Like the Stag Camillus #41? Check out These Two!

[orvet]

I finished these two today for a customer. If you like the nice thin day on the Camillus #41 I posted yesterday you should like this Buck 303, also recovered with some Henckels stag.
I want to say a word about this knife, this is the first Buck I have worked on was not made by Camillus or Schrade and I am really not a fan! The handles are attached with no pins, just adhesive. The nickel silver seems to be much softer than that which I normally find on Schrade, Case, Camillus another knife brands. It really doesn’t look very repairable to me. The biggest problem was getting the handle material off. Normally a couple hours in the freezer and you can usually deliver a sharp tap into the handle material and it will fall right off. Not so with this handle material! It appears to be bonded to the liner. After several attempts to remove the handle material semi-intact I gave up and ground it off with a rasp and then filed it flat. As much problem as I had with the Buck, I still thought it looked nice I was finished.

You like gnarly fat stag? So does my customer! He wanted this incline wrote knife customized. He wanted the gnarliest stag I had and I believe this set of stag handles won the gnarliest award! If you’ve never worked with stag that had this much figuring on top of it can be very sharp especially where it’s been cut or sanded. Basically I had to grind about a quarter inch off of the stag and even then I had to use sandpaper, grinding burs and abrasive burs as well as hand sanding to get the sharp edges off of these little pieces of antler that stuck up to form the handle.

So here’s something for the thin and delicate stag lover and something for the fat and gnarly stag lover.



I hope you enjoy the pictures.

[Doc B]

Wow! I too, love gnarly! That knife is GNARLY! The Buck is gonna be a nice carry!!!

[Reverand]

Those are great, Dale. Beautuful work! (Which we expect, and you do not disappoint!)

[TPK]

Nice work Dale! I'll go with the thinner Buck but they both look great!

Tom

[Meridian_Mike]

WOW.... that gnarly stag is something else! Those grooves are ULTRA deep! WOW!

I will have to go ahead and admit Dale..... The thickness of the gnarly one is a little more than I like but it is still a beauty!
The thin one looks like a really nice one to tote everyday!

Great job Dale!

[doglegg]

Dale as always, work worthy of the Orvet tag. I like them both but I think I lean toward the gnarly one.

[glennbad]

As you know, I am not a fan of fat stag. However, those side shot of the stag, they look perfect to me! Your customer is sure to be pleased!

I have not had a love affair with the Bucks either. Other than 110's, I find them horrible to work on. They are put together in the most maddening way, it is is very frustrating. On the ones I worked on, the bolsters aren't even soldered on, they just fall right off when you pull the pins.

Very nice finished product on yours!

[RevolverGuy]

Thanks for sharing your input on the newer Buck slipjoints. I had wondered if pins were used and you answered my curiosity. Also that stag. Wow.

[carrmillus]

...man, I wish my eyes were good enough to do this stuff!!!!!...... ...................