If I’m being honest, I saw it coming; Pennsylvania has extended the state of emergency, safety measures that had been relaxed have been reinstated, and the Titusville Oil Festival (with which the GEC Rendezvous was always concurrently held) was canceled. Still, I’m sure it was a hard decision for Bill and everyone at GEC to make, and I’m very crestfallen.
I collect the Rendezvous Special knives, which you can only get at the Rendezvous. Check out this link and this link for videos on those knives. Still, worse than not having the opportunity to obtain this year’s piece of that collection is the missed discussions with other enthusiasts (and many collectors with much more knowledge than me, from whom I’ve learned a lot at past Rendezvous). However, it would have been difficult to maintain the current safety protocols and enjoy the Rendezvous as it has been in the past. Hopefully GEC has something else fun up their sleeve, and hopefully this isn’t too much of a blow to them.
Too Long ; Didn’t Read? Here’s the companion video!
Glitter Gold handles tend to illicit one of two reactions from people; “I love it” or “That’s awful”. They’re eye catching in a way that some enjoy and others can’t stand, but they have a surprisingly longstanding place in the history of pocketknives.
First off, synthetic materials have been used for knife handle covers for longer than you might imagine. The first synthetic (or plastic like) replacements for wood, bone, ivory, etc. began being introduced in the late 19th century. By the beginning of the 20th century, when American knife manufacturing was coming into its own and outgrowing its predecessors in Solingen and Sheffield, companies like Case were offering knives handled in various colors of celluloid. Celluloid is another name for Parkesine, one of the first of the synthetic handle materials. Celluloid was used extensively by the knife industry, but now has become known for its flamability and tendency to oxidize and ruin carbon steel knives. However, one of the types of celluloid that was first used, as early as the 1920’s and definitely before 1940, was a type layered with gold glitter that became known as Goldstone.
Great Eastern Cutlery has also made their own version of knives with glitter gold handles. GEC’s versions are made with acrylic rather than celluloid. Acrylic is a very stable material, with none of the major issues that come with celluloid like flamability and outgassing. That said, in my experience, acrylics can shrink and swell depending on the conditions in which they’re kept. Thankfully, however, I have not experienced any such issues with the Glitter Gold acrylic.
In 2011 GEC created the Good as Gold series. There used to be a page on their site about the series, but it seems to have been taken down. In fact, it looks to me like they are moving away from the idea of having distinct series of knives, outside of their normal brands, although they continue to make the Beaver Tail and Banana knives. Interestingly, at least one knife was made with the Good as Gold tube label but without Glitter Gold Acrylic handles, and you can find an article on that knife at this link. They made a pretty good number of patterns with the Glitter Gold covers that year: #23 Square End Jumbo Trapper, #48 Slim Trapper, #56 Dogleg Jack, #62 Easy Pocket Congress, #65 Ben Hogan, and #66 Moose. Since then, as far as I can tell and check against the (unofficial but extremely helpful) GEC database created by Darren Orrell, the only knives they’ve made with Glitter Gold Acrylic handles were Special Factory Assembly models made for the 2018 Rendezvous. These consisted of two versions of the #78 American Jack, 8 made of each, a single spear bladed version and a spear and pen two bladed version. So, although they made knives with Glitter Gold handles in several patterns in 2011, overall it is a relatively obscure series for GEC.
Great Eastern Cutlery sourced their Glitter Gold Acrylic, I believe, from Masecraft Supply. Masecraft Supply seems to be out of the material. EDIT: Bill Howard let me know that GEC’s glitter gold was sourced not from Masecraft, but from Galaxy Plastic. I was told that the Glitter Gold Acrylic GEC has on hand is the last of their supply, and when it’s gone it’s gone for good. With that in mind, and considering that GEC has only made 16 knives in Glitter Gold Acrylic since 2011, if you find one available for sale I suggest picking it up if it fits your budget. They sometimes go for surprisingly low prices, even staying close to original retail. I always have one eye out for them!
