Any love for the 422?

If you are itching for 422 ... Chicago Knife Works has the plain black 422s, maybe "New Old Stock", but still, BNIB, for ~ $17. The also have the 426 for the same price

sshh, don't tell people about my secret source. :) Just kidding. When I first became aware of them, it looked like a scam site to me. But I took a chance and ordered something. And it was OK. I ordered many things in the past from them.

I saw nothing!
I didn't place an order last night either!
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
 
It's likely that's where my dad got mine too! I loved Service Merchandise. My two big early-to-mid 1980s purchases there were my Victorinox Champion and my trusty HP11C calculator. All of the other nerds had HPs when I was a freshman, but I had a little Sharp scientific calculator. After a year of seeing how much more efficient the HPs were with their RPN logic -- plus they were programmable -- I save my money from a part time job and got the HP11C. The cool kids had the 15C, but it was beyond my price range. The super nerds among us had the coveted HP41 in different flavors and yes, they did wear them on their belts!
I started college with a slide rule in 1971. It's a half century in the past but I recall the HP35 was about $350 and the HP45 was $450. When TI came out with the TI55 in I jumped on the $150 intro price, finally affordable my Junior year. Within a year it was sub $50 and no awkward HP reverse notation logic.
addendum: looking at Texas Instruments model history, it must have been the SR-50, not the TI-55 I purchased 1974.

422 RangerLite c.1986
The Royal Rangers is a boys christian youth group loosely modeled on the Boy Scouts.

422-royal-rangers-1_zpscy5aytzi-jpg.1455518

422-royal-rangers-3_zps3lj36nen-jpg.1455520
 
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It's likely that's where my dad got mine too! I loved Service Merchandise. My two big early-to-mid 1980s purchases there were my Victorinox Champion and my trusty HP11C calculator. All of the other nerds had HPs when I was a freshman, but I had a little Sharp scientific calculator. After a year of seeing how much more efficient the HPs were with their RPN logic -- plus they were programmable -- I save my money from a part time job and got the HP11C. The cool kids had the 15C, but it was beyond my price range. The super nerds among us had the coveted HP41 in different flavors and yes, they did wear them on their belts!
I bought a handful of fancy Swiss Army knives to give out as groom's gifts. I bought them at Service Merchandise. The conveyor belt thing was a little odd to me but I bet it cut down on customer theft.
 
I started college with a slide rule in 1971. It's a half century in the past but I recall the HP35 was about $350 and the HP45 was $450. When TI came out with the TI55 in I jumped on the $150 intro price, finally affordable my Junior year. Within a year it was sub $50 and no awkward HP reverse notation logic.

422 RangerLite c.1986
The Royal Rangers is a boys christian youth group loosely modeled on the Boy Scouts.

422-royal-rangers-1_zpscy5aytzi-jpg.1455518

422-royal-rangers-3_zps3lj36nen-jpg.1455520

Whoa! You're talking old school calculators with the old LED displays! #respect

I'm just a youngster! I was a freshman in engineering school in 1983. LCD displays were standard by then.


I bought a handful of fancy Swiss Army knives to give out as groom's gifts. I bought them at Service Merchandise. The conveyor belt thing was a little odd to me but I bet it cut down on customer theft.

And overhead! Just a warehouse with minimal staff in the showroom.
 
I started college with a slide rule in 1971. It's a half century in the past but I recall the HP35 was about $350 and the HP45 was $450. When TI came out with the TI55 in I jumped on the $150 intro price, finally affordable my Junior year. Within a year it was sub $50 and no awkward HP reverse notation logic.

422 RangerLite c.1986
The Royal Rangers is a boys christian youth group loosely modeled on the Boy Scouts.

422-royal-rangers-1_zpscy5aytzi-jpg.1455518

422-royal-rangers-3_zps3lj36nen-jpg.1455520
I s
I started college in 1978. The first class of Chemistry 101 they announced that you had to have a calculator. You could not do the course with a slide rule. Fortunately, I had a TI55 my Mom had found laying in the middle of the road 🤨
 
I started college in 1978. The first class of Chemistry 101 they announced that you had to have a calculator. You could not do the course with a slide rule. Fortunately, I had a TI55 my Mom had found laying in the middle of the road 🤨

That was a most serendipitous discovery!

For the youngsters . . .

TI-55:
ti55.png


HP-35:

ContentEETimes-Images-01MDunn-BenchTalk-HP35disp.jpg



HP-45:

0040top.jpg


HP-15C:

HP-15C.jpg



HP-11C:

hp-11c-2.jpg
 
A package from an unnamed super secret source may or may not have arrived a few days ago. It possibly contained some things with the numbers 422 and 426 stamped into a metallic feature.

So . . . they're a little rough. The blades looked like someone put the edge on them late on a Friday afternoon. The 426 took some work to reprofile, but it had a recurve from the start that is a bit more pronounced now. The 422 took more work, but it's getting there. The lockup on the 426 is as it should be. The 422 has some rock lock, but short of a spine whack, I don't think it would fail under normal use.

They will both get used hard.
 
The blades looked like someone put the edge on them late on a Friday afternoon. The 426 took some work to reprofile, but it had a recurve from the start that is a bit more pronounced now. The 422 took more work, but it's getting there.

Do you know what they call the newest employee at the Post Falls factory? Knife Maker. :cool:
 
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So . . . those little raised things on the spine and the end of the backspring on later model 422 and 426 as well as the 112 LT and 110 LT . . . did we every figure out why those are there?
 
So . . . those little raised things on the spine and the end of the backspring on later model 422 and 426 as well as the 112 LT and 110 LT . . . did we every figure out why those are there?
On the older models, Buck used a greased sanding belt to level off the nub and back spring. They skip that step on newer models, presumably to save manufacturing costs. You can fairly easily file off the nub with a diamond sharpening stone.
 
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