This is going to be a long post, but I think there is a lot of history covered here for a huge change in the Buck 110.
I have some new information about the four knives this thread ended up being about.
I really learned a lot about a small time frame around 1973 in the history of the Buck 110.
Talked to the Buck 110 encyclopedia last night (also known as George Stinzel).
What a pleasure to listen to someone who knows so much about the history of the Buck 110.
Anyhow, we did talk about this thread and he explained the production order of the four knives and why the changes were made.
I really needed a voice recorder because my brain doesn't compute quickly enough to catch all the details.
Here goes as best as I can;
I took new photos this morning of the four 5th/3rd knives from above.
They are now in order of age starting with the oldest in front, progressing to the youngest in the rear of the photos.
The oldest (front) 110 has a forged brass frame made by Revere Forge. (the rear offset handle pin is further forward than the next change) This knife was the last of the 110 frames forged by Revere Forge.
The second 110 was made by a contract forge company that only forged brass frames a short time before Buck switch to the sintered brass frames. (not even Joe knows the name of that company)
The third 110 was the very first of the sintered frame 110s which Buck still uses today. The rear pin is now centered. These knives took on the squared stocky feel of the 110s from that era.
Buck still glued the ebony and ground the inside of the frame, then
..
On the fourth 110, Buck figured out the glue and grinding was unnecessary on the sintered frames because they were so precise in geometry. (rear pin is still centered)
There were no more gaps left to fill with glue that had been normal between the forged frame and the ebony.
George said that the production of the fourth knife went into early 1974.
That's all I was able to remember. Hope I got this right George
.and thank you for the help!
One more thing, but on a different Buck 110, but one of my favorites.
We briefly talked about the four pin 110 which Joe has listed as a 5th/5th.
I've heard others talk about the year these were made. I always rounded it off to 1976.
George confirmed they were indeed made in 1976.
He thought they were counterfeit 110s the first time he saw one on the store's shelf.
He said Mac McKinney (sp?) confirmed they were being produced by Buck at the time and explained that Buck was taking in too many 110s for repair that had been used in wet conditions after they stopped using glue on the ebony.
The result of the single rear pin let some of the ebony warp, so they added extra pins on the rear part of the covers.
Buck only used the four pins for a short time before switching to the three pins which in still used today.
That's why the four pin 110s are so rare. Four pin 112s are even more rare.
