Buck's model 110

[muskrat man]

Vintage 110's are one of my favorite things to collect and if you buy your time you can usually run across the "upside down" tang stampings fairly often. I have found 5 this year roaming the flea markets in search of sharp and pointy things. Here is one of my nicest vintage 110's.

[jb4570]

Vintage 110's are one of my favorite things to collect and if you buy your time you can usually run across the "upside down" tang stampings fairly often. I have found 5 this year roaming the flea markets in search of sharp and pointy things. Here is one of my nicest vintage 110's.

Hi MM,
That's a very nice looking 110

jb4570

[philco]

I'm curious about the upside down tang stamp you mentioned. Can you shed a little light on how and/or why they are upside down. Is the 110 the only Buck that apperar on?

[muskrat man]

no, the "upside down" tang stamp was used on thier fixed blade knives as well as thier model 112 ranger.

[Hukk]

I think the upside down tang stamp dates the knife to when they used 440C steel for the blades, but check me on that - I'm going by memory rather than looking it up. Then they went to 425M blade steel and finally to 420 HC SS. This does not include the CPM S30V or CPM 154 (or was that 154 CM) special edition knives or junk from China (never a 110 or 112). 110's and 112's are still made in the USA. I may still have a Kalinga with an upside down tang stamp.

[Mossdancer]

Hi;
Fresh on my mind from another post. !968 to 1970. The second and third version 110's were produced with BUCK over USA read with blade down. Difference between two and three two had a smaller nail nick and was 1/16" narrower than the three at 1/2". 1971 saw the version three with blade pointed up stamp. Actually Kaleb's knife is quite rare.
moss

[muskrat man]

thanks guys I have 3 or 4 more of the "upside down" bucks in my collection, some nicer some not quite as nice.

[Mossdancer]

Hi:
Someone asked the question regarding Fixed blades with the stamp. Here is an early 119 I just received. Probably due to the pinned pommel it would be 62-63. Some great buys out there now.
moss

[Joe Houser]

Moss,
If I am seeing correctly, that 119 has a tiny dot after the word BUCK? If so, it means it was made around 1967. Right after that, in 1968, the knives would be stamped BUCK, U.S.A.
Fixed bladed Bucks with that dot can be a bit harder to find than those without, since they were made for such a short period of time.
The sheath is a much newer version btw.

[Mossdancer]

Joe:
Thanks for the info. I took another scan and cropped the 119 and a 105 in the same scan. Is this the 1967 dot you are referring to. I never compared these two side by side before. It is really neat to know a quasi exact year 1967. By the way is anything definite about the first USA
stamp, was it in 1968 or sometime in 67? It was for the first Canadian exports was it not? By the way is the sheath shown a Buck there are no marks at all? Thanks a bunch for all the help.
moss

[Joe Houser]

Moss,
Yes, thats the dot stamping. Funny....the 119 is actually double stamped. A stamp like that would get a knife rejected today.
Usually i consider it a sucess when I can nail something down to a one year time frame.
67-68 is the generally agreed upon timeframe for the addition of U.S.A. to the stamp and it was done for the reason you mentioned.
Most of what we know....or think we know, about the older Buck knives we had to piece together with what little data we could find.
I am by nature a pack rat and have managed to glean as much useful info as I could from the many knives, magazine articles, company memos, ect. that clutter up my office.

[Joe Houser]

Forgot to answer your question about the sheath....it does not look like any vintage Buck sheath. Some of the early Buck sheaths, from 1961 through 1964, were not stamped Buck on the leather. Some of them from that timeframe might have the name on the silver snap though.
Hope this helps.