Generalist
Gold Member
- Joined
- May 10, 2025
- Messages
- 156
Hi All,
For those interested in pre-factory development of the fledgling company, you may have noticed something strange in the 1954 catalog. Instead of the usual Morena address (Al and Ida's home), the 1954 catalog references the following address:
9120 Wakarusa Street, La Mesa, California
Buck's historian provided some interesting information regarding the reason:
"1272 Morena Blvd was the home address of Al and Ida Buck, where H.H. Buck & Sons was headquartered. The Wakarusa address was the home address of Charles Shapter, Al Buck's brother-in-law. Following the death of Al's oldest daughter, Al briefly stepped away from knife-making and Charles took up the mantle of business operations for about a year. This is also the era when the 'mystery knives' started to show up with a notably different look to their finish--particularly the pommel shape. 1954 was the first year of standard production (aside from custom orders) for the 'Personal', the 'Professional', the 'Field and Trench' and 'The Fighter'."
Here are some excerpts from the 1954 catalog. If you find this type of history interesting, I strongly recommend joining BCCI. You can view old catalogs and model history there.
And this is an example of one of the knives from this period, presumably made by Charles Shapter at his Wakarusa Street home. I believe it to be the first iteration of the 110 Professional, which evolved into the 103 skinner. Note the 3.5" rather than 4" blade on the original Professional pictured.
Thank you Buck (Tony) for the history lesson!
For those interested in pre-factory development of the fledgling company, you may have noticed something strange in the 1954 catalog. Instead of the usual Morena address (Al and Ida's home), the 1954 catalog references the following address:
9120 Wakarusa Street, La Mesa, California
Buck's historian provided some interesting information regarding the reason:
"1272 Morena Blvd was the home address of Al and Ida Buck, where H.H. Buck & Sons was headquartered. The Wakarusa address was the home address of Charles Shapter, Al Buck's brother-in-law. Following the death of Al's oldest daughter, Al briefly stepped away from knife-making and Charles took up the mantle of business operations for about a year. This is also the era when the 'mystery knives' started to show up with a notably different look to their finish--particularly the pommel shape. 1954 was the first year of standard production (aside from custom orders) for the 'Personal', the 'Professional', the 'Field and Trench' and 'The Fighter'."
Here are some excerpts from the 1954 catalog. If you find this type of history interesting, I strongly recommend joining BCCI. You can view old catalogs and model history there.
And this is an example of one of the knives from this period, presumably made by Charles Shapter at his Wakarusa Street home. I believe it to be the first iteration of the 110 Professional, which evolved into the 103 skinner. Note the 3.5" rather than 4" blade on the original Professional pictured.
Thank you Buck (Tony) for the history lesson!
Attachments
Last edited:
