Been a while since I posted here...
IMO, the Paperstone is an indicator of how out of touch Buck is with the non-hunting outdoor market.
Obviously, the Ecolites weren't being sold to the construction/job-site market. In that market, pocket clips and one hand openers (correctly) dominate.
My sense is that the general non-hunting outdoors market is looking for something very different in a folding knife. The bushcraft crowd has (correctly) popularized flat and scandi ground blades for general outdoor use and the extreme clip point is reminiscent of a by gone era in hunting. Even in the hunting scene the drop point is hugely successful.
In the end, I think the Ecolites were too fat for pocket carry, had a blade shape that only appealed to small part of the hunting market (and not to the outdoor market) and a blade grind that doesn't appeal to the general market. It's fine to say that Buck is a traditional hunting knife company and that's cool. But they already have enough other hunting oriented knives.
Either they should have come out with a slimline Paperstone 112 with a drop point blade (keep the 112 frame shape) or simply done a Paperstone version of the 500 and 501 (and not worry about the 110 size). My 2 cents.
I still think the Paperstone makes sense int eh 500/112/Bucklite Max medium size folder. Just please, loose the clip point and really, give a nice flat grind option.
IMO, the Paperstone is an indicator of how out of touch Buck is with the non-hunting outdoor market.
Obviously, the Ecolites weren't being sold to the construction/job-site market. In that market, pocket clips and one hand openers (correctly) dominate.
My sense is that the general non-hunting outdoors market is looking for something very different in a folding knife. The bushcraft crowd has (correctly) popularized flat and scandi ground blades for general outdoor use and the extreme clip point is reminiscent of a by gone era in hunting. Even in the hunting scene the drop point is hugely successful.
In the end, I think the Ecolites were too fat for pocket carry, had a blade shape that only appealed to small part of the hunting market (and not to the outdoor market) and a blade grind that doesn't appeal to the general market. It's fine to say that Buck is a traditional hunting knife company and that's cool. But they already have enough other hunting oriented knives.
Either they should have come out with a slimline Paperstone 112 with a drop point blade (keep the 112 frame shape) or simply done a Paperstone version of the 500 and 501 (and not worry about the 110 size). My 2 cents.
I still think the Paperstone makes sense int eh 500/112/Bucklite Max medium size folder. Just please, loose the clip point and really, give a nice flat grind option.
