All About Pocket Knives

So what is eveyones opinion of BUCK knives? My daily carry has been a 112 for over 10 years. And I bought a like new 119 (w/leather sheath) at a pawnshop yesterday for $10.
But I understand they have moved MFG'ering to Asia. Do they have their own plant, or are they contracting w/someone? Is quality still the same.

$10 for a 119 Not all of BUCK's knives are made overseas. They are not as good as the US made ones. They still have there plant in Idaho, making both standard and custom knives.

the american made bucks are and always will be a great knife and I always have room in my stable for more buck knives. I have 20 or more.

I recently got 2 Buck 110's with CPM S30V steel blades. The have a black coating on the blade, probably a nitride of some sort. These are the best Buck 110's I have ever owned, of course I believe that is the best steel available for knives. Other steels being worked on show great potential. I am less than impressed with the Chinese Bucks , the 110 & 112 and customs are made in Idaho I believe. I saw a Buck with CPM 154 (American version of Hitatchi's ATS-34 AND A CLEANER STEEL) for the same price as the S30V steel.
CPM 154 is a great steel, much better than Buck's 420HC but if I can get CPM S30V for the same price, that's what I will get.

BTW, Buck and Chinese just sounds so wrong in the same sentence.

I was at Kmart the other day. I looked at the knife display. There was a nice looking Buck stockman in a blister pack hanging in there for $17.00. I thought that is inexpensive and I should at least look at it. The clerk unlocked the display and handed me the Buck. It did look nice but it had "made in China" on the package. That surprised me. I did not buy it as I suspect the quality of the blade steel is probably not good. Looks like it would be ok to cut string with tho? I did expect more from Buck, at least "made in the USA". Guess that's too much to ask for in this day and age.

Fatstrat wrote:My daily carry has been a 112 for over 10 years. .

I am a fan of the 112 to, I got this one in the mail this week. Nickel Silver and Sambar Stag!

I posted these before, Buck 110's with 420HC with mammoth tooth handles. Every time I walk by them it reminds me of the shop time I spent with my son. He did one of these, I chose the 110 to modify because it's fairly easy to just rehandle these, especially for a beginner. The size of the knife is helpful for a first knife rehandle as you don't have to take them completely apart for a pinless rehandle. I am starting to think about making a modification, the Buck 110 has a single piece for the liners and bolsters. I have been thinking about making an anodized titanium liner with mosaic damascus bolsters. Sometimes I like to carry a fancy knife. I do believe he did a fine job.

nice ones guys, since we're showing our customs, heres my turquoise one I did

HuKK said "Sometimes I like to carry a fancy knife.

I am sure most of us do too.
I fell the same way about caring for them.
You can say most custom or ONE of a KIND knives just give you a lift.
The day you pull her out of you pocket to show some one. It's like a small HIGH.
It's just a different felling to carry a ONE of a KIND knife.
This must be the felling you folks get by rehandling them for your self.

MM, I really like the buck on the right. Your tempting me to send my 110 to you for a rehandle like that. Got my Boker from you the other day, looks great. I've carried my knife and keys in the same pocket for 35 years, but had to separate them when I got the Boker back.

Well, Nickel Silver is more expensive to buy in raw materials and there is absolutely no silver in it. Nickel Silver is a metal alloy of copper with nickel and sometimes zinc or may have antimony, tin, lead or cadmium. Other common names for this alloy are German Silver, Paktong, New Silver and Alpacca.
It is named for its silvery appearance, but would be more properly named nickel brass as copper and zinc form brass. Many alloys are named for the nickle content with 18% being common in the knife supply catalogs I have. If there is enough zinc in the alloy, then some alloys of Nickel Silver are considered stainless.

Industrial names for Nickel Silver are a combination of copper then nickel. Such as 60-18 would be 60% copper and 18 percent Nickel.

So really the difference is the nickel, brass is primarily copper and zinc.

Hukk thanks for that info..

I made me think...

I had some Schrade lockbacks that had some bad scratches in the bolsters. So I took real fine sandpaper to rub then out. When I did I noted that the silver color was gone and they looked like Bass bolsters.
Then I too my Flitz cream to polish them and they turned back to a Silver color. This happened on 3 Schrades. So now I under stand why.

Did Buck make the 112 w/ brass and nickel at the same time, or can this be used to date a knife to a particular timeframe?

Buck made them at the same time. Here is a link with the date code Buck uses. There is a symbol next to the model number, I believe.

http://www.buckknives.com/collectors_vintage.php

Scroll about half way down the page. 1986 is the first year given except there is additional information on Buck 110/112 going back to 1974. The codes go to 2006, 2007 should be an arrow pointing straight down. With the exception of the Buck 110/112's any knife without a symbol is pre 1986. The site has far more detailed than I have here. I guess I would say that for a Buck fan this link is important to have bookmarked.

Thanks so much. That's good to know. I'm learning ALLOT here! Kinda had me going for a minute tho. My knife has a date code of 2000. But I knew I owned the knife for several years prior to that. Then I remembered that I had broken the blade and Buck replaced it (free) a few years ago.

I seem to recall Buck replacing some blades with blades made of BG-42, an excellent steel, much better than the 420HC. I don't recall why or what the story was.
Does anyone recall why Buck was using BG-42 replacement blades?

It's not as good of a steel as CPM S30V, but better by far than the regular steel as I mentioned earlier.

I think they offered that option as an upgrade. Maybe for around $30.00 IIRC. I think they stopped after the move, when it was slowing down the work in the Custom Shop.

Not 100% on that.

Bill