102 woodsman

Bert, I didn't look closely at the photo you posted. Going back I see now it is a barrel nut as well. Plus, it has the deep finger grooves and of lignum wood. A rare find. The handles on the second generation 107 Scouts have jet black ebony and look like your lignum wood. Yes, there were problems with that wood and it was dropped. Which makes it harder to find one. DM
 
Going back I see now it is a barrel nut as well. Plus, it has the deep finger grooves and of lignum wood. A rare find.
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-DM

David, as much as I would like to agree with you that my knife is a very rare barrel nut with lignum vitae handles, I have to disagree. Here is why. Most of what I know about the real early 100 series knives is from the histories that Joe Houser wrote. Joe said that the "Barrel Nut" knives were produced from 1961 through 1963. There were three types, but they all had two things in common. The blade stamp was an inverted "BUCK" on the right side of the blade and the handle material was either black phenolic or rarely white melamine. My knife has a non-inverted blade stamp of "BUCK" on the left side and an ebony handle. Therefore, even without seeing the barrel nut in the photo, it cannot be a barrel nut 102. The photo doesn't show enough detail to tell whether the wood is lignum vitae or ebony and the color of a small piece of wood is not the most reliable way of identifying a species of wood. Grain pattern and structure are much better identifiers. You will just have to accept my statement that it is ebony.

I will stick with my statement that it is an ebony handled pre-factory 102 from about 1957 through 1960.

Bert
 
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I still have the 102 I inherited from my father. He used it hard on his farm. It is light and practical: all of what you need and nothing you don't.
 
Bert, I have colored photos of many of those early models and they are so handsome to look through. And yes, I don't think the 50's knives were of the barrel nut construction. They were pinned but the pin can be hard to find, like yours. These are HK's knives. Another great member disappeared from this Forum. DM
 
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David,

If a person had only those six knives, it would be an impressive collection.

Bert
 
Buck did so many different configurations from the late 30's to incorporation in the early 60's. You can find barrel nuts, pinned pommels, screw on pommels, leather spacers, no spacers, brass spacers ect. Don't ever be closed minded when it comes to Buck and they way they did things...
 
Hello Buck Knife friends,

I looked at the nice Buck 102 knife the other evening in C__'s here in my town. They had one in the glass case that I could handle and it came with the black handle. I had never handled one before! They did NOT have any other handle versions in stock. I think that they had three of the same Buck 102 knives on the hook all sealed up in their packages.

I am seriously considering purchasing this knife and/or another Buck FB knife. I liked the black handle and I do not know if the other standard 'handle' version would be better or not. I think that it comes down to the looks and what a person likes but I am NOT positive nor an expert in Buck knives or most knives. I do own a few Buck knives and a couple of other knives now too. My husband gifted some others to me recently.

My husband wanted me to get the Buck 102 and another knife at the same time. I told him that I wanted to think about it. It was his evening off from work (24/7 job) so it was a fun trip looking for knives!

I always say that I want to SEE and handle a knife before I buy it just as I do with any other object!

I did find out that the pocket knife that I liked ONLINE (Another website!) was quite different in person to me and how it FELT in my hands.

I found out that another brand of knife was nice but not great compared to what I thought it would be in my hands.

I thought that I would share this with you even if most of you already own a Woodsman 102 or know all about Buck knives!

I am leaning more and more into FB knives too. Four or so (?) inches or less!

Thank you for the ear.

Sincerely,

Cate
PS: I did NOT know if I was allowed to mention the store or not so I deleted part of the name.
 
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I bought my 102 way back in 1968 or 1969 from a fairly new company called Cabela's. It was a very small catalog back then and cost all of $13. But that was a lot of money to a teenager growing in the sticks of WV! It has be thru several states and a couple of countries and has never let me down, it's in the kitchen now razor sharp. GREAT knife!
 
I guess I'm just not meant to own a 102 at this time. I've had not one, but 2 lost in the mail! I've always had great luck with the river site until now.
Both times, they make it to the big post office in my state from Indiana in 2 days, and then they sit and sit and somehow get lost there and never make it any further? I guess some postman out there has a thing for Buck knives too. First time they reordered it, this time I'm just getting my money back and I think I will wait until I get to a store that carries them so I can just buy one myself without all the hassle.
 
JEC, that is terrible luck! If you are fairly close to Memphis I'm sure they will be in stock at that Egyptian building near the big river. OH
 
I don't think I've ever had anything lost in the mail before. I at least got my money back without trouble and I'll be able to pick one up in person on vacation in a few weeks anyway. I did have a couple of knives I was thinking of sending in to buck to get rebladed, but I think I'll wait awhile.
 
jec88 said:
I don't think I've ever had anything lost in the mail before. I at least got my money back without trouble and I'll be able to pick one up in person on vacation in a few weeks anyway. I did have a couple of knives I was thinking of sending in to buck to get rebladed, but I think I'll wait awhile.[/QUOTE

I order online all time and live across the world in a place known for theft of mailed items. I have never had an issue when they send things expedited with tracking.
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Never really warmed up to the 102 until this last weekend when I found a 3 line four spacer at a resale store. Unfortunately someone cut the flap off the sheath. A sweet little blade. I'll be looking for more of them now.
 
I have a question on the 102. Is there a reason the blade is slightly angled up?

Here's an internet photo as an example...

$_57.JPG
 
Whay not, TAH? Have a look at Post #6 some other 102 look angeld too.

Haebbie
 
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