Buck 104 refinements.

[eveled]

I’m posting this to show what I do to make a knife mine. I’m not bashing Buck in anyway. They make a fine product. You cannot expect hand finishing at production price. I buy a knife if i think I can make it better I will. My ocd kind of forces me to do it. It’s satisfying in its own way.

 

[eveled]

So here is the knife in question. It is a limited run SK Blades ordered from Buck. It’s named the Frontier It was actually designed by the Buck forum members in an epic 22 page thread here on Bladeforums. Pretty cool.

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/5th-annual-help-us-build-a-buck-fixed-blade-giveaway.1646692/

It’s got a lot going for it. No coating, full flat grind, great handles, custom sheath, and it’s a Buck.

First issue is a slight recurve blade. I cannot stand any recurve on a blade other that a Kukri, hawk bill, or carambit. This looks like it should be straight so it gets straightened. I tried to concentrate on the choil end to leave the belly full.

 

[eveled]

Here you can see it’s almost 1/32”.

 

[eveled]

Here it is straightened out. The edge is laser straight from the choil to the belly you can also see how much of the sharpening choil is worn away.
Here you can see the edge just barely touches the stone and you can still see the factory edge bevel. Good for now, next time I sharpen it, that will go away.

 

[eveled]

Now to tackle the chatter marks on the blade I do this with a coarse diamond bench stone
It looks pretty good from the factory but I know better there are lots of high spots and those lines A

After just a few passes it is obvious. The lines across the blade are factory, the lines from tip to ricasso are mine.

After a lot of passes it is starting to get a lot better, but as the contact patches get larger progress really slows down. What was fun becomes a labor of love.

In the last picture you can see the Buck logo is in a low spot.

Now it’s time for a break, I’ll work on it a little each night until it’s either done or I decide to shelf it.

More pictures when I make more progress.

 

[willc]

Very nice work!!!

How is the D2 on this knife to grind?
I have a couple Benchmade knives that are older and they are a bit of a bear to reprofile and then I have had some other D2 knives that are no problem at all.

Buck is killing me, there are like 3 fixed blades that are at the top of my list.

 

[eveled]

It’s hard but not that hard. I’m not grinding, all by hand. I’ve got one side almost finished except for one small spot

 

[Eli Chaps]

It’s hard but not that hard. I’m not grinding, all by hand. I’ve got one side almost finished except for one small spot

I'm in the process of doing this with an 8" chef's knife. Had to set it aside and need to get back to it.

Would you mind detailing your approach? Medium? Grit? Your method?

 

[eveled]

This is the frustrating part I’m down to these few lines that are in a low spot The rest of the blade has to come down to the level of the deepest groove. The whole blade is perfect except this one spot the size of a pencil eraser It is exactly were the U in Buck was in the other picture. Eli Chaps I started with a coarse diamond stone then switched to 120 grit paper. On my diamond bench stone so it’s flat. Then just hold the blade on the paper and rub. I use a stabbing motion to keep all the new lines parallel with the spine. Good luck with yours.

 

[Eli Chaps]

Thank you. I was going spine-to-edge largely because I wanted to thin the shoulder as well and was spending time working that area. I will switch up to longitudinal way that you're doing once I'm happy with that. Makes for much better aesthetics.

Thanks for posting and look forward to the end result.

 

[eveled]

Sometimes it seems beneficial to switch directions. Especially in the beginning. You can see your progress easier.

Longitudinal. I like that description. I think it is better for the knife blade. Makes it more slicy. Also I feel the across blade scratches are all stress risers. There is no way (that I know of) to do it with a machine. Certainly not with a belt or wheel. That’s why factory blades are the way they are.

 

[Eli Chaps]

Sometimes it seems beneficial to switch directions. Especially in the beginning. You can see your progress easier.

Longitudinal. I like that description. I think it is better for the knife blade. Makes it more slicy. Also I feel the across blade scratches are all stress risers. There is no way (that I know of) to do it with a machine. Certainly not with a belt or wheel. That’s why factory blades are tge way they are.

Oh, just the work I've done so far has made a noticeable difference in performance.

 

[lonestar1979]

Thin that knife out on coarse stone or belt sander first,and convex it at the edge,without visible secondary edge.Performance will be much better.

 

[eveled]

Gone as far as I’m willing to go. 220 grit longitudinal lines. Full length strokes at the end to avoid fish hooks.

Close enough to a satin finish for me. Much better performance and easy to maintain.

If I go any further, I won’t want to use it.

I actually took it farther than I intended. I really just wanted to knock off the factory corduroy finish.

 

[eveled]

I chamfered the palm side thong hole, heated the knot and pressed it into the hole so it’s flush. So it doesn’t dig into my palm. Somewhere I have a little Buck anvil bead for the other end of the fob but it’s MIA.

I’m super happy with this project, thanks for following along. My goal is to encourage others to modify and improve their knives to suit their needs.

 

[Eli Chaps]

View attachment 1358761
Gone as far as I’m willing to go. 220 grit longitudinal lines. Full length strokes at the end to avoid fish hooks.

Close enough to a satin finish for me. Much better performance and easy to maintain.

If I go any further, I won’t want to use it.

I actually took it farther than I intended. I really just wanted to knock off the factory corduroy finish.

Very nice. Now having done this myself I can genuinely appreciate the effort!

You're spot on about the fish hooks. I have some in my blade and put that in the lessons learned column.

 

[eveled]

I added a small single finger groove and moved my grip forward by reducing the “guard”. Now my pinkie fits better. I think I’m done now. (Until I find that little anvil bead) Here is the before shot