Buck 186 Titanium

ItsTooEarly said:
Oregon, now that's a great find... :thumbup: ... So did you get a good deal on it.... ITE
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$60 and the gracious and polite pawn broker gave me a new, and appropriately-sized, black Bianchi nylon sheath with velcro closure and belt loop. The knife was marked $75 and we dickered over that price. Overall it was a pleasant shopping experience.

I believe that it was a good bargain. I couldn't be more tickled. What do you think?

oregon
 
ya did good there Pilgrim!
here are some day dream blades in Ti handles
that my buck huntting yorkey found for me
they are by the custom man at buck (master Leroy Remer)
note that is not fish scallers edges on the back side
 
Oregon, I've given 100$ for those NIB as I don't stumble on to many . Yours is in good shape . Yes, its a good buy . Buck changed the design of that knife (no notes w/ me) the next year which does not allow it to be disassembled as buyers lost the parts . Then it was totally dropped from production in 2000 or 01 when their supplier of Ti handles plant burned down . Buck used up their inventory/supply and did not procure another source and the model died . There were several changes along the way for this model .
But its a very light and strong knife Buck mfg. and still highly sought . DM
 
334dave said:
ya did good there Pilgrim!
here are some day dream blades in Ti handles
that my buck huntting yorkey found for me
they are by the custom man at buck (master Leroy Remer)
note that is not fish scallers edges on the back side
Click to expand...

Dave, please, you gotta explain the serrations. I don't usually see saw-back folders... Looks like double jeopardy. How do you carry those. Looks like they might be hard on your pockets.

oregon

oregon
 
David Martin said:
Oregon, I've given 100$ for those NIB as I don't stumble on to many . Yours is in good shape . Yes, its a good buy . Buck changed the design of that knife (no notes w/ me) the next year which does not allow it to be disassembled as buyers lost the parts . Then it was totally dropped from production in 2000 or 01 when their supplier of Ti handles plant burned down . Buck used up their inventory/supply and did not procure another source and the model died . There were several changes along the way for this model .
But its a very light and strong knife Buck mfg. and still highly sought . DM
Click to expand...

A fascinating knife. Two things jump out at me: 1. Is this the first folder with titanium scales. And, 2. Is this the first pocket knife with a carry clip.

oregon
 
Oregon, 1) Yes, this is Buck's first Ti. folder . Yours is the model 186 after yours (as I stated previously) Buck changed the design hence the new model was #560 (XLTi) (others had different designations) came out in 1989 . (Bk and XLT-Ti) These different designations represent different Ti color types .2)Yes, from what I've read and remember it was Buck's first knife w/ a pocket clip . Hope this helps . DM
 
Buck_110 said:
There were approximately 16,000 made.

They originally shipped from Buck without the pocket clip attached, and wrapped in onion paper inside the box with the knife. Two longer screws for use with the pocket clip were taped directly to it. When folks attempted to attach the pocket clip, some couldn't get the knife back together and sent them back to Buck to be re-assembled. The knives then started shipping with the pocket clip attached, and two shorter screws for use without the pocket clip were included in a zip lip bag.
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16,000 total all 186s?

I think that # is for 560 & 186. But I could be wrong.
 
yes they are hard on pockets and fingers
but they were mostly day dreaming blades made by
leroy in the custom shop after work...
kind of for show only thing
had a 186 walk up to my display table today!
he had a question and it was missing the clip
offered it to me at a price i could not refuse..
it will go to leroy to be
made a dream time knife !
 
Those knives, dreamers, are too cool for school.

Where was your show? Many knife people there?

I was in attendance at the Medford, OR armory show yesterday. I met a living legend of the West. Bruce J (. or 3J as the maker's mark on his stuff, throwing hatchets for me). I've been wanting to meet him for over a decade. I'm visiting this neck of the woods for a couple days, yardwork for my wife's recently widowed mom, and got away to see the show and this guy was walking around with a dozen hatchets with forged heads and wooden handles so I had to speak with him and I got his phone number.

Bruce makes the best (toughest, won't break the business end) throwing tomahawks, imho, in the world today. What a thrill to shake his hand and talk with him a bit. I had it down so cold, a few years back now, that I could stick the hatchet and then the throwing knife into the hatchet's handle (rough on handles). Bot another throwing axe so all is well.

oregon
 
Oregon, IMO You got a heck of a deal on that knife! It's presently worth about 3x that, especially if you have the original box, screws and paperwork. It looks unused and I would never use it or change it.... It would be placed in a "safe" place after a thorough cleaning and light oiling. These are only going UP in value.
 
I got some thumbstuds from Joe Houser by mail and later bought some more when I was in the Buck store. I don't know from links. I don't know how to find them or post them. The thumbstud comes in a plastic envelope with an appropriate Allen key for about $5.00. The 186 handles must have been forged from hot sintered Titanium dust? powder? The problem is Ti gets very reactive when heated above 750 degrees F. To prevent Ti from reacting with Oxygen, Nitrogen, oil fumes, etc., you have to protect the forge site by putting it in a vacuum chamber or an Argon tent. Alternatively you could stream Argon gas on to the worksite, but this gets rather expensive. I don't think Ti can be cold forged. All of the above forging theory is guesswork on my part. I would love to know exactly how the 186 handles were fabricated. The new stuff is all CNCed or stock reduced with saws, grinding belts, and milling machines. The 5-40 tapped holes in the Ti handle are twice as long as the diameter. That would made them difficult to strip. The screws that secure the spring holder must be firmly torqued so that the spring doesn't "unwind" and yield a floppy blade. I find find it hard to properly torque these screws with the on board tool.
 
tiguy7 said:
I got some thumbstuds from Joe Houser by mail and later bought some more when I was in the Buck store. I don't know from links. I don't know how to find them or post them. The thumbstud comes in a plastic envelope with an appropriate Allen key for about $5.00.
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Thanks tiguy, I was thinking you were referring to the online store, I now see you were visiting the Brick & Mortar store. If Buck has the thumb studs available I bet they would sell a bunch out off their website. Good discussion on the Ti... Mike
 
Yes, the scales or side plates were sintered. Mickey Finn located a source for powdered titanium and had a firm sinter the parts for him.

Sintering is a phenomenal process. A few years ago my company did a fit up of an industrial space for a company that was moving into town. They were in the sintering business. They start off with varying alloys of powdered metal depending on the project requirements and use molds and hydraulic presses to form the part out of the powered metal. Some of the parts I saw being made were small gears and the half sphere spacers that engine valve rockers pivot on. When the part comes out of the press you can drop it on the floor and it will shatter. They take the formed parts and run them on a slow moving belt through an industrial furnace. Total time to run through is about 12-14 hours and the temperature is closely monitored and held constant the entire time. The part comes out the other end as hard as a machined part.
 
I forgot to mention, the furnace interior atmosphere is flooded with nitrogen during the entire process to prevent the parts from burning up (oxidizing).
 
More things are making sense. If you forced the powdered Titanium into a mold with a hydralic press and then baked the resultant "part" in a reducing atmosphere to fuse the dust together, you would sometimes wind up with a part that looked like it had been poured into a mold. I sometimes notice sink marks on the inside of the 186 handles. These are very shallow depressions that don't show from the outside. The holes that are molded into the handles would serve to reduce the volume of the part which would lessen shrinkage on cooling.
 
The tool simply unscrews from the protruding and longest screw in the knife.

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It fits neatly into the screw heads. You can use the keyring to gain adequate purchase on the tool.

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A terrific minimal-sized wrench that, if attached to the knife, you can find when needed. Brilliant.

oregon
 
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