Alpha Hunter

JPD1998

Gold Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2004
Messages
3,567
I bought a Rosewood Alpha Hunter Folder over the weekend and can't say enough good things about it.

The quality is exceptional; overall it's just a wonderful product,even the leather belt sheath is top shelf.

The only question I have is regarding the overall finish of the stainless steel. All the steel surfaces including the blade have a "mottled" appearance. Almost like its water stained. Is this the same as a "tumbled" finish? The rubber handled version I saw in the 420 steel appeared to have more of a mirror finish.

Also this knife would look great with more handle options , like maybe stag or bone in the ATS-34 version and carbon fiber or G10 in the 420 version. If Buck offered the 420 version in G10 or carbon fiber, I'd probably buy another one.

Still it's a great knife....
 
...I agree that the 277 is a truly great knife. My 279 with the rubber scales is indeed more "mirror" like than the (2) 277's I have. I also have a Walnut scaled 279 that looks more like the 277's..."Mottled" is as good a description as any ...LOL...In any case...they are both terrific folders...especially the ATS-34 or 154CM versions...:thumbup:
 
I've been looking at that Alpha for awhile now...but am leary of the liner lock. I'm worried that that lock mechanism could be easily activated during heavy/rough use. I've had that happen with swap meet specials. Any thoughts or concerns for this? Thanks.
 
I have never had my 277 fold up on me unless I was doing it on purpose.

There was some discussion and some pics of some strange spots on the blade of a 277. I guess this could have been called "mottled", donno.... But in that case, some of us lightly polished the spots away with Brasso.

On the sheath, note that it can be carried horizontal as well as vertical. Horizontal is my preference. Doesn't drag on the seats as I get in and out of the truck.

You will like the Alpha's
 
panmann said:
I've been looking at that Alpha for awhile now...but am leary of the liner lock. I'm worried that that lock mechanism could be easily activated during heavy/rough use. I've had that happen with swap meet specials. Any thoughts or concerns for this? Thanks.

The liner lock appears a little thin when compared to the overall robust frame design, but I did some research after I purchased the knife and found that this has been addressed by Buck, the liner steel is supposed to be extremely hard.
Regarding lockup, the lock does not seem to be placed in a way that would cause you to inadvertently unlock it.

The blade opens very smoothly and can be easily adjusted, when I first got the knife , I felt a slight amount of side to side play , tightening the pivot about 1/32 of a turn fixed it.

The quality of this knife is light years ahead of any swap meet specials, IMO the $40.00 rubber handled version is too.
 
Pack Rat said:
I have never had my 277 fold up on me unless I was doing it on purpose.

There was some discussion and some pics of some strange spots on the blade of a 277. I guess this could have been called "mottled", donno.... But in that case, some of us lightly polished the spots away with Brasso.

On the sheath, note that it can be carried horizontal as well as vertical. Horizontal is my preference. Doesn't drag on the seats as I get in and out of the truck.

You will like the Alpha's

I looked more carefully at the blade and frame , you can see that they are two different types of steel. The blade has more of a "sparkled , speckled" finish while the frame has what I would describe as a water stained look. I compared it to my Camilllus Dominator and the while the blade steel is S30V, it has a similar speckled appearance.

I was just curious if the frame steel on the 277 was different than the rubber handled version. I still might pick one of those up too....
 
I see virtually no differences in my 279 and 277. Frames or blades. Both are 2003.
 
If you could email me a close up of the "mottled" blade finish I might be able to figure out what it is. It might just be the standard finish and it might be something that we need to fix.
 
Joe Houser said:
If you could email me a close up of the "mottled" blade finish I might be able to figure out what it is. It might just be the standard finish and it might be something that we need to fix.

Joe

I'll try to get an accurate picture tonight
 
I had a similar problem with a Alpha Dorado. On mine one side had a nice polish and the other was mottled. It was mainly on the handle and not the ATS-34 blade.
I was going to attach a picture I took of it before I buffed it out but I just discovered that the attachments feature has been disabled.

Oh well maybe later......
 
