Buck 122 Nemo

J

joefriday22

Joined
Mar 19, 2020
Messages
11
Hello folks,

New guy here but not new to knife collecting...among many other things. However, I am new to scuba diving and as such I have been looking around for various pieces of used gear. I picked up this small group of items today, mostly nothing I would use but included was a pretty decent condition Buck knife. I was not familiar with the model prior to the purchase but apparently I got a bit lucky. This is what keeps us hunting for "stuff".

Posting up pictures for reference purposes as I always find it nice when I'm able to find pictures of items that I'm researching. If anyone has any information to add, I'm sure myself and the next guy trying to find information on one of these will appreciate it.

Thanks for looking.
Best,
Rob






 
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Congrats, you have a 1967 Nemo, The sheath, white spacers and the Buck USA tang stamp are the critical dating factors. The Frontiersman came with a flapover sheath. You should go out and buy lotto/powerball tickets. According to Joe Houser, Buck Historian, around 300-500 were made.
ETA, it's 440C steel
 
Thank you very much.. And sorry for the screwed up photos; they were flipped around for some reason when I uploaded them.

Best,
Rob
 
Very nice! That’s somewhat of a grail knife to me. But I can’t imagine swimming with one on my leg. Dive knives are much smaller now.


If you are in the North East. I have some scuba stuff I’d give you.
 
eveled said:
Very nice! That’s somewhat of a grail knife to me. But I can’t imagine swimming with one on my leg. Dive knives are much smaller now.
If you are in the North East. I have some scuba stuff I’d give you.
Click to expand...

Thank you.. For sure they are much smaller now but with those huge knives they probably didn't have to wear as much weight in the old days. I was in the north east (up-state NY) but I'm a Virginian now.
 
Wow Rob,

That is a nice score and uncommon 124! Make sure you wash all the Saltwater off and out of that knife. The saltwater would get into the handle and rust out the tang. So Buck went to a full tang version.
 
The blade steel of the NEMO was 440c and not found to be very corrosion resistant to salt water.
The corrosion can be seen on the knife shown. The sheaths are approaching 50 years old and prone to cracking.

jb typed faster than I did....
 
jb4570 said:
Wow Rob,

That is a nice score and uncommon 124! Make sure you wash all the Saltwater off and out of that knife. The saltwater would get into the handle and rust out the tang. So Buck went to a full tang version.
Click to expand...

Roger that! Thank you..
 
Thank you DeSoto. The sheath is very sturdy and the rubber leg straps are very pliable and "healthy". It surprised me that the straps are more of a rubber than the typical thin plastic typically seen on the older diver knife sheaths.
 
Joe,

One more thing, your sheath has the thin knife keeper (the rubber band that goes over the handle in sheath). These were replaced with a thicker rubber keeper with a thumb pull tab in later Nemo sheaths. I don't have a photo so if one of the other members hasn't posted a photo of it I'll post one on my next day off.
 
jb4570 said:
Joe,

One more thing, your sheath has the thin knife keeper (the rubber band that goes over the handle in sheath). These were replaced with a thicker rubber keeper with a thumb pull tab in later Nemo sheaths. I don't have a photo so if one of the other members hasn't posted a photo of it I'll post one on my next day off.
Click to expand...

Thank you JB.. The others I have found pictures of on internet have the keeper that you described. I figured mine was an early design and they must have realized their less than stellar design and improved it.
 
Is it possible to replace the original thin rubber with the newer strap?

Haebbie
 
I would say probably not. It looks like the holes that your retention strap are attached by look larger than the ones on my sheath
 
caine said:
That is awesome. I would so ware that on my leg diving
Click to expand...

I agree. Strap that dude on and dive! Thunderball forever! :)

artwork_lorenz-TB-look-down.jpg
 
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