Northfield Archives - Knife Thoughts

May 11, 2019May 12, 2019

The ONLY Review of the GEC #97 Allegheny AMKCA 2019 Club Knife on the WHOLE Internet!

TL;DR? Here’s the Knife Thoughts video to accompany this article. Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel!

This article will tell you all you need to know about the Allegheny Mountain Knife Collectors Association 2019 club knife. To put it simply, the knife is a Great Eastern Cutlery made Northfield #97 Allegheny in Autumn Gold Jigged bone. It’s a unique knife and an extremely fine knife. This article will explain the details on how it came about, it’s makeup and quality, and my thoughts on the knife as a whole.

First off, what is the Allegheny Mountain Knife Collectors Association? The AMKCA is a knife club that meets once per month to show off knives, discuss current events in the knife world, and share the passion for knives. The membership is made up of collectors who, for the vast majority, primarily collect vintage knives. Some of the members are also interested in modern knives, but traditional slipjoints and fixed blades dominate the display boxes and knife rolls. Even with a relatively small regular attendance, at around 10 members, it’s always a treasure trove of incredible knives to “chicken eye and coon finger“. The members have also welcomed me with enthusiasm each time I’ve been able to make it to a meeting, despite my attendance being often irregular. The long time members are well acquainted with Great Eastern Cutlery, despite focusing their collections on vintage knives, and some even seem to be personal friends with Bill Howard (the owner of GEC). AMKCA was founded in late 1982 and has ordered a club knife each year since 1983, and the list of their yearly club knives is a sight to be seen for any traditional knife enthusiast. I first heard of the Allegheny Mountain Knife Collectors Association, funnily enough, by seeing their logo on a cornhole set at the GEC Rendezvous. I also met and spoke with a couple members at one of the Rendezvous I’ve attended, maybe 2016. However, I didn’t become a member until early 2018. Since then I’ve attended meetings as regularly as possible (as the meetings are the real value of being a member), including bringing my fiancee to the club’s very nice Christmas party, and I’ve also purchased the yearly club knives for both 2018 and 2019.

This year’s club knife has an interesting, and somewhat confusing, story of how it came about. At the end of 2018 the club discussed getting a 2019 knife in stag on one of GEC’s new patterns, the #97 or #29. I wasn’t able to make the January meeting due to a vacation, but at the February meeting the liaison between the club and GEC said that Christine (GEC sales manager) had suggested the new #97 Allegheny large coke bottle pattern in Smooth Yellow Bone, due to a shortage of stag large enough for that pattern, and that the club needed to decide ASAP. Due to this suggestion, and the genuine fact that GEC is very accommodating in allowing the club to order a small number of knives each year (in comparison to GEC’s recent knife run quantities), the members voted to go ahead with the #97 Allegheny in Smooth Yellow Bone with the AMKCA blade etch and bear shield on Northfield trim (the Northfield trim on this pattern included polished blade and bolsters, a saber ground blade, double pull, and lined bolsters). A little while later the president of the club messaged me to let me know that GEC had offered jigged yellow bone for the handle material, and to see what I thought of that. I was all for it, as I don’t have a jigged yellow bone handled knife.

It’s not a small knife, as this comparison to the Spyderco Native shows, but like other large coke bottles it feels great in the hand

However, soon after that GEC posted a picture of the AMKCA club knife with Autumn Gold Jigged bone handles. Now, one of the things that you get to know about Great Eastern Cutlery after following them is that Bill Howard isn’t afraid to do things his own way, and their naming of handle materials, colors, and jigging patterns can be both redundant and random. For example, they often make a handle material called Antique Yellow Jigged bone that isn’t what most people would recognize as yellow (although a little yellow peaks through where the bone meets the bolsters). Still, Autumn Gold is not Antique Yellow, let alone plain yellow. So I checked with Christine and she confirmed it was Autumn Gold, but then a few days later I got the club newsletter shown below which seems to suggest that the knife would be plain yellow bone jigged! So I was very confused. Going into this month’s meeting (5/5/19) I was excited to see what version actually came to fruition.

GEC’s image showing the AMKCA 2019 club knife ready to ship

AMKCA newsletter / order form for the 2019 club knife

What I’d expect based upon the AMKCA 2019 club knife order form / newsletter above (this image seems to have originated on eBay, if it’s yours please let me know if it’s okay to use it)

As it turned out they are handled in Autumn Gold Jigged bone after all, and wow did they turn out great! First off, despite the confusion, I like the Autumn Gold color and the jigging pattern a lot more than I expected. I don’t always love jigging, particularly when the jigging pattern is uniform rather than random, but I think the large jig marks and side to side pattern fit the knife and look traditional. The color is also more caramel malty than plain brown, as some of the Autumn Gold bone I’ve seen has been. Although I still don’t think it would be my first choice, I am really happy with how the Autumn Gold jigged bone looks.