I like a little flashiness in my knives, even to the point of garishness, but I know not all do. However, if you’re a fan of traditional knives then you probably appreciate their history. Glitter gold type synthetic handles have a long and interesting history starting in the early days of the American knife industry. As I talked about in another article, knives have always been appreciated for their aesthetics. Some people just like to go bold and bright, and glitter gold is the perfect solution!
I sincerely thank you for your time, support, and interest! Don’t forget to tell your friends about KnifeThoughts.com, subscribe via email, and share this article on social media. You can find Knife Thoughts on YouTube where I have hundreds of knife videos, as well as on Instagram and Facebook!
T(oo)L(ong);D(idn’t)R(ead)? Here’s my YouTube review of the #86 Oil Field Jack!
Recently Great Eastern Cutlery began producing its first run of the new #86 pattern. The #86 is a jumbo jack pattern, which basically means it’s an enlarged version of the classic swell end jack shape like that found on a #15 or #77. GEC has named this pattern the Oil Field Jack, and it’s a fitting name. This hefty pocket knife would be right at home in the oil fields.
The jumbo jack is a pattern that has been around for a long time, but isn’t as well known as others. It’s an enlarged swell end jack, usually over 3.75″ closed. The GEC version is 3.875″ closed. They tend to have thicker handles. This is in part due to the more rounded covers, and in part to the fact that they are most often two bladed. The blades can even be ground from thicker stock than a typical jack. For example, according to Charlie Campagna, the #86 tangs are about .1″ wide, whereas a GEC #15’s tangs are about .09″. Interestingly, vintage jumbo jacks tend to have spear point main blades with pen secondaries, but the #86 has a clip point main and slender sheepfoot secondary. All of it comes together in the #86 to make an unusually hefty jack knife that is inspired by, but not a direct copy, of vintage jumbo jacks.
The #86 compared to a #78, #77, and #15 (from right to left)
Great Eastern Cutlery is making the #86 in several iterations. They’re making them under both their Tidioute and Northfield in-house brands, as well as some Special Factory Orders. The Tidioute versions all feature a quite unique, and appropriate to the name, wrench shield. They are being made with Oil Sucker Rod Wood, Natural Canvas Micarta, and Oily Creek Bone. The Northfield version will come in Autumn Gold Jigged Bone, Tortoise Shell Acrylic, and Sambar Stag. There will also be an SFO for Gunstock Jack’s Knives in Bloodwood with Bowtie shield, and for JSR Sports & More in Burnt Chocolate Peach Seed Jigged Bone with Propeller shield. Finally, there will be two more unique (and difficult to get) versions of the #86. First, the traditional knives subforum of BladeForums has ordered their yearly club knife on the #86 frame with a single saber ground sheepfoot blade, African Blackwood handles, and Bomb shield. At this point the only way to purchase that version is through the secondary market, as all have been pre-ordered months in advance. Second, Charlie Campagna is having a Waynorth Cutlery Black Jack produced. It will have a clip point main with more emphasized swedges and a pen secondary, Gabon Ebony Wood handles, and a Banner shield. You still might be able to get one of these by emailing the dealers through whom Charlie sells his SFOs, a list of which you can find at this link. The Waynorth Black Jack will probably be the most sought after of the #86s. With so many exciting versions of the #86 pattern coming soon, everybody should be able to find one they want!
The “jumbo-ness” really shows in the thickness. It’s thicker, due to the rounded covers, than a Case full sized trapper.
