Buck 124 Frontiersman BLOCKY handle!

M

Mr. Tettnanger

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Jul 14, 2012
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I just got a Buck 124 in trade. I am a bit surprised at how BLOCKY the handles are. I've only fondled the knife so far, but I find them a bit uncomfortable for my medium-ish hands. I really like the knife overall and hope to bond with it. I just hope that I can get over the blocky feel.

Has anyone rounded and thinned the handle on this model? I did a search but I only found a re handle thread, not a mod of the original handles.

Thanks.
 
Yep, the handles are blocky on the early 124's. I like them like that. You can easily round the edges off with sand paper until you find the grip you like. DM
 
This is a newer version. If my research is correct, the older ones were blocky, then they rounded them out a bit and with the newer models have gone back to blocky.

I may try that David, thank you.
 
I've one on the way after a extremely week moment on the Amazon site, so I'll be curious to see.

Anyone have a side by side pic of an old vs. a new model 124? Curious how evident the handle shaping changed.
 
If it's the new then there is no collectors value to worry over. If you're going to keep it then get it like you want it. So, you'll carry and use it. DM
 
The Buck 124 made in the intermediate era had more rounded edges - hard to see in a picture but you can certainly feel the difference. OH

IMG_7077.JPG
 
I have one of the newer ones and I feel the same way, handles way too blocky. Feels like I'm holding a 2x4.
 
ohen cepel said:
I have one of the newer ones and I feel the same way, handles way too blocky. Feels like I'm holding a 2x4.
Click to expand...

I agree 100%! I fondled it a lot more this morning. It ain't gonna work stock, that is for sure!

I got to figure out how to take the handle down or just throw it up for sale and move on.
 
Mr. Tettnanger said:
I agree 100%! I fondled it a lot more this morning. It ain't gonna work stock, that is for sure!

I got to figure out how to take the handle down or just throw it up for sale and move on.
Click to expand...

Give it a bit of time. When I first got it, I fet the same way. When I sent it to you it felt fine.

You can always sand it down, you can't sand it back Up.
 
LostViking said:
Give it a bit of time. When I first got it, I fet the same way. When I sent it to you it felt fine.

You can always sand it down, you can't sand it back Up.
Click to expand...



I may ask a local knife maker if he could round it off and thin it just a bit. I have thicker handled knives, but none that are as blocky. I think that hand sanding won't work. There is too much material to remove/shape.
 
The 124 that I ordered off Amazon came in today and not having sampled an older model for comparison, I'd have to say this one doesn't feel too chunky in hand, and the handle corners are nicely rounded, so it shouldn't be an issue for me I don't think. And my hands run on the small side, usually wear a size M glove.

I'm not sure how much I care for the sheath though. While perfectly fine, I just like the look of the older styles Buck used to have. I'm wondering if this one may be a good candidate for a kydex sheath.

This guy is a handful of knife though. Makes a person feel the need to go chop down a small tree or something. :)

Appears this particular one just rolled off the assembly line.






 
Hi MR.T,

Like some of the others above I love the flat slabs on these and the old Micarta handled 124's. Buck did a 124 LE a few years back with the small sized handle in stag you would love, I did not like it due to the small size (the 124 LE can still be found for sale if you look).

Here is a shot of 124 handles


jb4570
 
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jb4570 - In your top pic there, what year are those 124's from top down please? There is a noticeable difference isn't there.

Is that second pic all yours in your collection? Most impressive. :thumbup:
 
Joe58 said:
jb4570 - In your top pic there, what year are those 124's from top down please? There is a noticeable difference isn't there.

Is that second pic all yours in your collection? Most impressive. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Hi Joe,

The bottom photo is of the 122/124's in my collection. I sold one of the stag/Colt 124's to ITE and got a new 124 with a Moose cutout that was made for the Canada Cabelas (15 in total 122/124's in my collection). Sorry for the crappy handle image it's an old scan and you can see the scanner was starting to fail from the milky/smoky blurry image. Now the top black Micarta handle is a 3 line from early 70's same size and shape as the new 124's, the middle stag handle is a 124LE from 2006, the bottom 124 with rosewood colored handle is from the mid 80's. Maybe in the next few days I'll pull these out and take some new photo's for you guys and add the black Phenolic handles to the photo.

JB
 
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