MikeSEA said:
I had a similar problem with a Alpha Dorado. On mine one side had a nice polish and the other was mottled. It was mainly on the handle and not the ATS-34 blade.
I was going to attach a picture I took of it before I buffed it out but I just discovered that the attachments feature has been disabled.

Oh well maybe later......

Were you able to buff it out?
 
...Ya know, I mistakenly thought you were talking just about the handle steel. I do have somewhat of a "mottled" effect on a couple of my 277's but it's only on the handle and NOT on the blades of any of them. Because it appears to be just the way it oughta be, I don't find it offensive. If it was on the blades I might think differently though...
 
I tried to find that thread with the pics of the spotted blades.
Maybe someone with better memory, or search skills, can find that thread.
Curious if those pics reflect the "mottle" being yakked about here.
Goose.
 
DarrylS said:
...Ya know, I mistakenly thought you were talking just about the handle steel. I do have somewhat of a "mottled" effect on a couple of my 277's but it's only on the handle and NOT on the blades of any of them. Because it appears to be just the way it oughta be, I don't find it offensive. If it was on the blades I might think differently though...

Yes I was asking about the handle too....

It doesn't bother me I just noticed a difference between the one I bought and the rubber handled version in the clam pack. Mine was in a yellow box behind the counter.

buck.jpg
 
...yep...I have the exact same condition...I don't find it too obnoxious...The blades on mine do not show the condition though so that may be why it doesn't seem so apparent to me...It does look sorta media blasted to me on my handles just like you're showing on your nice pictures...
 
Yes JPD I was able to buff it out on my alpha 271 but I'm not certain that it was the same condition that you have. On mine the finish was glossy in some areas and dull/mottled in others. And it was only like that on one side of the knife. I'll try to post a picture when I can.
BYW, when I removed the rosewood scale on the one side to buff it out, I lost one of the screws. I checked everywhere but had no luck finding a replacement. It's a #2-56 Torx Button Head, pretty rare. I finally called Buck to see if I could buy a few.....I figured that as I was dumb enough to loose it I should at least pay for a new one.:o Well the customer service girl at Buck tells me no problem and no charge and then proceeds to send me a dozen. I'm sure I could have just sent the knife back and they would have made it right. But for me, the buffing did the trick.
It's that kind of response and support by the people at Buck that keeps me coming back.:)
I love both my 277 and it's little sister the 271 and I've never had any issues with the liner locks. Very reliable.:thumbup:
Mike
 
MikeSEA said:
Yes JPD I was able to buff it out on my alpha 271 but I'm not certain that it was the same condition that you have. On mine the finish was glossy in some areas and dull/mottled in others. And it was only like that on one side of the knife. I'll try to post a picture when I can.
BYW, when I removed the rosewood scale on the one side to buff it out, I lost one of the screws. I checked everywhere but had no luck finding a replacement. It's a #2-56 Torx Button Head, pretty rare. I finally called Buck to see if I could buy a few.....I figured that as I was dumb enough to loose it I should at least pay for a new one.:o Well the customer service girl at Buck tells me no problem and no charge and then proceeds to send me a dozen. I'm sure I could have just sent the knife back and they would have made it right. But for me, the buffing did the trick.
It's that kind of response and support by the people at Buck that keeps me coming back.:)
I love both my 277 and it's little sister the 271 and I've never had any issues with the liner locks. Very reliable.:thumbup:
Mike

Thanks Mike
I polished the blade with Metal Glo and it has a much more consistent finish, I'll play around with the frame on the weekend.

It doesn't really bother me , I was more curious than anything else, I thought the finish might be that way intentionally.
As I mentioned earlier the blade on my Camillus Dominator has the same appearance.

It's good to hear about Buck's CS, I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to buy another Buck knife.
 
I took a look at the pictures and they only made me more curious. I would like to talk to Jeff H. when he gets back and see what he can contribute. It looks like the tumble finish but there is a little blur in the photo so I am not very confident in that theory.
The last time i checked, we were going with an "as ground" finish on knives meant to be used. The blade is media tumbled, then hollow ground and we leave the hollow ground finish as is. The picture looks almost like it was tumbled AFTER hollow grind so I may be all wet on that.
I better find someone that works at Buck to get the correct answer. :rolleyes:
 
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