The first released Oil Field Jacks seem to be selling quickly, but you should be able to get one in your preferred handle material. This will be a relatively large run in regard to production numbers. However, GEC has been shipping knives to dealers in batches. This practice is both good and bad; good because it allows for more chances to get the knife you want, bad because it causes more scramble and makes the knives seem more scarce. As of this writing, all of the Tidioute versions have been released but if you act quick you should still be able to get at least an Oily Creek Bone model. There are some Natural Canvas Micarta versions still arriving at dealers, and maybe a couple Oil Sucker Rod Wood stragglers. None of the Northfield versions have been released yet, and they can be purchased from any of the GEC dealers (which you can find a list of at this link), so there’s definitely still time to get one. I think both the Sambar Stag and Tortoise Shell Acrylic will look awesome on this jumbo jack pattern; the stag because the big wide handles will give plenty of room to show off the unique character of each piece, and the tortoise because I just like the somewhat bold and garish look of that acrylic style. I’m sure the Autumn Gold Jigged Bone will be nice also, I just don’t get as excited about that particular dye color and jigging as some. I am probably most excited about the Waynorth Cutlery Black Jack (aside from / along with the one I already have). Not only will it be the most similar to vintage jumbo jacks with its long pulls, swedges, and Gabon Ebony Wood handles, it will also have that particular styling that Charlie brings to his SFOs that have made them so popular amongst collectors.
Compared to some well known knives, the Ontario Rat 1 and Case Trapper.
I got the Oil Sucker Rod Wood #86 Oil Field Jack. This is a knife I knew I had to check out as soon as it was announced. I already really have and enjoy a few other knives with the Oil Sucker Rod Wood covers. The Oil Sucker Rod Wood is reclaimed from the area around Great Eastern Cutlery. An oil sucker rod is part of the oil drilling process and the piece of equipment that pulls the oil up out of the well (you can find a video on the process at this link). Steel rods are used now and have been for a while, but in the early days of the oil industry wooden rods were implemented. One interesting quirk of this handle material is that, because it is reclaimed wood and there’s no record of what wood species was used for the wells from which the wood was reclaimed, one can’t be sure what wood these handles actually are made of. Some, including my dad who’s been in the industry for over 40 years, say that it’s likely Ash. Either way, it has a green hue from the crude oil that soaked into it during its previous life as a working sucker rod. The crude oil in the Titusville region is a particularly bold green color. I remember my dad having a little bottle of crude oil from the Drake Well, the first commercial oil well in the world (by most accounts) that is right outside of Titusville and only a couple miles from GEC, and it was just the same color as the handles on my Oil Field Jack. Finally, the wrench shield hearkens to the hard manual work put in on those early oil wells (not to say that hard manual work isn’t also put in on the modern wells!). All of it seems to reach back and connect the Oil Field Jack to local Pennsylvania history, making it much more than just an extremely well made knife.
Three knives in Oil Sucker Rod Wood. #18 Beagle, #15 2014 Rendezvous Special TC One Arm Barlow, and the #86 Oil Field Jack
Speaking of its build quality, my Oil Field Jack in Oil Sucker Rod Wood is impeccably made. It has smooth transitions between the covers and bolsters. The shield is fitted tightly, which is a feat on such a complicated shape as a double ended wrench. The blades are tight with no blade play. The action is great with nice snap and walk and talk, and about a 6 out of 10 pull (a little stronger than a swiss army knife) on both blades. Both blades are also well centered. In a huge relief to me, as these are the two most irksome and common issues to be found on GEC knives, neither blades came with proud tips or blade rap.
The Oil Field Jack is jumbo compared to other swell end jack knives, but it’s much smaller than some of GEC’s other large patterns. From left to right: #45 Lumberjack, #46 Whaler, #86 Oil Field Jack, #97 Allegheny, #98 Texas Camp Knife
I actually accidentally ordered two of these, and I have to admit that one was sent back. Sometimes you read or hear of someone “accidentally” ordering a knife, and you think “how can you possibly order a knife on accident?”. Well, I emailed two of my favorite dealers about this knife and, I thought, only heard back from one. So when I got a PayPal invoice for this knife, I just paid it. Later, when I got another, I realized that both dealers had emailed back confirming my reservation of this knife and one of their emails had gone to my spam folder! Anyway, the second one I received came with what I considered to be a poorly fit shield. There were noticeable gaps between the shield and wood that had been filled in with glue, which I find to be ugly. It also came with some rust / pitting on the main blade backspring, which was actually a first for me from GEC. Maybe chalk it up to the wet and cold weather. Anyway, as always, Ken at Blue Creek Cutlery provided incredible service and rectified the issue quickly and completely; he even refunded my return shipping, which went above and beyond my expectations!
