handle, rifle lever, etc.

I’ve got some projects to finish up today, but I really want to get this in the store as soon as I can. Comments? Suggestions? Do you care??????

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More 72’s are here and waiting on the stag

August 26, 2013New Great Eastern KnivesGholmes2

The 72’s continue to dribble in. Today I got the Spear and Wharncliffe Autumn Gold Tidioutes as well as the Cocobolo Northfields. I’m hoping we’ll see the Burnt stag later this week.

And the Northfield Burnt Stags bring up a point worth mentioning. Bill had asked if we’d see any serialized Burn Stags. I don’t know exactly what the policy is at GEC anymore, but the only serialized Burnt Stags I recall seeing in 2013 are the Cotton Samplers. They seem to be numbering the Genuine and the Natural Stag, but not the Burnt. From a collectible standpoint, I’d say the Cotton Samplers may very well be the last serialized Burnt Stags. Who knows.

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First of the 72LB arrived today

August 24, 2013New Great Eastern KnivesGholmes2

First of the 72 Lockbacks landed today. I believe I got Ebony Wood in all 3 blade options, some Cocobolo and Autumn Gold Jigged Bone.

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Store updates on shipping charges

August 24, 2013Admin CommentsGholmes2

I started going through the store products today and you’ll see a minor change the next time you place an order. All I got changed today were the GEC products, but I’ll be working on the rest of the items next week. This is for the benefit of my overseas customers.

Previously, when an overseas order was placed, I had to send a separate invoice for the shipping. What I’ve done is add an option when you place an order that asks if the order is shipping to the US, Canada, South America or Overseas. You have to select the shipping location to complete the checkout. For most products when you select US or Canada, you’ll notice there’s no charge as always. South America and other overseas locations will see what the shipping cost for First Class International is and the amount is added to the invoice. As a result, you can pay for the shipping charge at the same time you pay for the knife.

There’s still a glitch in the plan as if you place an order for let’s say 5 knives, you’ll be charged the single knife fee for each knife. Until I can figure out a better way to handle multiple knife purchases, we’ll have to live with it and I’ll issue a refund to bring the shipping fees in line.

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New Fallkniven & Spyderco additions to the “Specials” category

August 22, 2013New Products in the Store!Gholmes2

I started putting up a couple new items in the “Specials” category in the store today. Having always been a fan of the Fallkniven knives as well as the Spyderco’s, I felt it was time to add a few more to the inventory.

The folding Fallkniven’s are definitely high end folders. The laminated steel in their blades is incredibly tough and come honed to a razor edge. I have an older fixed blade A1 that’s split wood, chopped limbs, takes a lickin’ and just keeps on a tickin’. This is an old blog post that’ll give you a feel for what I think of the Fallkniven. (Man, that old post makes me realize how bad I wanna head for the northwoods!!!!)

Likewise, the Spyderco CPM S30V steel is great stuff. And it’s pretty well established that Spyderco sets the standard for out of the box ‘sharp’.

I’ll be adding more higher end EDC knives like these in the future. There’s just so many really great knives out there and sometimes we kind of develop tunnel vision. While they may not fall into the ‘collector’ class, or pass the ‘traditional’ test, they definitely raise the bar for high quality EDC knives.

Meant to add that the prices on the “Specials” I added to today only run through the middle of September.

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Two thumbs up for Queens latest releases!!

August 20, 2013Queen Cutlery, Schatt & MorganGholmes2

Okay, I heard all sorts of positive things about the upcoming Schatt & Morgan Keystone series Scout Knife. The folks that got to see it at Blade were seemingly impressed and I’ll admit the pictures were ‘nice’. But until you get it in hand you never know. Well, today I got one ‘in hand’. All I can say is …..oh man…….I like this.

Quite frankly, for me, it turned the clock back to roughly 1959. If you were ever a Boy Scout or aspired to be a woodsman, you no doubt had dreams about owning one of these. Ya got you’re knife blade, cap lifter, leather punch, screwdriver, a cool bail to slip a leather shoe string through so you could tie it to your belt loop……what more could you ask for?? How about genuine Stag handles, a 420 Stainless blade, the Schatt & Morgan trademark with the legendary Keystone Shield. This is one sweet little package and you won’t believe the price!!!

The second jewel they came out with is the Queen City Fish Knife. This is another knife with a bit of nostalgic attachment for me. Dad had an old Imperial Fish Knife that floated around in the bottom of his tackle box for years. For all I know, it came with the tackle box! All I know is every time you looked in that box and saw that knife, it brought back memories of fish caught and good times had.

A little over a year ago I tried to get a Fish Knife SFO built by another knife maker. I finally got tired of waiting and dropped the idea. What Queen put together is a pretty darned close to what I was looking for and a quantum leap over the nearest competitors Fish Knife. Queen’s done a great job of putting together a top quality Fish Knife with bone handles, nickel steel bolsters, a D2 blade and a stainless disgorger at an incredibly reasonable price. When you have the foresight to use D2 blade steel with it’s superior edge qualities and stain resistance and then go to a stainless steel for the disgorger…..that’s thinking. I’m impressed with what’s coming out of the Queen factory. Not surprised….but definitely impressed!!! Keep it up!

By the way, I shot the pix in a hurry tonite to get things posted and will try to shoot some clearer photos tomorrow.

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Some things are just hard to improve….

August 20, 2013Admin CommentsGholmes2

The big influx of 73’s that have come through in the last few days got me to thinking about my own experience with that pattern. The #23 and the #73 are after all, the two knives that got GEC going. Every time we see another generation of them produced there’s always a revival of interest in them. While there are other knives I like better and use more, the 73 is still hard to beat.

The first 73 I really ‘used’ was a burnt stag linerlock. It was carried on numerous camping trips and did everything from cutting cord, cleaning fish to cutting up vegetables for supper.

The second one I put into service was one of the slim versions with the flat bolsters and burnt orange jigged bone handles. I inadvertently ‘blued’ the blade while working on a gun and I ended up bluing the entire blade. That actually worked out really well as the bluing ended up protecting the metal similar to a gun barrel. The cold bluing process isn’t as durable as hot bluing, but it’s easy to touch up and the end result is the same.

Personally, the size of the 73 is much more appealing to my needs than the #23 is. The slight sacrifice in size is more than welcome when you drop it in your pocket. Were I to carry a 23 on any sort of regular basis, no doubt it would be sheathed.

I’ve kind of fallen back to my old ways and started carrying a smaller pocket knife in the form of a Queen #48 Whittler and a ‘tactical’ in the form of either a CRKT M16 or a Benchmade 3550 auto.

I’m particularly taken by the size of the whittler and love that D2 steel. The Benchmade is a favorite as it’s easy to get to and is definitely ‘one hand use’ friendly. The 154CM blade is outstanding and the serrated blade is the only thing to use if you’re cutting rope or cord. And frankly, I like the automatics.

But all things considered, if it came down to just one knife to do it all, I have to admit the #73 would be difficult to ignore. I’d hate to dress a deer with the whittler and I have a feeling in a pinch, the 73 would make a more reliable pry bar. It’s just a darned solid knife that’s gonna be around for a long time. No wonder it’s so popular.

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Monthly Archives: August 2013

GEC Lanyard tube size varies

Finishing your Leather Braided Lanyard

Braided Leather Lanyard Cord listed today, more to come

Lanyard Leather Available!!!

More 72’s are here and waiting on the stag

First of the 72LB arrived today

Store updates on shipping charges

New Fallkniven & Spyderco additions to the “Specials” category

Two thumbs up for Queens latest releases!!

Some things are just hard to improve….