Allegheny Mountain Knife Collectors Association 2019 Club Knife, Great Eastern Cutlery Northfield #97 Allegheny in Autumn Gold Jigged Bone with Pin

The fit and finish of this knife is plainly incredible. There are no visible gaps between the backspring and liners, even when held up to the light. This is not an easy feat to accomplish on a traditional knife, and even GEC made knives (the best production knives you can get) sometimes have small gaps. The transitions between the bone and bolsters are smooth with no catching, another area that really demonstrates the care put into hafting the knife. The backspring is flush with the liners in the open and closed positions. All three of these attributes are areas that collectors look at to assess the quality of the construction. One thing that some of the collectors at the AMKCA dislike about GEC is their “sunken pins”. Sunken pins are those that are spun and countersunk, rather than being flush with the handle and held in place by hammering the face of the pin to expand it creating a press fit (a process known as “peening”). Most vintage knives are peened and have flush pins. I started out by collecting GEC knives, so sunk pins are what I’m used to and don’t bother me.

With another saber ground clip point hunter, a Queen Hunter rehandled in Canvas Micarta

Showing the double pull and front grinds

The pile side might be even better looking

Online, on BladeForums and the like, many people had complaints about light springs and off center blades on the #97s. In their earlier years GEC was known for having bear trap springs, with pull strengths between 6 and 9 out of 10. However, recently some of their runs of knives have had significantly lighter pulls. My #43 Oregon Trapper had a light pull strength, but great walk and talk and snappy action. The same can be said for my #97 Allegheny. It’s spring is closer to a 4 than a 6, and definitely lighter than most GEC knives I’ve had, but it has superb walk and talk with snappy action and buttery smooth opening and closing. If you want to get a better feel for the action, make sure to watch my corresponding video review linked here and at my YouTube Channel (and don’t forget to subscribe!). My blade is nearly perfectly centered, and certainly nowhere near an issue. The knife also has absolutely no blade play. I was slightly concerned that there might be blade rap (the edge hitting the backspring) because larger knives like this sometimes overtravel when closing, but as far as I can tell there’s none to be seen on my Allegheny. Overall, the attention to detail and immaculate fit and finish make this one of the best made knives I’ve ever received.

2018 club knife #46 Whaler in Abalone with the 2019 club knife

The only issue I’ve found is a small one and could easily be missed; the blade etch is slightly doubled, as if the stencil moved minutely during the etching process. It’s difficult to see, but the bases of the letters and the bars/lines are doubled just enough to perceive when you look closely. This is definitely more of a nitpick than an issue, and not something that would matter in the least in use, but I try to be as honest as possible and don’t hide any negatives. The fact that this is the only issue with the knife honestly just gives more credence to its overall excellence.

One last point about the knife’s construction that came as a surprise to me; the AMKCA bear shield is glued. The Allegheny Mountain Knife Collectors Association has used a unique bear shield that resembles Bob Cargill’s three legged buffalo shield for decades. I like the look of the shield, but in checking inside this year’s club knife I noticed that there seemed to be no shield pin through the liner. I knew this meant that the shield was not pinned, but rather glued. I strongly dislike glued shields. In fact, GEC’s usual habit of ALWAYS pinning their shields is one of the things that signals their dedication to making knives the right way. Glued shields are a sign of a shortcut taken, as it’s much easier and less work intensive to just glue the shield into the handle material than to take the time to drill the hole, place the shield just right, and peen it into the handle liner. There’s just something less secure and classic feeling to a chemical bond holding the shield on rather than a mechanical bond. Now, I don’t think GEC did this as a shortcut; they had to do it, as there was no way they could pin the shields. It just so happened that another member of the AMKCA had a previous year’s club knife (also from GEC) with him that’s shield had fallen out! Upon further inspection of that dislodged shield, I found that the bear shields were not manufactured with pins. Aside from showing that GEC couldn’t have pinned the shields even if they’d wanted to, it also confirmed my dislike of glued shields. Heck, a glued shield is okay on a $10 Rough Ryder but it’s kept me from buying a $50 Case and it’s downright unacceptable on a $100+ GEC. Although I do like the look of the bear shield that AMKCA uses, I really dislike the fact that it must be glued and that fact honestly cheapens all the knives with that shield in my opinion.

