Buck 110 vs the Impostor

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Pondoro2310

Joined
Apr 13, 2014
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I have not been a knife guy, but I've carried a folder for 30 years or so. It was cheap Schrades and Barlows for the first few years but I've carried a Buck 450 for about 15 years now. All the non-slip rubber wore off, leaving it a stylish red. I use it for gardening, we get lots of small saplings growing around our landscaping and out of my stone retaining walls. The Buck cuts them off, sometimes ending up digging roots out of the ground or hitting the stone wall, it has been through a lot.

So I liked my Buck, but I would not call myself a huge fan.

Recently I entered a raffle that had a shotgun as the top prize, but everyone who entered got a "free" Lansky knife. It was a huge folder and some research showed that:
1) It is a complete copy of the Buck 110
2) It sells for $10-15 on the web
3) It is made in China

I had never before heard of the Buck 110, not being a deer hunter nor a knife guy, but it sounded impressive.

I actually like Lansky sharpeners but it irritated me that they would copy an iconic American knife in China and sell if for 1/4 the price of the original. So I bought a Buck 110, despite the fact that I'm pretty unlikely to ever field dress a deer.

I intend to use both knives. Based on the longevity of my Buck 450 I expect the Buck 110 to outlive me. The Lansky - who knows.

First impression:
The Lansky looks very nice and seemed high quality - until I got the Buck, the Buck 110 is nicer looking in the fine details.
The Lansky had a fairly mediocre sharpening job, especially considering it is sold by a company who sells knife sharpeners as their main product. But I was able to get it sharp easily enough. The Buck came from the factory arm-shavingly sharp.

I intend to cut saplings, and do general yard and camp chores with both knives and I will report on the results here. I also plan to cook with them - I do a lot of cooking and have a very nice chef's knife. I will compare both folding knives to it.


None of this is to promote the Lansky knife. I don't care if they make stuff in China but it irks me that they would copy another company so blatantly. I am just curious ho the two knives compare. I will be fair but I will also be disappointed if the Buck doesn't dominate.
 
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I'm leaving for a camping trip today or tomorrow, pictures might have to wait for my return. The old Buck 450 looks pretty cool with the black rubber all worn off.
 
So here they are - The original Buck 450, the Lansky impostor that inspired me to learn about the Buck 110, and the Buck 110. If you are familiar with 450's you might notice that it has lost a bit of the curve on the blade, due to 15 years of being sharpened.



After testing them I can report that:
The Lansky and the Buck 110 are equally good at chopping onions.
The Buck 110 is far better at slicing tomatoes.
Both are equal at cutting a whole chicken in half.
The Buck 110 is better at removing the membrane from a rack of ribs.
Both are equal at trimming a full rack of ribs into a "St. Louis cut."

The serrations on the 450 are nice but the blade of the 450 is a bit small for serious onion chopping or tomato slicing.

I only had two racks of ribs and thus did not test the 450 on them.
 
Another report - there might be a slight rust stain down inside the Lansky where the blade pivots, I am not 100% sure. As I've said I am using these knives on vegetables and meat and washing them with water. I do not intend to baby either knife. We shall see...
 
Thanks for the tip. Serves as a good review of the Buck 110 too (recent)... I'd love to see photos of the possible rust areas.
I'm a little disappointed in Lansky. Sad..
 
Wow learn something new everyday. This is just yet another example of what a great bargain the Buck 110 truly is !
 
Pondoro2310 said:
I intend to cut saplings, and do general yard and camp chores with both knives and I will report on the results here. I also plan to cook with them - I do a lot of cooking and have a very nice chef's knife. I will compare both folding knives to it.
Click to expand...

I find that lock backs handle being washed out in the kitchen well and the hollow ground clip point is good for cutting meat and deboning.

But I find that flat ground blades slice apples and potatoes better and cut wood much, much better. I keep my Buck 110 in the kitchen drawer along with a flat ground Schrade 51OT (bottom knife in this picture). Which I reach for depends on the task at hand. Chicken: Buck 110. Potatoes: Schrade 51OT.
In the kitchen by Pinnah, on Flickr



I also find that lock backs generally don't like to pressed hard into hard wood cutting like bend cutting saplings. The design just doesn't handle massive opening pressures as well as, say, the lockring design of an Opinel. Not uncommon for lockbacks (of any manufacturer) to develop vertical blade play if pushed hard like that.
 
When I say "cutting down saplings" I mean like pencil sized or smaller. The Buck 450 has done that successfully for 15 years. Some of them are impossible to uproot, especially when they are growing out of a stone wall. So the knife comes out. If these small trees destroy the Lansky we will have learned something.

