All About Pocket Knives

Is there any way to tell if Camillus made a knife under contract for Buck? Not all the Buck I have has the symbol to show what year it was made. While the exact year is good to know, I’d be more interested in finding out which may have been made by Camillus. I’m a fan of both Bucks and Camillus’. Thanks.

OSCAR wrote:Is there any way to tell if Camillus made a knife under contract for Buck? Not all the Buck I have has the symbol to show what year it was made. While the exact year is good to know, I’d be more interested in finding out which may have been made by Camillus. I’m a fan of both Bucks and Camillus’. Thanks.

Not sure if the post below will help or not but it might.
viewtopic.php?f=53&t=57166&p=651613&hil ... ns#p651613

OSCAR wrote:Is there any way to tell if Camillus made a knife under contract for Buck? Not all the Buck I have has the symbol to show what year it was made. While the exact year is good to know, I’d be more interested in finding out which may have been made by Camillus. I’m a fan of both Bucks and Camillus’. Thanks.

This is all the info I could find. From my 2006 Camillus dealer catalog.
Click the picture to enlarge.

It appears that you already know the first clue, Buck slip joints made by other U.S. manufacturers do not have the date code Buck stamped on all the slip joints that Buck made themselves. The rare exceptions are some of Buck's first slip joints slipped out without date codes late in 1985. Another thing that quickly identifies Buck Stockmans as not being made by Camillus is three back springs. Buck started out making their own Stockmans with two back springs but after a few years changed to three.

Starting in 1966 Schrade made Buck's first slip joints. Production shifted to Camillus in 1971. One way to tell Schrade production from Camillus is Schrade's blade pivot pins do not extend all the way through the bolsters. While buffing can make the ends of Camillus' pins hard to spot they are exposed.

In this brand specific sub-forum on page 74 of the thread titled What's your newest addition to your Buck family & why? there is information on which years contractors made different 300 series slip joint models.

Schrade initially made the 301 and 303 and was replaced by Camillus early on.
Buck took over production of the most popular models 301, 303, 305, and 309 in late 1985
All other model numbers listed were made only by Camillus, some well into the 1990's ending with the 334 in 2000.
Variations of the 301 and 303 can be found made by all three... Schrade, Camillus, and Buck.

301 Stockman
303 Cadet
305 Lancer
307 Wrangler
309 Companion
311 Slim Trapper
313 Muskrat
315 Yachtsman
317 Trailblazer
319 Rancher
321 Bird Knife
322 Congress
329 Trapper
331 Granddaddy Barlow
332 Small Barlow
333 California Toothpick
334 Millennium Trapper

OleBuck:
Is there a code, such as Buck or Case on the tang? Is there a way to date them ? Thanks

Case?? .....all are marked BUCK on the tang.
See this thread for good information.

viewtopic.php?f=53&t=57166

New_Windsor_NY wrote:This is all the info I could find. From my 2006 Camillus dealer catalog.
Click the picture to enlarge.

Pretty sure the Millennium Trapper c.2000 was the last knife Camillus made for Buck.