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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!

March 1, 2019March 8, 2019

The Trapper Pattern; You Know It When You See It

TL;DR? Check out the companion Knife Thoughts video on my YouTube channel at this link!

This article will be less of a review of a particular knife and more of an overall look at a general knife pattern; the Trapper. The Trapper pattern has a long history and has become well known, or at least recognizable, to most Americans who are familiar with pocket knives. Whether you’re a fan of the pattern and want to know some of its history and specific characteristics or if you have no idea what a Trapper is and are picturing a knife with two spring loaded jaws for capturing small critters, this article will tell you all you all you need to know about the Trapper!

The Case Large Trapper in Yellow Synthetic is a great exemplifier of the Pattern

First, the Trapper is a pattern with a somewhat obscure history. The claim is often put forward on knife blogs and forums that it’s a pattern that’s been used since the frontier days of America when rugged mountain men trudged into the unknown mountains to live out their lonesome and hard, but proud, lives trapping for furs and fortune. Obviously, a knife pattern called the Trapper must have originated from its namesake profession. Unfortunately for the romantics out there imagining Jim Bridger and John Colter comparing their personal Trapper knives in the 1800’s, the Trapper pattern as shown above is a 20th century invention. Like many traditional knife patterns, the Trapper evolved from older types of knives into its own unique pattern in the early 1900’s during the so called Golden Age of American cutlery. In the early decades of the 20th century there was a multitude of cutlery manufacturers that were staffed by cutlers transplanted from the old European knifemaking centers of England and Germany. These companies and cutlers took many older patterns that were brought from Europe and modified them into their own unique American patterns. The Trapper is a great example of that process. The predecessor to the Trapper was probably a slim dogleg jack with about a 4″ handle and a clip point main blade and pen secondary blade. This type of knife was made as far back as the 1880’s, and sometime in the ensuing 4 decades some companies changed the pen secondary to a full length spey blade to make a slimmer version of the classic Trapper as shown above. It seems the beefier trapper with two full length blades probably didn’t appear until the 1920’s. It was probably first made by either Case or Kabar. In this period many knife manufacturers made knives to be branded and sold by other companies. Even more confusingly, many companies, including Case and Kabar, were connected through family ties. These circumstances can make it difficult to pinpoint the genesis of a particular pattern. The Trapper remained a relatively minor pattern until after WWII. Since then pretty much any knife company that makes traditional slipjoints has produced one or more variations of the Trapper pattern, and it has become a mainstay of the American pocket knife market. Speaking of variations, what exactly is (or isn’t) a Trapper?

Camillus Remington Master Guide, Case Large Trapper, Queen Utility, Rough Ryder Trapper, GEC Northfield Improved Trapper, Great Eastern Cutlery Mustang

The Trapper pattern covers a huge range of sizes, blade shape combinations, and even handle shapes. The above picture is a great example the ways in which the size and handle shape of the trapper can vary. Although the Trapper pattern developed from a slim dogleg jack (like the Queen Utility third from the left), it can also have a banana shaped frame (like the Camillus made Remington Master Guide on the far left or the GEC Northfield Improved Trapper and Great Eastern Cutlery Mustang both on the far right), and is probably best known as a beefier dogleg jack (like the Rough Ryder Trapper third from the right) sometimes with a swell on the blade well side of the handle (like the Case Large Trapper second from the left). As you can see, the Trapper’s frame can be one of several different handle shapes with variations possible even within those general shapes. Also, although they tend to stay within the 3.5″ to 4.5″ range, Trappers can land anywhere from the Case Tiny Trapper at 2.375″ closed to the Remington Master Guide at about 5.375″ closed.

