Buck 119 Special LE - poor quality!

TheFlash

TheFlash

Gold Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2000
Messages
524
I have some concerns about Buck's QA and controls.

I just purchased one of the Buck 119 Special Limited Edition knives with the stacked leather washer and cow bone handles from a reliable dealer. It came completely sealed in the 'tamper proof' box from Buck and had never been previously opened.

Upon opening, I was extremely disappointed! The buffing rouge that was used on the handle was ground in and embedded into the leather washers on the handle and there are parts of the handle where the leather is pitted and not smoothly finished.

A friend of mine also purchased one of these at the same time and just viewed his. His also has this same problem with the rouge ground into the handle and a poorly finished handle. (His also came factory sealed with all tamper proof seals intact.)

I will return the knife for a refund.

In the meantime, I'm just trying to figure out how Buck could let not just one, but two (or even more???!!) of these out the door with such a poor finish job.

Before anyone jumps on me, let me say that I own many Buck knives and am a big Buck fan and collector. I'm just very disappointed with this latest effort and am hoping that it was just one batch of these made by a Buck employee having a bad day.

Here are pics of the handle:

Buck119005.jpg


Buck119004.jpg


Buck119002.jpg


Regards,
Mike
 
Hi Mike,

Sorry to see the 119LE that you got!!! Buck's customer service is second to none. Send your knife back and have them fix it.

jb4570
 
I don't think it looks all that bad...looks pretty good to me, in fact...

Does anyone have a pic of a "good" one???
 
" I don't think it looks all that bad...looks pretty good to me, in fact..."

You're not serious are you?
 
I wouldn't accept these quality too. For example: Here are pictures of some old German scouts knives. And they are not valuable.
They did a little part of the Buck 119. And the hanldles are only polished and not coated as it looks like at the Buck knife

Please click the pic's for a look:






Best,
Haebbie
 
CDNWIDE said:
" I don't think it looks all that bad...looks pretty good to me, in fact..."

You're not serious are you?
Click to expand...


Yes, he's probably serious. There are apologists everywhere... how sad. This knife photographed is a quality embarassment.

I bought one of these a month ago and hadn't opened the sealed box until seeing these pics. Mine is just as bad.
 
OK So its not up to par,we can all see that ,guess what?ANY COMPANY CAN HAVE PRODUCTS GET OUT THE DOOR THAT SHOULDN'T,the main thing here is you can rest assured Buck will make it right,what more can you ask for?I would not be happy with that knife either,but a call to Buck knives and it'll be taken care of i'm positive of that.good luck!
 
I was considering buying this but now that I see that pic...yikes!
 
I don't have or really care for leather stacked handles. I thought it looked O.K. but I don't really know what "good' is either... I will say that Buck doesnt do many leather stacked handled knives, cut 'em a little slack? (not to stand up for anyone or anything ;) ) They will fix it if its not up your standards.

Just one quick question though, what type of "cert" does it come with?
A "natural materials" cert?
 
CDNWIDE said:
" I don't think it looks all that bad...looks pretty good to me, in fact..."

You're not serious are you?
Click to expand...

Yep. Have you ever made a stacked-leather-disk grip??? I have (pic below). Compared to mine, Flash's 119LE is much more refined...

And no, you won't find me apologizing for Buck's less-than-perfect knives... :D
 
Haebbie said:
...And the hanldles are only polished and not coated as it looks like at the Buck knife...
Click to expand...

Those leather grips do look "stabilized"...and yes, it does look like the Buck has a coating when it should have been "stabilized"...

I haven't read up on leather disk grips, but I do recall someone saying that "super glue" does an excellent job of stabilizing Mammoth tooth...I would expect it to work with leather, too...

I tell you what, sweetpea...The more I look at Flash's pics, the more I like it...What "reliable dealer" did you buy it from??? I may go over there and browse-to-buy... ;)
 
Yep. Have you ever made a stacked-leather-disk grip??? I have (pic below). Compared to mine, Flash's 119LE is much more refined...

We're spose to compare them to amatuer knife makers..that's our reference??
So..you're saying your more expensive Limited Edition is not as good as there's?

And no, you won't find me apologizing for Buck's less-than-perfect knives...

"less than perfect"..is certainly a relative term in this case
 
chickentrax said:
Those leather grips do look "stabilized"...and yes, it does look like the Buck has a coating when it should have been "stabilized"...

I haven't read up on leather disk grips, but I do recall someone saying that "super glue" does an excellent job of stabilizing Mammoth tooth...I would expect it to work with leather, too...

I tell you what, sweetpea...The more I look at Flash's pics, the more I like it...What "reliable dealer" did you buy it from??? I may go over there and browse-to-buy... ;)
Click to expand...

No, Hühnchen, these grips are not stabilized and not glued. They are made of stacked leather slabs, pressed with a screw. They were grinded and polished, nothing else. When I repaired such handles (I did it several times) I did the same, but I used some dubbing later to make the surface water resistant. But it may be, that the coating let the surface partially swell up of the 119.

Best,
Haebbie
 
CDNWIDE said:
We're spose to compare them to amatuer knife makers..that's our reference??
Click to expand...

I don't give a rats ass what you compare them to...I think Flash's 119LE looks OK... :rolleyes:

Here's one made by Ontario...Unstabilized, unbuffed, probably not compressed...
 
Wow Trax, I just now dug a couple of those out of the drawer and was fixing to comment that they aren't any different looking than any of the others here, except for being well used.

We are looking at the edge of a piece of leather, not the smoother surface like we would wear on a belt,,,,right?

I would also be interested in seeing some different ones. Just out of curiousity.
 
If it was an inexpensive user I could deal with that handle, or a used blade. However, for that to be a LE to me is not acceptable.

If they can't do a leather handle well then it may be best to just not do it at all.
 
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