How rare are these 531 knives?

Hoyt Buck produced the first Buck Knife in 1902. Hoyt and his son Al moved to San Diego and set up shop as H.H. Buck & Son in 1947. Al Buck revolutionized the knife industry in 1964 with the infamous Model 110 Folding Hunter. The company's innovative history and attention to quality have made for many great collectible knives.
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sakoblade
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How rare are these 531 knives?

Post by sakoblade »

Hi!

Recently purchased a large collection of folding knives from various makers.

I’m in Sweden and haven’t much knowledge of Buck per se, more than I know they make great knives. I am more into Case and a few others to be honest.

In the collection was this one, a 531 with number 206 of 250 from 1990. Ad far as I can tell it’s new and never used.

I’ve seen some prices on ebay but those are rarely true to the real value and I wonder about this Limited Edition.

Is it real or fake? Sorry for bad pics today.

All the best!

Jim
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Railsplitter
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Re: How rare are these 531 knives?

Post by Railsplitter »

It looks like the 1990 Buck Collectors Club knife. I would say it's legit and a fine knife to own.
Rick T.

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Proud member of the Buck Collectors Club Inc.
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KLJ77
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Re: How rare are these 531 knives?

Post by KLJ77 »

Sakoblade,

Rick is correct, it is a 1990 LE BCCI annual knife. Here's an excerpt about the knife and why it has the 1988 stamp with a 'dot'. This excerpt is taken from a BCCI newsletter written by Vernon Taylor...all credits to him.

Keep in mind, Mr. Taylor wrote this in 1990.

MODEL 531 NEWS: There are two distinctly different blade marks that appear on the original 531. The Club knives are marked 531^ with a dot. As are most of the production knives. There are some that bear a mark that indicates 1989 as the year of manufacture, instead of the special 1988 mark. It looks like this; 531V. If you have one of these, it is definitely more rare than the ^ with a dot mark. I am only aware of about 19 of these knives. The difference in the two knives is the orientation of the lock within the frame. So the only visible difference is the blade stamp. If you operate both knives, the difference in the way the lock operates is subtle, but can be noticed. The range in the way the lock was oriented in the knife was an attempt to overcome the problems with the lock. Again, in my personal opinion, the lock was fine, but Buck knives, as a major corporation, just could not take any chances. There were six of the V marked knives in the club knives and they are put aside for you real Bucklock (531) fans. Buck is now in production on the new model 531, which has a conventional lock, but located as a mid frame lock. This knife looks very much like the original 531, but is a little thicker and very obviously has a different locking mechanism. The blade stamp indicates that it is still a 531. The knives currently being produced are marked 531 X since they were made in 1990. Henceforth, I shall refer to the original 531 as the SAWBY lock model, since the lock was invented by Idaho custom knife maker, Scott Sawby.

Hope this bit of history on your knife gives you great comfort in knowing it is NOT a fake, but the REAL DEAL. You have a very nice Limited Edition keepsake.
LJ

"The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are now outnumbered by those that vote for a living."
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