102 woodsman

A few years ago, my son bought a new 102 and that's when I first noticed this strange angle. I thought his knife wasn't assembled properly, then I started noticing the angle on other 102s - new and old.
 
Try cutting something with the 102 and you will understand. It is a small knife, after all. The angle of the blade gets your knuckles out of the way, I believe.
 
DocT said:
Try cutting something with the 102 and you will understand. It is a small knife, after all. The angle of the blade gets your knuckles out of the way, I believe.
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Is that really the reason? There are a lot of other small knives out there and off the top of my head, the 102 is the only one that is angled. Maybe Buck is ahead of the game.
 
TAH, I don't have a clue as to how Buck designed the blade. However, I use my 102 primarily for waterfowl and turkey cleaning - from my perspective in the design you get a lot of belly in the point without being hampered by a wide blade, so it works very nice for cleaning small game. OH
 
TAH said:
Is that really the reason? There are a lot of other small knives out there and off the top of my head, the 102 is the only one that is angled. Maybe Buck is ahead of the game.
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I think so. There are other knives, both large and small, that have the blade angled up for this exact reason. The tip, of course, is highly curved for skinning, but we are talking about the whole blade, here. One of my parangs is angled up so you strike with the blade and you do not hit your hand. One of my old hunting knives is angled like this so that the blade contacts first and not your knuckles. This is important in tight places. The 102 is a well thought out design.

This would be a great knife for Buck to offer in the Custom Shop.
 
Well, I had ordered a 102 and it was lost in the mail. They reordered.....and #2 was lost in the mail. Now 3 weeks later and after they refunded my money, two 102's arrived in the mail. So I think I now have two, one for me and one for my son if I can get hold of the company and see about paying for them. Can't send the extra back now, my 10 year old son loves it! Nice knives! Looking at it makes me ready to go trout fishing and use it, but I think it's supposed to be a washout of a weekend.
 
jec88 said:
Well, I had ordered a 102 and it was lost in the mail. They reordered.....and #2 was lost in the mail. Now 3 weeks later and after they refunded my money, two 102's arrived in the mail. So I think I now have two, one for me and one for my son if I can get hold of the company and see about paying for them. Can't send the extra back now, my 10 year old son loves it! Nice knives! Looking at it makes me ready to go trout fishing and use it, but I think it's supposed to be a washout of a weekend.
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Simply a wonderful little knife. It is a very useful design. No fancy stuff you don't need and just exactly what you do need. Enjoy.
 
TAH said:
Okay, sounds good to me. Thanks!
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If you look at a Canadian, its got the same angled blade, though more so. The parang has this, too. This way, your blade contacts first. These are just two examples.
 
Sorry I'm late to the dance, but I just now noticed this thread. I will say this however;

I have used a Buck 102 since 1069 as my main sheath knife. My first one was purchased art an army PX and used until 1999. It was my go-to knife for most things my pocket knife wouldn't do. By 2000 it was worn down to w very polished toothpick, so the better half surprised me with a gift of a brand new one. That 102 has been in steady service since 2000 as my fishing knife, camping knife, hiking knife, and just in case knife. I've had other sheath knives over the years, but they came and went, usually fairly quickly. This includes a few Randall's that I thought over rated. The humble Buck woodsman was effective, light weight, and a pleasure to use. I love the handle shape and how it fits into the hand. My only criticism is the micarta handle is slick when contacted with blood or fish slime, so I took 220 sand paper and roughed it up and from then on it was great when wet.

I carry a variety of pocket knives daily in a rotation. But I only have one sheath knife, the Buck 102. I gave/sold off all my others, and if my little woodsman doesn't handle it, then it's time for the machete or hatchet. I only need the 102.

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I got my 102 as a jr. high school graduation present. Would've been around 1992 or so and now more than 20 years and a bunch of knives later, that 102 is still what I consider to be the best hunting knife I've ever used. From ducks to hogs to deer, it is just about as close to perfect as I could imagine. The slender blade that still has a belly is as good as it gets for breasting out ducks and geese. The only improvement I could see being made for my personal application would be a kydex sheath because waterfowling conditions can be rough on leather.
 
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