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buck 120 information wanted

T

two110's

Joined
May 24, 2007
Messages
37
I bought a used buck 120 and would like to know more about it. If you hold the blade toward the sky is reads BUCK then in smaller numbers 120, then in smaller letters yet USA. It has no other markings like 80's or knives or the 70's 110's
Also the handle is black and so are the strips in the hilt and just at the beginning of the aluminum handle end. Sorry for not knowing the proper names better. It also has a black strip at the rear of the black on the handle that is the same width as the other strips and looks to be the same black color as the other two strips, which is very slightly different than the handle itself.
I hope this description is good enough so I someone can tell me the approximate date of manufacture and even more important the type of steel. Is it 420HC or 440C?

Thanks In advance

I doubt it has ever been sharpened but someone pounded on the back of the blade till some little dents and small chips are gone ( darn) and I didn't get a sheath, but I stole it at $5. Love those yard sales.
 
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You can edit the titles??? I didn't know that...
 
2 110s, welcome to the Buck forum. Your 120 is not 420HC. The 3 line tang stamp prior to date codes means it's pre-1986. Could be 425 M or 440C for blade steel. Pictures could help someone narrow the year of production.
 
two110's,
Welcome to the forum! I read your description of the 120 you bought...$5? fantastic bargain!
It sounds like you are saying that the guard is made up of 2 pieces of aluminum spacers and two black pieces, (aka micarta spacers), and the end near the butt of the handle has the same...two aluminum and two micarta?
If this is so, that would put the knife in the 1973 to 1980 timeframe and it would be, as Scott mentioned, 440C.
I hope this helps.
 
Joe here it is again were i till need info on a 120

334dave said:
ok i got a 2 line inverted 120 delivered
whicked looking ! what i call a knife now...
it has a crack in the handle
should i leave alone ?
have it repaired as org ?
oh yes it has the Bone Hard Fiber i belive as it dont look like micarta
so what year do that make it ?

confused folder mind set needs to know
opions needed
Joe can you advise as to what happens to value to a old 120 knife if it gets the handle replaced ?
when you guys do it can you tell it was done ?
do you save the bone hard spacers or are they lost?
can stag be used as a replace ment
folder focused mind needs to know..
Click to expand...
 
Dave, it's a 1968-72, pommel is pinned. The phenolic handles are a bear to remove, but I know Leroy has done them. Look at Evil Eye Earls' 124's for ideas for very cool handle configurations. ANYTHING is possible....for the right amount of money :D
 
Thanks guys I will try and do a picture tomorrow. I just spent 9 or 10hours on the PC here doing some real estate testing and I have had all this screen I can take till later. more later thanks guys.




Hey it worked, here is a coule of pictures of the knife, my first attempt to post a picture on the net.
Thank You Chickentrax
 
Dave,
Missed your post? How do you know I was not just ignoring you? :rolleyes: :D :D ;)
Anywho, if the spacers are the hard fiber, we can nail it down even tighter. Buck switched to micarta in late 1969 or early 1970 due to an internal process change.
Scott is right, removing the handle and components is tough, but only if you want to save any of the parts. You can wrap it in a rag and sqeeze it in a vice until the handle comes apart, then grind off the pommel, clean the debris off the tang and slide the guard pieces off.
Saving the pommel and all of the fiber pieces can be hit and miss and we don't have any more of the hard fiber. We even tried to locate some a few years back for a special project and could not locate a manufacturer.
That 440c polishes up real nice though and a smooth stag handle would compliment the blade real nice. We are so far out on lead times for special jobs like that so I don't even recomend sending it to us. I would give Leroy a try, he might even actually have stag.
 
Buckaholic said:
Well, if the boys would quit making dinosaurs... :rolleyes:
SORRY Joe...couldn't resist...it was too easy :p :D ;)
Click to expand...

humm kinda like leaving a a turkey flying at you for saying gobble gobble alone hungh...?:D ;) :cool:
well i got the answers i need ... do nothing to hurt it...
it will clean up and i know some one that has a repair idear so will send it to him...
so look out here it comes.... darn slow chirse ships
 
Buckaholic said:
Well, if the boys would quit making laser-cut blade-headed dinosaurs... :rolleyes:

SORRY Joe...couldn't resist...it was too easy :p :D ;)
Click to expand...

