Anyone make scales for Buck 301??

jfever311

jfever311

Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Messages
537
I have a Buck 301 on the way. My first....

Just curious to know if anyone on the forums has had a 301 rescaled, and if so, how did it turn out?
 
By the way, I have a bunch of Lignum Vitae (the real stuff) that I would like to use. Just want to know if it is possible.
 
Well jf,

I am guessing there has been about everything known to man put on as scales for the 301 and the 110.

Your main issue is the bottom or spring rivet. If it is showing you will need to be careful around it and prehaps even do some light peening over to freeze it. Open all the blades and see what is on the blade walls to give you some idea what you will have when you get factory scales off. Shaping the scales is your big step. You can ruin your bolsters quickly if using too much effort. I would mask my blades and bolster in the early going to protect them. But in the end some skill is required.

I have seen wood of many sorts but would like to see a good L.V. job , so good luck.
300Bucks
 
300Bucks said:
Well jf,

I am guessing there has been about everything known to man put on as scales for the 301 and the 110.

Your main issue is the bottom or spring rivet. If it is showing you will need to be careful around it and prehaps even do some light peening over to freeze it. Open all the blades and see what is on the blade walls to give you some idea what you will have when you get factory scales off. Shaping the scales is your big step. You can ruin your bolsters quickly if using too much effort. I would mask my blades and bolster in the early going to protect them. But in the end some skill is required.

I have seen wood of many sorts but would like to see a good L.V. job , so good luck.
300Bucks
Click to expand...

Appreciate the response. Honestly, I have no such skills. This would be something for a skilled craftsman to tackle. I merely have the knife and the wood. One good thing is the LV I have is a very good grade, with no checks or sapwood.

Here is a shaving brush I made with the same LV:

http://www.theshaveden.com/forum/showpost.php?p=284063&postcount=1

300Bucks, if you could recommend someone for this task, I would greatly appreciate it.

Jason
 
I am not so sure you could not do it by your example, you just need pointers on how too. You might do searches on several forums and might find some how to threads, or more likely how I did it threads. And if you are willing to have a start off knife with the 301 I say your wood skills appear good.

But,
Lots of folks favor two guys, Eric at Arksknives.com and Leroy at Triple-R-Knives.com. but there are a couple of other folks also that I didn't write their name down. There will be waiting line for about everyone. Maybe some folks will contact you from this thread. One guy over on the SE coast does good slipjoints, maybe he will send you a message.

If this knife is a nice one, get one off auction thats is low bid and try it with some plain walnut or cherry first. I intend to give it a try myself, I have a couple of elk leg bones aging in my shed I am going to try jigging......
300Bucks
 
300Bucks, I got the knife from Ebay for $20 shipped. It is a NIB 301 with the black plastic scales. I will contact the fellas you mentioned, and hopefully others will email me too. I would love to see some other custom 301's.
 
I bought this 301 Schrade contracted knife off of the bay, this is what it looked like when I reveived it.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

After cleaning it up, squaring the blades and completely taking it appart I got two brown jigged bone scaled. I shaped them and glued them buffed and polished them with minimal help from a friend. Here is the final result. An oldie came back to life!!!


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Its not as hard as you may think,
 
What is the best way to remove the stock plastic scales? Do I drill out the rivets? After I get the plastic scales off, I am going to tackle this project myself. There is a particular piece of LV I have that is nicely figured and would make a fantastic set of scales!
 
I, for one, would love to see the finished result of this. Lignum Vitae is absolutely beautiful wood. I'm trying to get up the nerve to do something similar with my 307 (someday).

So, I'll be watching this thread with great anticipation. :)
 
Ok, I had to go find it but here is where I tried this back in 09. This is with a Dymondwood scale but I cut off a delrin scale for some photos not long ago. SAWCUT Delrin scale models have raised escutcheon plates and would be difficult to rehandle, unless you are going to grind off the shield. (Photo below)

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=698835&highlight=303+burl (Check first and last post)

You can get some ideas anyway. You can carefully dremel the scale beside both sides of the rivets and it will just pry off. Then carefully cut it off around the rivets. Be careful pulling scale rivets if present so you don't bend the liner. You will have to deal with spring rivet. My perfect way would have been to carefully cut it and then will great skill peen a slight head on each side. I am waiting for my Great Skill letter in the mail. I haven't tried this since, but will do a bone effort in near future...

300Bucks

Here is photo of finished knife for those not wanting to click on link.
FinishBurl.jpg


Photo of delrin scale partially removed. This pillar is cast in place and you would have to grind it down to install custom scale. I believe it would be TOO difficult to place scale over it for a beginner.
Shieldcloseup.jpg
 
Last edited:
Very informative post, 300...

Looks like I have my work cut out for me. Oh well, it will give me something to do while sitting in my crane between picks... ;)
 
Been working on the knife when I can. So far the plastic scale are gone, and the posts are ground down. I also have the LV scales cut down to within a hairs width of going into the knife. I made two sets though, which I will sand and polish to fit. One set is a nice straight grain, the other is highly figured. Before assemble anything, I will post pics of it all, and might get some input from you guys as to which scales would look the nicest. This will be a few weeks away still, so be patient. Work has been busting loose here lately, so I am logging the hours while they are there.
 
Personally I wouldn't waste my time on a piece of strait grain wood.
 
I thought I`d offer my advice on how to scale a knife like these. I scale 110's and 112's mostly, the 300s are a little easier ( I think ) to do.
If you want to try it your self, a fiberglass cut off disc in a rotary tool works great for cutting the heads off the pin/rivets. Then pry the scale from the knife. On the 300's carefull not to pull the pivot pin out of the knife, they can be a bit difficult to get back together. The rivets can be gently pulled through the frame. Now cut the pivot nearly flush to the frame and peen it ever so slightly, shave the head off and fit your scale!
Happy knifemaking!
 
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