Spear and Pen, Clip and Spey, Clip and Spey, Clip and Wharncliffe

The Trapper pattern can also have just about any blade shape style and combination you can imagine. However, the classic configuration is two full size blades with one being a clip point and the other being a spey blade. The clip point is a great all around blade because it offers a pointy tip (although Case knives, like the one below, often come with rounded tips), a solid amount of curved edge, and some straight edge also. The spey blade is historically designed for use in castrating animals, as the abruptly curved belly and lack of a significant tip make it a good blade for slicing and push cuts but not good at piercing (wouldn’t want to stab your livestock when they start kicking, which they will do if you’re using the spey blade for its namesake…). It’s possible that the spey blade was added for outdoorsmen (hunters and TRAPPERS, get it) to use as a skinning blade with less chance of piercing the guts, but my guess would be that it was added just as a novelty to have two full length blades and without much more specific reason than that. Still, it does make for a useful blade combination as it can be nice having two full length blades. I tend to use the spey blade for food prep and the clip point for everything else. Like the shape and size of the handle, the blade shapes on knives considered to be Trappers can go far beyond the classic clip and spey. There’s the Slim Trapper with a single turkish (slender) clip point, the Pen Trapper with a main blade that is most often a clip or drop point but can sometimes be a spey or spear point with a small/secondary pen blade, the Improved Trapper with a clip point and wharncliffe blade, and the Single Blade Trapper with one main blade (usually a clip point, but it can also be a drop, spear, or spey).

Clip Point blade
Spey blade

So, what is a Trapper knife? Considering all the variations laid out above, it might seem that there’s no real definition of what is or isn’t a Trapper. Well, a Trapper definitely is a jack knife, meaning the blades fold out of one end (unlike a pen style multiblade knife, in which the blades open from different ends), and the end the blades come out of should definitely be smaller than the butt end of the handle. A Trapper definitely doesn’t have a straight edged blade, like a sheepfoot or wharncliffe, as its only main blade. Within those parameters, a wide array of knives can be considered Trappers. Kind of like some other things, it’s something that’s difficult to define but you know it when you see it. Another great way to know if a knife is a Trapper is if the company that made it calls it a Trapper!

A great knife to use while camping or to cut hot dog sticks for a fire

The Trapper pattern is somewhat nebulous, but even still it holds a significant place in the American cutlery tradition. Every kind of Trapper has been made, even at least one modern flipper opening version! If you like traditional pocket knives you’re sure to be able to find a Trapper that suits your particular aesthetic and practical tastes.

If you’d like to get yourself a Trapper I have some suggestions. If you’d like the nicest production Trapper you can get currently, and don’t mind carbon (non-stainless) steel, you should go with the Great Eastern Cutlery #48 Slim Dog Leg. Great Eastern Cutlery made knives tend to sell out relatively quickly, but they’ve been doing larger runs to try to better meet demand and there are a good number of these left on dealers’ sites. You can find some at Blue Creek Cutlery, my most often patronized GEC dealer. Ken is a good guy and has good service, don’t hesitate to ask him any questions you have before purchase. You can also find some, including some other handle materials, at DLT Trading. Those Trappers from GEC are USA made in small batches in Titusville PA and heirloom quality but also great users. If you’d like a more modern stainless steel (although not a super steel, using 8cr13mov) and don’t mind your knife being made overseas, the Sowbelly Improved Trapper from A.G. Russell is also a great option. These have a little less character and might not be quite as well finished but they are still really well made and good looking knives, and they’re less expensive than the GECs. If you’d like a less expensive option than the GECs but want to stick with good ol’ Made In U.S.A. quality, Case knives are made in Bradford Pa and aren’t quite as well fitted or finished as GEC but still make great using knives (and many people also collect them). Case offers a multitude of Trapper options: Full Size Stainless Steel, Mini Stainless Steel, Large Stainless Steel Single Blade with Clip and Thumb Stud, Slimline with option for Stainless or Carbon Steel, Full Size Carbon Steel. Another good option that’s really easy on the wallet is going with a Rough Ryder. These are made overseas and sometimes have some issues, but they’re definitely high enough quality to make good users and often are really nice looking for the price, which is significantly lower than any of the above options. Smoky Mountain Knife Works owns the Rough Ryder brand and carries a wide variety of Trappers in different shapes, sizes, and handle materials. Finally, if the modern style trapper I mentioned piqued your interest you can the Boker Plus Urban Trapper at this link.

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TL;DR? Check out the companion Knife Thoughts video on my YouTube channel at this link!

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