Funny story about that...They were getting carried away with it. A certain ex-engineer got in trouble for using the laser to cut himself a nice BBQ grate. He did not loose his job for that but it did pretty much end that type of project on the laser.
Glad I got my T-rex before all that!! :rolleyes:
 
Joe Houser said:
Funny story about that...They were getting carried away with it. A certain ex-engineer got in trouble for using the laser to cut himself a nice BBQ grate. He did not loose his job for that but it did pretty much end that type of project on the laser.
Glad I got my T-rex before all that!! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That would be sooooo cool to have a Buck BG-42 grill grate for my Coleman Kettle :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
OK I have been finding out what little I can about this 120, and have posted some pictures back in post # 7. What I have been able to learn and what Joe posted that a 4 line knife is 440C, or that Scott saying 3 could be either. Is the three lines like mine 440C or is it the newer 425M steel, or can that be known with just a picture? How about a real quick lesson in the difference between the two, as Bucks web site didn't compare these. I have 440C 110's and newer 420HC in my pocket. I can tell the difference sharpening and edge holding ability but know virtually nothing about 425M or how to tell which this knife is. It feels like 440 from what small amount of touching up the edge I did.
Thanks again.

Surfing around here I see some impressive collections sadly I only have 10 or so Buck knives, all but one are working knives. My most unusual knives I would guess are couple of butcher or kitchen knives that say Remington and another that has Winchester on the 8" or so blades, both well used, old when I found them and that was over 20 years ago, but kinda neat to have. I am into neat usually older guns and to have a old Remington and Winchester knives is OK in my book. Or a J. A Hellberg with a stag handle.
OK stop laughing now at my kitchen knives :)
 
425 had better crodeshion resistance then 440 or 420
toches up well heet treats better then 420
next steep step up would be to s30v but well weorth it!!!
 
2 110's, believe it or not, you may not be able to pin point the exact year of production. If you can get with someone that specifically collects 120s, they may offer some assistance.
What I've found in collecting Buck 100 Series knives is that there were subtle changes from year to year. Around 1974 Buck started the 3 line tang stamp, read with the tip of the knife pointed upward. These 120s will have 4 micarta spacers, 2 back at the pommel and 2 by the finger guard. At some point, one of the micarta spacers at the finger guard was eliminated.
The pommel size, the fuller length and the size if the numbers used on the "120" for the tang stamp are differences I've noticed. This is when having the original box, sheath, and paperwork, can refine information.
Around 1981 Buck started using 425M. Your knife may be a late 1970's 440C or an early 1980's 425M, that's the best I can offer. They're both great steels.
 
two110's said:
Surfing around here I see some impressive collections sadly I only have 10 or so Buck knives, all but one are working knives. My most unusual knives I would guess are couple of butcher or kitchen knives that say Remington and another that has Winchester on the 8" or so blades, both well used, old when I found them and that was over 20 years ago, but kinda neat to have. I am into neat usually older guns and to have a old Remington and Winchester knives is OK in my book. Or a J. A Hellberg with a stag handle.
OK stop laughing now at my kitchen knives :)
Click to expand...

Two,,, you may want to locate a copy of Blades Guide to Knives and their Values. 6th edition.

I was sitting around wifes hospital room this past week thumbing through mine. You might be surprised at those Rem and Win knives!!! You may want to put them up on a shelf for display and find different cutters for the kitchen. ;)
 
You might be surprised at those Rem and Win knives!!! You may want to put them up on a shelf for display and find different cutters for the kitchen.
Click to expand...

The way I wrote that post was misleading I guess. The Remington and Winchester knives have not been used since I found them.
We have plenty of Forchners for kitchen or cutting up our deer and if we get lucky elk. We do have a thin bladed hollow ground Case brand 6" boning knife, wood handle, I bought new over 30 years ago that is used daily, and it would take a pretty penny to seperate me from.
A Get well and we Hope the wife's OK Pack Rat.
 

Chickentrax, Thanks again and I am just practicing here but,,,,
Ya just gotta love them yard sales.
This is a Marlin I bought at a yard sale today from the fella in the picture. He had owned the gun 60 years, bought it the year he was married, and told me the story of killing a bear with it. It is a Marlin 94 (1984) 25-20 caliber and the serial makes it born in 1904. It is a long way from perfect, but shoots OK but has spent many hours in a scabbard on his horse and shows it, besides it's ove 100 years old. $100 I couldn't resist..
Like I said in a earlier post I like old guns and good knives which is why a Buck has been on my front pocket since the 70's.
 
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