All of GEC’s coke bottle patterns: #06 Pemberton, #45 Lumberjack, #97 Allegheny

All things considered, I’m very happy to have this knife in my collection. I really enjoy the coke bottle pattern, and this completes my trio of GEC coke bottle patterns they’ve made so far. If you’d like to learn more about the coke bottle pattern you can check out my article on the GEC #06 Pemberton. It’s a rare, unique, and extremely well made knife. It also represents the time I’ve spent at the Allegheny Mountain Knife Collectors club. I have decided to collect the GEC Rendezvous Special knives and the AMKCA Club knives, and I’m glad this club knife came together so well despite the confusion. If you’re interested in a Coke Bottle Hunter pattern knife, you won’t go wrong with a Great Eastern Cutlery #97 Allegheny. If you’d like to get one for yourself you can find several versions at a few of my favorite knife dealers: Blue Creek Cutlery, JSR Sports and More, and Traditional Pocket Knives. These dealers all have given me great customer service. I’m not affiliated with them, but you can let them know you heard about them on Knife Thoughts… can’t hurt! Unfortunately, if you’d like to get this specific AMKCA version you’ll have to get it on the secondary market, and even that would be difficult. I hope this article has painted a full picture of the 2019 AMKCA Club Knife Great Eastern Cutlery Northfield #97 Allegheny in Autumn Gold Jigged Bone for you, and has gotten you as excited about it as I am!

April 13, 2019April 13, 2019

Head VS Heart; To Collect or to Use Your Knives

The question of what the “right way” to express enthusiasm for knives is one that shouldn’t need answered. I find it silly and overbearing for anyone to suppose that they should or can tell another the best way to enjoy a hobby. Still, I have gone through several phases in regard to the idea of keeping knives as collection pieces in contrast to keeping them as using tools, and I think others have had similar shifts in perspectives. In this post I’ll describe my progression through those stages and how my current collection looks… but no guarantees it won’t change again!

A tasteful knife display, the stand a gift from my fiancee

I, like many, started with having only one knife that I used for everything. I didn’t even really consider the idea of having knives as collection pieces, and probably would have scoffed at the idea had it been suggested. Still, I was what I would consider a knife enthusiast though, as I appreciated the knife not just as a tool but as a piece of mechanical workmanship that elevated man’s most ancient tool to a higher level. I think there is a silent but quite large population of people who fit this category; they appreciate a good knife and see it as more than a disposable tool, but they don’t venture further into the hobby with more knives and deeper research.

I store my modern knives in a cheap single layer tackle box

Most of my modern knives, all users to varying degrees

A desire to know more about a particular knife brought me to the next step in the knife hobby. I don’t remember exactly what I was looking up, but in the process I found BladeForums and my eyes were opened to the wide world of the knife hobby. As I read, watched, and listened I grew more knowledgeable on knives, the knife making process, and the knife community in general. At this stage I began to purchase more knives beyond one user, but the number stayed relatively low and all were used regularly. I think this represents another distinct stage in the knife enthusiast scale, as it is a step out of appreciating knives as an individual separate from any other enthusiasts, and into the larger knife community. I stayed at this stage for a while, buying and selling and trading knives as I learned. During this stage I never amassed a significant enough number of knives that any would go unused for long. I think this is a stage that a lot of people also stay in and don’t move deeper into the hobby from, but fewer than the previous stage.

I store most of my user traditionals, sharpening gear, and random EDC stuff in a multi layer tackle box

The final stage is reached when you have more than enough knives to use, but you keep buying them anyway! Often, I think people reach this stage also because they start to realize their preferences and build coherent collections. This is when knives accumulate to the point that some don’t get used. Another thing that often happens before this stage is you start to accumulate knives that are rare, have sentimental value, etc. that make them less likely to be used. This stage probably has the widest variation in expression; some people might have one knife they use all the time and 100 (or 1000) that they never use or carry at all, and some might have 100 knives that they carry and use in a rotation and only 10 (or 1) that they have as a non user collection piece. I fall somewhere on that spectrum closer to the latter end.

I store my non user knife collection in a Pelican case

Top Row:
GEC #46 Whaler AMKCA 2018 Club Knife, GEC #46 Whaler 2018 Rendezvous Special, GEC #38 Special 2017 Rendezvous Special, GEC #74 Mustang 2016 Rendezvous Special, GEC #74 Improved Trapper 2015 Rendezvous Special, GEC #15 TC One Arm Barlow 2014 Rendezvous Special
Bottom Row:
Queen Copperhead, GEC #53 Cuban Stockman, GEC #82 Dixie Stock Knife, Victorinox Spartan Costa Rica

