All About Pocket Knives

I just have to show my favorite Buck, it's this Bucklite 426 that I got for just buying seed corn back in the early 80's from my Golden Harvest dealer in Bradshaw,Ne. When I go out deer hunting in a couple of weeks it will be on my belt. It has gutted many deer, antelope and several elk and has never failed me. Light to carry and keeps a good edge. It probably is not collectable since it's condition is not "new and unused" to say the least. No questions, just proud of the ole knife. Terry

Terry, I don't think any of those Bucklites will be collectable for another one or two hundred years but you are right, they are fine, fine knives.

That is a nice knife - looks like the first generation handle design (it would have to be at that age). You have kept the blade in terrific condition to be used that much too - nice job! That's one I haven't seen - must be thousands of variations of logo's applied to those knives. OH

Knice knife!! I just scored one today from 1989!

Cool Scott - your's has the second generation style handles. I have two Bucklite's, both the short version 422 (based on the 112). OH

Thanks for all the conversations and photo's of your bucklites! Does anyone know for sure what kind of steel was used in these older Buck 426's? I have a newer 110 and 112 but the old 426 seems to better the better steel for holding and sharpening an edge. Thanks again, terry

Terry, exact dates on each model of Buck Knife are not available as to when each steel was used. Here are two articles I cut and saved from the Buck Forum at Blade sometime ago - they were written by C.J. Buck of the Buck family at Buck Knives - this is how it unfolded in general, it's the best answer I have for your Buck steel question:

A while back someone asked about the steel history. It took me a little while to pin Chuck Sr. down with all his travel, but here it is...
My grandfather and father did make knives out of files up to 1961 when we incorporated. Grandpa Hoyt died in 1949 and my father continued making the knives using Lignum Vitae wood for the handles. In the 40’s he used Lucite and you know how that looks with the new Buck replica Hoyt Buck knife.
For the collectors, all of these wood handle and Lucite knives were made primarily out of files. Few were power hacksaw blades. You are correct that in 1961 we started using 440C, which is a very high-carbon, high chrome steel. I think the carbon is at 1.02 with a chrome of about 18%. It was an excellent steel but the carbides on the edge were very large and dulled reasonable quick. That is why we moved to the 425 modified (around 1985) so that the “homogenized” steel with the smaller carbides would not affect the edge so badly when they wore off the edge. (We went to 420hc in 1994)
True stainless is like tableware made with nickel and absolutely has no carbon whatsoever, and obviously would not hold an edge at all. This is not what we used. It was not a stainless; it was a rust-resistant material even today, of course.
You could tell when a knife was made and whether it was made of files. The files would be the ones with the wood and/or Lucite handles. We have made wooden handles and we are making them now, but these I think are a copy from the page out of our book that shows the different emblems next to the model numbers and would give him the actual year it was made. Anything made from 1961 and forward is made out of a 400 series rust-resistant steel.
I hope this answers the question, let me know if we need more..
Jeff Hubbard, Buck Knives
[email protected] posted on Buck sub-forum, Blade Forums 6/24/1999.


Originally Posted by CJ Buck (Blade Forums).
There are numerous threads on Buck's steel choices but I will summarize here...
My father pioneered 440C into production knives first as forgings and then conventionally blanked. 440C held a great edge but was prone to rust, pitting and breaking half moons out of the blades of users.
In 1981 we switched to 425M. It was a hard choice as our brand was built on the edge performance. The little we lost in edge performance we more than made up for in ductility and corrosion resistance. And we gained the ability to Fineblank which turned out very precise parts and better action in our folders then we had ever gotten.
420HC is a very close approximation of 425M and we get every ounce of performance out of it through our heat treating. You have got to remember that the steel you use, the balance of ductility and edge retention, is maxed out in Heat Treat. Folks out there have had bad experiences with 420J, a material popular with Asian knives, that does not perform even close to Our Paul Bos heat treated 420HC.
This started as a summary but turned into a soap box...and hopefully not too much of a commercial...

While we are at it, here are my two Bucklite 422. The black handled one is blade marked 422, the orange handled version is blade marked 112. I understand that is was common enough; if 422 marked blades ran out during production they simply used the 112 marked blades (the two are identical except for the tang stamp). OH

Ps Based on the two short articles above, my black Bucklite has a 425MOD steel blade and my orange Bucklite has a 420HC steel blade. In other Buck Knives I own (and use) I have all three types of steel - honestly, in the use they were intended for (skinning and cutting up game animals), I can tell absolutely no difference in performance. The older, 440C knives are harder to sharpen (also partly due to their funky blade profiles), but all three steels get just as sharp and last just as long for me (I always clean my knives and touch up the edges after each use).

Look at the Colonels orange one and you've seen mine. I won't clutter up the place with one more photograph.