And The Winner Is,,,,,

M

Mitch W.

Joined
Aug 11, 2010
Messages
755
For the late commers, a review:

Bought on the auction site
http://www.ebay.com/itm/140731185453?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

A couple of photos after a quick visit to the polishing wheel (to get the scratches out)

2012-04-06_20-52-31_115.jpg


2012-04-06_20-52-54_545.jpg


Now to get the mothers and polish it out by hand. BTW, The bolsters are Nickel Silver. The blade is also full and looks to have not been used.
 
Thats a nice 1994 Duke. Glad you got it. I knew I'd read about the switch to nickel being earlier but couldn't find my note on that. Thanks, DM
 
Last edited:
Some of those came with a sheath, did yours? Which were stamped '500' on the back. DM
 
For the sake of accuracy I had gone through the Buck catalogs on the BCCI website...in 1994 the 500 and the rest of it's siblings were described as stainless steel liners and bolsters.
2001 the 500 still listed in Buck catalog as being stainless steel liners and bolsters.
It would seem that your knife has Stainless Steel bolsters...

Your knife has a 1994 date stamp, so I am wondering how you determined that the bolsters are Nickel Silver ?
 
BTW Mitch. Very Nice Duke :thumbup:
I'm torn between it and the 112 as my favorite Buck model ...
 
That could be why I didn't find a note to that effect. Mitch, what leads you to believe the liners & bolsters are nickel silver? DM
 
I'm thinking they are NS because I started with nothing other than a little Mothers on a rag and nearly got one bolster to shine rigbt back up with relatively little effort. Plus, I don't have the proper wheel for polishing SS.
 
I can understand why you would think that now Mitch...but the stainless used on the bolsters will polish rather quickly...
When restoring my Duke I thought my bolsters were NS...UNTILL I started sanding out the deep gouges...progress was slow at best while sanding, but when I went to the buffing stage it amazed me how quickly they polished up...
An experiment could be conducted on a SS pot lid...see how quickly a small section can be polished.
My money is on what BUCK had printed in their catalog year after year...
 
David Martin said:
Mitch, I know you also like your 112's. How do you compare these two models? DM
Click to expand...

On the surface ( because I don't have a 112 for comparison with me), it looks to me that the 500 is better suited for someone that wears business type slacks as the narrow guage along with the curved shape would conceal itself nicely in your pocket thereby not freaking "knifeaphobics" out. I will compare them side by side when I get back to the house.
 
They have the appearance of SS, the NS bolsters seem to be off colored just a little and the 501's that I have with NS the pins are very noticeable. A while ago I picked an orange and used my knife to help peel it and was unable to clean it right then and just put it back in my pocket. Pulled it out later and couldn't believe how much it had tarnished the NS, SS wouldn't have done that. Since the knife is an EDC it quickly polished itself back to normal.
 
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