However, I don’t believe those stages tell the whole story of knife collecting. For me, being a knife collector is about enjoying the hobby. For some people, that means having and using one knife till the wheels fall off. For others, that means buying every trendy or appealing knife that comes out and keeping them pristine. For me, it has come to mean many things. First, it means enjoying the knives I have. While I do keep some knives as pristine as possible, I try to enjoy them by displaying them and showing them at knife club meetings and shows. Other knives I enjoy by carrying and using them. I find that using a knife is the best way to enjoy it. It just feels right to use a knife as a tool, and doing so seems to confirm its value and place as the most fundamental human tool. So, why not use all my knives? For a long time, I didn’t think I had a satisfactory answer to that question. I had valuable knives, both of the monetary and sentimental type, but I thought that if I didn’t use them it was a waste to keep them. However, that led me to sell knives that I later wished I had kept (which will be the subject of another article). Now, I’ve become comfortable with the idea that some knives are better kept in good condition whether it be because they’re valuable, part of a set, or meant to be an heirloom. I have a small collection of knives I don’t use. Some of them are the Great Eastern Cutlery Rendezvous Specials. These are knives made in small numbers for the gathering GEC holds in Titusville every year and only available at the gathering. They’re usually unique knives in some way. They’ve become the main part of my non user collection, as they’re easily the most coherent and rare set of knives I have owned. I actually did use the first couple of these initially, but later decided they were better kept in good condition to form a recognizable and consistent set. I also have a Queen Copperhead that is the best Queen made knife I’ve ever seen that I don’t use because Queen has unfortunately gone out of business. I plan to add some more Queen knives to my non user collection, as I want to have some examples from Queen as one of the most historic cutlery companies in the U.S. and they’ll only get scarcer the longer its doors have been closed. I also have some knives that have been given to me as gifts from friends, family, and loved ones. Despite it seeming silly to not use knives as tools like they’re inherently intended, some knives are worth maintaining in good condition for posterity.

Great Eastern Cutlery Rendezvous Specials on the knife stand from my fiancee, top to bottom:
#46 Whaler 2018 Oily Heart Pine Wood, #38 Special LVS Paua Abalone 2017, #74 Mustang Primitive Bone 2016, GEC #74 Improved Trapper Tortoise Shell Acrylic 2015, GEC #15 TC One Arm Barlow Oil Sucker Rod Wood 2014

Thanks to my fiancee for the idea for this article and the inspiration for the title! In her words “Your heart wants to use all the knives but your head says you should keep some nice”. I can’t thank her enough.

February 11, 2019February 14, 2019

Knife Thoughts: Great Eastern Cutlery Northfield #06 Pemberton in Smooth White Bone

TL;DR??? Click HERE to watch the Knife Thoughts video on this knife

In 1865 John Stith Pemberton suffered a saber wound to the chest in the Battle of Columbus and subsequently became addicted to morphine. Searching for a replacement for the morphine he created a recipe for “Pemberton’s French Wine Coca”, a variation of a beverage combining alcohol and cocaine: cocaethylene. However, with social pressures against alcohol and looming temperance legislation in his resident city of Atlanta, he scrambled to create a new beverage without alcohol. Mostly through trial and error, with a little random luck, Coca-Cola was born. In the proceeding 150 years Coca-Cola has been adopted worldwide as the soft drink of choice, and one of the most recognizable symbols of that cultural empire is the classic Coke Bottle.

The Coke Bottle traditional knife pattern was given its name in reference to the shape that it shares with the classic curves of the typical glass bottle used by and for Coca-Cola. Although there were probably knives made with this handle shape (more technically called an unequal end swell center jack) before such a bottle was used for Coca-Cola, the ubiquity of the brand and associated shape gave the pattern a unique name and lasting place in the wheelhouse of traditional knife manufacturers. So, to make it clear, a Coke Bottle pattern knife has two rounded ends, usually both ends having bolsters, with one end being smaller than the other and the blade or blades opening at the smaller end with a swell in the center of the handle.

The Great Eastern Cutlery Northfield #06 Pemberton in Smooth White Bone

That brings us to Great Eastern Cutlery’s #06 Pemberton pattern. The Pemberton is a SMALL Coke Bottle pattern knife measuring at about 2.75″ closed with a 2.125″ blade and 2″ cutting edge (on this wharncliffe model). It was first produced in 2013 in single blade clip point and two blade clip point and pen models in several handle materials. In the beginning of 2019 Great Eastern Cutlery is manufacturing another run, this time in a single wharncliffe blade model and a two blade spear point and small sheepfoot model (we’ll talk more about those blade shapes later). They’re making Northfield branded Pembertons in Smooth White Bone (like the subject of this article) and stag, and Tidioute branded knives with Muslin Micarta and Dark Blue Jigged Bone.