I don't plan to chop down trees, I will walk back to my house and get the lopping shears for that work.
 
Here are pictures of the possible rust on the Lansky. The blade and lock do not appear rusted but it looks like something near the pivot has rusted and stained the blade:



Like I said I have cut tomatoes (acid) and onions. I washed it with plain water and left it open until it was dry.
 
Another update. Today I cut mushrooms with both knives. The Lansky was duller, I assume that making the St. Louis ribs (cutting through cartilage and bone) and bisecting the chicken have dulled it. I then cut down some pencil-sized saplings. Actually 15 or so per knife. Both knives are now in need of sharpening. The Buck is noticeably sharper but needs a touch up. The Lansky needs more work. Recall that the Buck has never been sharpened by me, but the Lansky needed a sharpening job and an apex reset when it was new from the factory.
 
Pondoro2310 said:
When I say "cutting down saplings" I mean like pencil sized or smaller. The Buck 450 has done that successfully for 15 years.
Click to expand...

Nod. I'm fine with tackling trees and branches in the thumb width or about an inch thick with a knife. I just bend it to tension the grain and slice into the stretched grain. I can usually take out a limb of this size with one or 2 cuts, which saves trips back to the barn. Two things pop out when doing this. First, is that blade profile begins to matter as the blade goes deeper in the grain in the wood. I've thinned out hollow ground blades for better performance, taking something off of the shoulder of the spine. This helps, but flat ground blades still do better. I sure hope that Buck will find it's way to follow Ron Hood's design lead and add more flat ground options. Second thing I notice is that cuts like this create a large opening force on folding knives. IME, slip joints, some liner locks and collar lock designs handle this sort of force better than lock backs. I think it's just a matter of design. Lock backs have their place to be sure. Just a matter of matching the tool to the job.

Pondoro2310 said:
Another update. Today I cut mushrooms with both knives. The Lansky was duller, I assume that making the St. Louis ribs (cutting through cartilage and bone) and bisecting the chicken have dulled it. I then cut down some pencil-sized saplings. Actually 15 or so per knife. Both knives are now in need of sharpening. The Buck is noticeably sharper but needs a touch up. The Lansky needs more work. Recall that the Buck has never been sharpened by me, but the Lansky needed a sharpening job and an apex reset when it was new from the factory.
Click to expand...

I doubt you will find a company that does a better job with the hollow grind and initial edge set up on production knives than Buck.

BTW, several US based companies are still making Buck 110 knock offs.

Bear and Sons
http://images.knifecenter.com/thumb/1500x1500/knifecenter/bearmgc/images/BC297BBRa.jpg

Case Hammerhead
http://images.knifecenter.com/thumb/1500x1500/knifecenter/case/images/CA177nw.jpg

Utica Lockback Hunter
http://images.knifecenter.com/thumb/1500x1500/knifecenter/utica/images/UT17101anw.jpg
 
Personally, I feel sorry for poor Lansky competing against a 110 and the results being posted on the Buck forum. It's gonna be a long week for ole' Lansky. :D
 
I would have quoted, but I have trouble trimming out the stuff that doesn't apply. Pinnah, is that utica 1095, do you know?
 
TAH said:
Personally, I feel sorry for poor Lansky competing against a 110 and the results being posted on the Buck forum. It's gonna be a long week for ole' Lansky. :D
Click to expand...

It looks more like a Schrade knock-off than a 110.

n2s
 
W.M.B. said:
Pinnah, is that utica 1095, do you know?
Click to expand...

I believe that the Utica is stainless.

For awhile, Moore Maker had a Buck 110 derivative in yellow Derlin with 1095 blade. I suspect it was made either by Utica or Bear & Sons (lots of obvious similarities) and I should note it was more of an LB-7 looking frame.

IIRC, Schrade (USA, not the current stuff) made some versions of the LB7 with carbon steel and some versions of the old Kabar 110 knock off used carbon steel too.

Would be really interesting if Buck offered 1095 as an option for some of their knives, like the 110/112 and maybe the 500 series. I'd bet that would pique interest among some.
 
Those Bear and Sons knives look beautiful, but a man with three large folding hunting knives probably doesn't really need a fourth.

Edit - Change that! I just cut up broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, tomato, onion and celery with my aging Buck 450, because I did not want to delay dinner while I sharpened the Lansky and Buck 110. The Buck 450 is perfect as a paring knife and I may buy a second plastic-handled Buck for those chores. It will not get dull when thrown in a drawer full of knives and it fits my hand perfectly. I am right handed and I used it with my thumb on the side and my index finger resting on the back of the blade, the ergonomics were perfect.
 
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