The cure for blade rap has other fixes than just blade sharpening. You can add a shim inside the blade channel to increase the height where the blade kick contacts the the back spring. You can also use a needle file to add a clearance slot in the back spring. Shim stock is easy to find in a proper thickness. Using a small shim to the kick will give you an idea of how much is required to cure the blade from battering the edge. It will also make clear which one of fixes is the easiest to make. It often is easier than removing metal from the blade shape. 🤔🙂

Just received the smooth bone Hogan yesterday and it's absolutely perfect. No blade rap, rock solid lock up, excellent pull, perfectly centered. Perfect example. I'm sorry for anyone who got unlucky and got a bad one ;(

Appreciate the review, glad you've addressed the blade rap

I've noticed this is more common with a lot of long, skinny slip joint knives. I had a Case slimline trapper with blade wrap. Both my 89s had blade wrap. Seems like people mention it more on similar long and skinny knife patterns.

6:50 I don’t know if the tube label write-up on Osage orange goes through this, but that wood is also known as bois d’arc (“bo-dark”), meaning bow wood. The wood is sought after to make bows.

So sorry about the preponderance of blade rap on your Hogans. I have one from last year, the Chattahoochie Club's Indian Paintbrush model a beauty, and I am lucky enough to say there is no blade rap on it at all. So they can make a good one but with that much blade length it must be a steep and difficult process to perfect. Thanks for the story and your review thoughts.

I have a few knives with blade rap too. I put a small piece of leather where the blade touches the spring. You can use an old belt or something similar. It has always worked for me so far. Greetings from germany

I hate blade rap too, this makes me feel better about probably never getting one of these. I was excited for the white bone and the stainless osage, but for the price these things are going for I'll stick to my red bone Case slimline trapper

It seems the community has been very quiet about flaws in new drops so it doesn’t effect their ability to resell it, whether for the same price or a bit more. This is the first I’ve heard of blade rap on this model. The 89s and 71s got talked about immediately, even lock rock on the 83s were discussed.

Got mine today Logan - slight blade rap on the Fish Keeper, and none on the Smooth White Bone, so not too bad. As I'll be using the Fish Keeper for fishing, I expect the rap will sharpen out before long. I think the fish shield would have looked so much smarter left entirely plain, and as you have noted the copperhead would have been better if it functioned as a copperhead, but those minor points aside I'm really pleased with these.

I was going to order one of these from SMKW right now as they have 3 different configs in stock at retail but after watching this, I think I will pass. Thanks for the honest review.

HANK LIGHT D4V2 CREW REPRESENT!

Too bad about the blade rap. I really liked the look of the red bone one in Northfield trim. Still might take a chance on it because I love bullet shields.

Are you selling one of those fish keepers

Hey, sorry I just now got to watch the video. I got the white smooth bone 65, and when I opened it up and checked it out I never noticed any blade rap. Honestly, after watching the video I was scared to even open it back up to check it, but thankfully I did and it doesn't have blade rap. However, mine showed up without an etch on the blade! The ones on GEC's page has a Ben Hogan etch, but not mine. Have you heard of this or know anything about it? I did see a couple on EBAY without an etch. Anyways, sorry such a long comment. Best wishes. -Tyler

I also hate blade rap I would send them back and get my money back.

Not good. Blade rap affects a knife's performance as a knife, so it's no trivial matter and shouldn't happen on a Rough Ryder, let alone a GEC costing many times as much. I've had slight rap on a 2018 #71, but otherwise not. And my 2021 #71 has none. I'm still hoping to get a couple of these, but I can see I'll just have to close them gently until I can work out a fix.

I hate blade rap! I’ve got 2 bull nose that do it.

Flawed design. Blade too long, handle too narrow, spring to strong. It's almost always going to have blade rap. Only way I can think of mending the issue is to delete the back spring and have it function on either a ball detent (potential for front flipper) or a liner lock. I can't see any other way of doing it with the knifes dimensions being the way they are.