Any info on a fixed blade Mexican Bocote handled knife (H 73311) is appreciated. Lori and I bought it at BLADE a couple-three years ago... this label is on the tube. Apparently not made anymore?
Thanks!

Wally,

GEC is renowned for its folders, but also makes fixed blade knives (though in smaller numbers). Yours (model # H73311) looks to be a skinning knife (pattern #H733 is designated as a "skinner") that was made/issued in 2011. As per the GEC website (production totals page), your knife brand is "Great Eastern Cutlery" (GEC issues knives under other brand names including Tidioute and Northfield as well), and yours looks to be one of 12 knives made in this pattern with the "Exotic Mexican Bocote Wood" handle.

Hope this helps.

Bob

Great info! Where'd you find all that?

Wally,

The GEC website provided all of the information.

GEC knife production totals are available by year, brand and model # at the homepage tab Production Blog - Information - Production Totals - Year. I checked 2011 for yours as the last 2 numbers of their knife models usually indicate year of release. Clicking on 2011 takes you to a PDF which lists all releases for that year by brand (Tidioute, Northfield, GEC, Special Factory Orders). I searched GEC until I found your knife pattern. It was issued with 3 different handle materials. Yours was the rarest (12 issued vs. 19 each with burnt stag and burnt grizzly cut bone).

The "Tang Number Chart" on the "Information" tab has explanations for the GEC numbering system for folders. While this does not directly correlate to the numbering on their fixed blade knives, I figured that the last 2 digits indicated 2011.

The homepage tab "Knife Releases" shows photos of most of the issued GEC knives. I clicked on the Hunting Knife page on the drop down and scrolled through all of the photos. I did not see yours, but I found later releases of the H733 pattern knife (for example, H73312 which was issued with an orange delrin handle; this knife was released in 1/13, but apparently made in 2012, hence the "12" at the end of the model number). The H733 knives are designated as their "skinner" fixed blade model.

There is a ton of info on their site, but it takes a bit of time to navigate through the pages. I was collecting some of their folders for a while, so I became fairly familiar with the site.

Hope this helps.

Bob

Great info, thanks!