The example I’m keeping is from Jamie at JSR Sports & More, from whom I’ve also received quality service. Despite one of my examples having some unusual issues, the Oil Field Jack I’m keeping is another great testament to Great Eastern Cutlery’s ability to make an heirloom quality pocket knives that are also ready to be put to real use.
The Oil Field Jack with pin and tube.
I really like GEC’s Oil Field Jack on the #86 Jumbo Jack frame. It feels really ergonomic in the hand with the thick, rounded handle. The classic clip point blade shape offers a usable tip for penetrating tasks, but also provides a very practical amount of both straight edge and belly for push and pull cuts. The slender sheepfoot secondary will work great for smaller cutting tasks like opening mail, cutting strings, etc. The Oil Field Jack’s heft makes it feel like a knife that would be a great every day carry user, but that would also be more than capable as a work knife. I also really enjoy the extra touch of the wrench shield. I think all of these Oil Field Jacks are going to look great, but the history and local authenticity of the Oil Sucker Rod Wood made me choose it over the others… So far! If you need a Jumbo Jack in your life, I definitely suggest trying one of GEC’s new #86 Oil Field Jacks!
I sincerely thank you for your time, support, and interest! Don’t forget to tell your friends about KnifeThoughts.com, subscribe via email, and share this article on social media. You can find Knife Thoughts on YouTube where I have hundreds of knife videos, as well as on Instagram and Facebook!
The Great Eastern Cutlery #89 is one of the few patterns of theirs that I haven’t tried in my time as a GEC user and collector. One reason for this is that this pattern hasn’t been produced in years, even since before I became aware of GEC, and they weren’t made in huge numbers relative to today’s run sizes. So I decided to check out this one in the very season fitting Pumpkin Patch Acrylic.
Similar in length to the Case Sodbuster JR and GEC #15 TC Barlow
The #89 is a long slender 4″ sleeveboard pattern. My specific example is splitback whittler. That means there are two backsprings, one for each secondary blade, that has a wedge between it so that it comes together as one backspring for the main blade. These long slender sleeveboard patterns are often called Melon Testers, especially when it has one blade, because their long slender blades are perfect for slicing out a taste of fruit. GEC calls this knife the “3 Blade Melon Tester Whittler”, so they basically threw all the descriptors they could into the name except “splitback”.
A great example of complex blade fitting
My version has Pumpkin Patch Acrylic handles. They’re a mix of pearlescent orange with swirls of black, but mine doesn’t have much black at all. Sometimes people see synthetic handle materials as uniform and without the character of natural handle materials, but GEC’s acrylics are always unique and you never know what you’ll get (unless the dealer/seller has individual pictures of each knife). I personally like the handles, although I do wish they had more black swirls, and they’re a perfect fit for this Halloween and harvest season.
The wedge that separates the springs, making it a “splitback”.
This knife is well made, and honestly I was pleasantly surprised by how much I like it. I expected the tip of the main blade to be noticeably proud, due to the slender handle, but it is not proud and I can’t catch a finger on it. There doesn’t seem to be any blade rub, and the main blade sits pretty well centered between the two secondaries. This fitting of the blades is certainly a commendable feat, and a great example of how well GEC can make even these complicated patterns. I also expected the main blade to have blade rap, where the edge hits the backspring, due to the slenderness of the handle (especially if it didn’t have a proud tip). However, it shows no blade rap at all even when allowed to close on its own. Part of the reason for this could be that the pulls on all three blades are relatively light, maybe a 3 or so. However, I like the pulls at this strength as it makes it easy to open and eliminates blade rap while still providing nice walk and talk and snap both open and closed. I bought this knife thinking I’d like getting the chance to look it over but not have any desire to keep it, but with how nicely it is built I wish I could put it in my pocket as a user!