The Pemberton is dwarfed even by the medium sized #15 frame TC Barlow

This particular Pemberton is extremely well made; a great ambassador of the Northfield brand. The action is nice with a relatively strong pull for the size of the knife at about a 6 out of 10, and great walk and talk and snap both opening and closing. The top bolster is both threaded (the three lines) and pinched, which I both like the looks of and appreciate in a user because I feel it gives a teence of extra grip in a pinch hold (the most often used grip when cutting). The smooth white bone covers are beautiful, with a nice cream color and little flecks of black in the voids left by the bone capillaries, and very finely fitted to the liners and bolsters so that there are no gaps. The shield is also particularly well fitted on this knife, and I much prefer this “small badge” shield over the “Tidioute” shield used on the blue jigged bone models. This knife also doesn’t have any gaps between the backspring and liners. The backspring is flush with the liners in the fully open and fully closed positions, but not the half stop position (I don’t consider this an issue at all, though I mention it because I know some people like the backspring to be flush in all positions). The only slight manufacturing imperfection on this knife is that the blade is about a half a millimeter off center toward the pile side, but it is in no means a practical issue.

Centering slightly off to the left, no gaps

I’m also pleasantly surprised with the design of this knife. Although I have and enjoy some of GECs other under 3″ patterns, I was concerned that this knife might be too small in the hand to really use due to being a single blade (unlike my other sub 3″ GECs). However, I’ve found this knife to be comfortable in hand, affording a solid 3 finger grip, and easy to use for appropriate tasks. The wharncliffe blade, though small, provides enough cutting edge to do quick work of cutting paper, opening boxes, snipping strings, opening letters, and even breaking down cardboard. This isn’t a knife made for carving the Thanksgiving turkey or skinning and butchering a deer, but it offers a nice thinly ground straight edge in a small package for daily small cutting needs. Also, this knife came from the factory significantly sharper than most Great Eastern Cutlery made knives which was another pleasant surprise. Speaking of small, this thing disappears in your pocket. It’s small enough that it actually sits horizontally in the watch pocket of my jeans, so I’m sure this would be a good low profile option if you work in a less than knife positive environment or have to wear more formal work attire than I do. That said, my typical carry of this knife will probably most often include another larger knife in case I run into a bigger cutting need.

The Pemberton with a Zero Tolerance 0561, a much different knife

The main reason I got this knife is because it fits into two mini collections I have built. I typically focus on just buying knives that individually appeal to me, but I do sometimes make little groupings based on some characteristic. I will be writing another article on my collection of Great Eastern Cutlery small and large pattern pairings and their relation to the upcoming #97 Large Coke Bottle, so subscribe for updates on that. Here I just want to point out the common factor between my collection of under 3″ closed GECs.

GEC #22 Magnum, #06 Pemberton, and #18 Beagle Frames

These three knives are the #22 Magnum, #06 Pemberton, and #18 Beagle. The shared characteristic between these three patterns are their blades; not that they have the same blades obviously but that, according to an engineer at GEC named Randy whom I’ve spoken to at several of the Rendezvous gatherings, the blades represented on the three knives shown are designed to be able to be built into any of the three patterns. What that means is that GEC designed Clip Point, Pen, Wharncliffe, Spear Point, and Small Sheepfoot blades which can all fit into any of these three frames (not that they’re interchangeable once built). So far GEC has produced the #06 with all 5 of these blade shapes (having done Clip Point and Pen on the previous run and doing Wharncliffe, Spear Point and Small Sheepfoot on this run), the #18 with 3 (Wharncliffe, Spear Point and Small Sheepfoot), and the #22 in only 2, the two blade Clip Point and Pen (the #22 is one of GEC’s three patterns with the fewest total number manufactured). This type of engineering oddity might not appeal to all Great Eastern Cutlery collectors, let alone all knife enthusiasts, but I think it is pretty cool and a unique strategy that allows GEC to more easily produce a wide range of different knives without creating new tooling.

Clip Point and Pen, Wharncliffe, and Spear Point and Small Sheepfoot blades

Overall, I think Great Eastern Cutlery got the recipe just right on this Northfield #06 Pemberton. It’s a small knife with superb construction and a classic style that’s tough to deny. John Stith Pemberton advertised his French Coca Wine as beneficial for “all those whose sedentary employment causes nervous prostration” which I think probably covers the majority of us reading this, but I also think the #06 Pemberton (especially in this version with the Wharncliffe blade) would make a more than capable and stylish cutting tool for the daily tasks of our modern lives and sedentary works.

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TL;DR??? Click HERE to watch the Knife Thoughts video on this knife

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