All About Pocket Knives

I want to know how to tell if the stag on Buck knives was installed by Buck or is after market. Is there a date after which Buck stamped CUSTOM on all the knives they handled with stag?

I don't know that all of the knives out of the Buck Custom Shop or dated or not, I have only sent one knife in for custom work. I sent in a standard 110 and had a BG42 blade put in it.
The tang of my knife was stamped CUSTOM but had no date stamped with it. I have never ordered a knife to be built at the custom shop from components as you can do now. It may be that dating the Custom knife is something they have started recently.

We have a lot of knowledgeable Buck collectors here on AAPK, someone should be along shortly who can answer your question.

Thanks for contributing. Coincidentally my fancy 110 has a BG42 blade. It has stag sides. Although I am not the first owner I'm sure it was a Custom shop assembly since it came in its Custom Shop box with the paper work. I forget if it has a date stamp. I can't check because it is not where I'm at.

There s no tdefinitive answer to this question. All Buck made stag knives are not marked custom. Some are and some aren't. Some have the word custom, some only have the anvil stamp and early stag factory have neither. Rivets are usually factory. Other than that, who knows. C&c stag knives don't have custom or the anvil, but they're factory knives.

Pete

What Pete says us true. I have some relatively new stag knives shipped from Buck that are not marked custom.

The first Buck "Custom" from the custom shop was in 1981. It was a large 903 pattern stag bowie. This knife was made for Cutlery World and came in a walnut presentation box and retailed for $600. From my research there were 3 variations, the prototypes and 1-14 had the brass blade catcher inlaid on the spine of the blade, 15-21 the brass was overlaid with rivets and 22-100 were just brass overlays. The tang was longer than other 903's to accommodate the large brass pommel. Per Leroy Remer (Former Buck custom maker) the stag on the handles was never matched side to side.

Nice knife!!

There was a factory stag 3 dot 112 that sold the other day on ebay. It had only the 3 dot buck stamp but it came with a correct and marked as "stag" 112 box so even some early stag wasn't marked on the blade. The box was custom for the knife being like a 10X series box not the shorter 11X series box but it was Buck marked.

The custom stamp on Buck is very random in my opinion - I've never been able to identify a system for its use. OH

Since I am already logged in. I think a lot of the confusion comes from the Custom Stamp being put on semi-production knives. If someone comes up with a special limited issue it is usually marked Custom, as is groups of knives special ordered with special steel or scales. You or I could contract them to make a fancy 303 (min purchase required) and we might get them to stamp Custom on it. I use to think Custom stamps came from the 'Custom' shop. But, that is not totally correct. If I won a big lottery, I would have a 303 made with s30v and a brown jigged bone scales. But, only a two blade, main clip and a opposite end secondary WARCLIFF blade with 300Bucks etch on it...ha 300

300BUCKS, put me down for two of your special Buck 303 Cadets! OH

Since we're dreaming of spending our lotto winnings, I'd have Buck make a three blade 110 with a 112 clip blade in front and a 110 drop point blade behind the 110 clip blade. Hopefully all nail nicks could be on the marker side. Side covers would be stag and blade steel would be what ever stainless is super duper when I win lotto.

The only way to know for absolute certainty a Buck is a Custom is if it has Custom shop numbers..I have never heard of that being faked. But again not all Custom shop knifes were numbered. But I believe most came with a letter. I collect rare,odd,1of1 112's and have only seen a handful that were numbered. On the BCCI Website the total number of CS 112's was stated to be 127 including only 2 with a Damascus blades..That number is considered too low. In the case of collecting early Bucks with Stag the box,shieth, and paperwork (including a letter or receipt) is important and adds a lot of value. Well matched Stag, especially with a lot of bark, brings the biggest premium.