Great Eastern Cutlery made several versions of the #89 pattern including the “3 Blade Melon Tester Whittler” (my version), the “Riverboat Gambler” (cool name, in my opinion) a pen knife version, the “Executive Whittler” with a wharncliffe main, and even some in stainless. However, they can be difficult to find. Mine was made in 2009, and the last time they were made was 2012, so it’s been almost 8 years since they made the #89 pattern. Hopefully they make some more soon, and if so I suggest getting yourself one!
This article will provide a short overview of the Great Eastern Cutlery #97 Kifer Cutlery Classics Special Factory Order Northfield Allegheny. I received this knife from Gary Kifer of CutleryClassics.com at the 2019 Rendezvous to have, test, and review. I was happy to get a user #97, as I thought it would make a great larger slipjoint carry.
I had some experience with the #97 Allegheny pattern through the Allegheny Mountain Knife Collectors Association 2019 club knife (you can find my article about that knife at this link). I really liked the knife from an aesthetic perspective, but because it is a club knife I reserved it as a collection piece. So I was excited, and looking forward to putting it through its paces, when Gary gave me this one.
The 2019 Allegheny Mountain Collectors Association club knife
To give you the run down on what the knife is; it’s a 4.75″ closed slipjoint with a saber ground clip point blade and coke bottle frame. You can learn more about the coke bottle pattern in my article on the #06 Pemberton at this link. The blade has a double pull, meaning it has both a long pull and a nail nick. The handles are Amber Jigged Bone. It has Cutlery Classics’ trademark shield. The bolster is engraved “23” out of a run of 99. All of these characteristics brought together make it a great reproduction of a vintage large coke bottle hunter.
GEC made several versions of the Allegheny pattern in this first run, with a bunch of handle materials and two different blade grinds, and I think this is one of the best of them.
Not everyone likes a saber grind or the double pull, but I really like its look and the fact that it hearkens back to vintage coke bottle hunters. Although the saber grind can sometimes slice less smoothly through dense materials than a full flat grind or high hollow grind, it has performed well on all kinds of tasks (from breaking down cardboard to gutting fish). I also like the practicality of having both the nail nick and long pull. The nail nick being at the end of the blade provides more leverage, while the long pull will remain above the frame (allowing the blade to be opened) long after the nail nick drops below the frame from sharpening and filing the kick. Of course, most people won’t sharpen the knife enough times for this to be relevant, but as these are heirloom quality knives it’s good to know it could be passed on and continued to be used for years to come.
I was also pleasantly surprised by how much I like the bone color and jigging pattern. The color is a nice malty wheat color, and I think it will continue to mellow and improve with age. I also really like the jigging, as it’s not as uniform as some of GEC’s jigging patterns and it actually provides some grippiness in the hand. Some people found the pull on these #97s to be lighter than they expected on such a big knife, and mine is light for a GEC at about a 4, but the action is very smooth and snappy with great walk and talk. On a user, I think there’s a balance between a pull being too strong to be convenient to open and too weak to keep the blade fully open in use. This knife falls nicely between.
Basically, it’s another well built and classic looking Great Eastern Cutlery that’s equally suited as a user or a collection piece.
I have used this knife a lot since getting it, and I’m enjoying it more and more. It’s certainly a big knife for a slipjoint, but I’ve found it easy to carry and it’s always nice to have that extra blade length. The #97 Northfield Kifer Cutlery Classics Special Factory Order is another top notch knife from Great Eastern Cutlery. If you’d like to get one for yourself, there are still some available on the Cutlery Classics site at this link. Thanks again to Gary for providing this one!
Here’s a video of the knives I got at the 2019 Rendezvous, starting where I talk about the #97
