560 reblade and clean up at Buck

MT_Pokt

MT_Pokt

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Jul 21, 2014
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I sent a high-mileage 1992 560 to buck to bring back to life. As you can see in the photos, this knife was ridden hard and put up wet, many times over. It was given to me in this condition from my cousin and hunting partner. He has another natural finish 560 that Buck was kind enough to put a BG 42 blade on back when they would do such things. I sent it to Buck and asked/begged for an S30V blade but was denied (as I expected). I also asked Buck to remove the black titanium nitride coating since it was chipping away anyway.




I was pretty excited when I got the knife back. Much quicker than I had anticipated. If I remember correctly I got it back within about 3 weeks of sending off.

At first, I was a little disappointed with the finish since they bead blasted the coating off. I've actually grown to like the texture that was left as it provides a little extra traction.

One of the things I noticed right away was that they only blasted the outside of the scales. They didn't disassemble the knife and remove the coating from the inside. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The blade isn't as tight as the other 560 and works nice and smooth with the thumb stud.

The blasting also didn't completely remove the coating in the divots on the scales. I didn't get the feeling that they put much care and effort into this. At least not what I was expecting from them having read all of the great "spa" reviews here.

For what I paid for the re-blade and blasting, I would definitely do it again. This 560 is back on my belt as my EDC and my 110 is back in the drawer.



 
Looks good. The previous owner was sharpening challenged. The new blade gives it a better look. DM
 
You can use a dowel and some fine sandpaper to remove all the coating from the divots. DM
 
I started sanding the spots they missed but found better things to do with my time. I'm not terribly concerned. Form follows function, right?

I don't remember exactly what they charged for the blasting. I believe everything was <$25 (blade + blasting).
 
Sounds like Buck treated you pretty good. For $25 you have a knife that will last another 20+ years of abuse.
 
A re-blade by Buck costs $10 (as late as last month), including a spa treatment. Also, when I sent in my 560Ti about a month ago I was told that they were out of 560 blades and were using current 110 blades for these. When did you have yours done?
 
Was late July when I sent it in. You can see the nail tick is black. It might be safe to assume they used a black coated blade and cleaned the coating off of it too? The young lady I talked to was pretty adamant about replacing the blade with the same that was on it.

I tried to get the upgraded S30V arguing that it was available for the 110 in the custom shop. I thought the 1992 was a 440 blade so I wasn't getting original steel anyway. I'm pretty happy to have 'er back on my belt regardless.

I'll check it more closely tomorrow and report back if need be.
 
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Buck discontinued 440C in 1980-81 and 425M was phased in. 425 steel ran from 81 to 93. So, your blade could be this steel. Which is a upgrade. DM
 
The new blade is stamped "560 C" which is a 1995 date and thus 420HC. My mistake calling the original 440, 425 would have been accurate.

The new blade steel doesn't really matter. Any way you cut it, it's better than the blade it replaced. Besides, I just added a Ergohunter Pro in S30V to my deer hunting pack and she'll be doing all of the "heavy lifting"
 
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