Buck 301

Well here I am, and I am certainly 'off' clam packs because you can't handle the knife before purchase. I bought a clam pack on ebay that appeared to be a 303 in a 425 package. I bought it for the oddball novelty. Seller said it was new. It wasn't, seller or someone else had broken into clam pack where you couldn't see and put a old 303 with a broken off spey blade inside. So I am still feeling stupid. Dealing with issues on bay takes time.

Review pretty normal. I hate it when grinds/polishing make for lopsided edges. I am critical of finisher and of 'quality control'. Buck may have liberal standard on QC but if that photo of the edges is exceptable I am disappointed. I have always carried the old black sawcut 300 or one I modified with a burlwood scale.
I also like the old long pulls and flat grinds but prefer the new metal. If I was going to pick a 301 to rescale I guess I would choose one from the early eighties with the 425M flat ground blades and live with the little nics.

Yep, all the speys sit proud. I did a thread on that somewhere. I wish they would just give up the spey and do a nice spear blade in its place. But, then I wish the sheepsfoot was a warcliff blade also....ha

Always remember the black sawcut model has a sheild that is a solid pillar of metal and will never fall off.

I have always carried the 303 in a pocket sheath and /or the 309. 309s fit nicely in a watch pocket. And I call it a Sunday knife or a number two knife if I have a small Vantage in my back pocket.

That tang looks a little poorly stamped I will agree. Date code to close too the model number. I generally have on liked the red dymondwood scales on the 300s but take a look at the new for 2013, brass bolstered models. Something about them are appealling.

300Bucks
 
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Looks good, for its intended purpose. I like my delrin 301, and in fact was carrying it today. It's quite overbuilt, and certainly a workhorse of a knife. Mine has a hint of play in the main blade as well, but I can certainly live with it. I love the knife a great deal, and have grown fond of it. The light pull feels awkward at first, but I've come to like it. In short the 300 series are made to use IMHO, and aren't just real attractive to some.
 
I have 3 of the 301, one in black, one in yellow, one in dymondwood. The black one was tight and well finished but is very very weak on the snap. The yellow was weak on the snap with a tad bit of wobble. The dymondwood had good snap and a tad bit of wobble. The grind on the dymondwood was terrible for the spey. The rest of its blades were fine. Overall, I tightened up the yellow and the dymondwood and worked the grinds to a great edge. For $30 I am happy with the knives. They are made in the USA and will be solid users for decades. No complaints but I would like buck to put a little more snap in their knives. I can fix the rest.
 
I've carried my 301 everyday for a month and I've absolutely love it. I like the thick blades and rough finish.
 
Woodrow F Call said:
Design oddity: I wasn’t sure what to call this one. The spey blade sits a little proud of the liners. I searched and apparently it’s designed this way. It doesn’t catch on anything. I don’t see a real problem with it…. It just looks odd since it doesn’t sit below the liner.
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bemo said:
I'm 300Bucks will be along to comment as he's the expert on these, but it seems all of the spey blades on Bucks sit proud like that. I've got 2 303's and a 301 and have looked at a number of them in stores and they're all like that. I've heard the new 301's are actually tougher than the old Camillus made ones, but I sure do miss the old ones; a little more refined.
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Somewheres or other in the Buck Forum is a thread in which the exposed spey tip was discussed. In it, I espoused a theory that when they brought the 301 in house and redesigned it, they made a goof. If you look at most stockman knives, the wider section of the scale is at the side with the spey tip, so it is covered. But when Buck swapped the spey and the sheepsfoot end for end, they forgot to flip the scale so that it would still cover the spey tip. Chuck Buck himself posted in the thread and he had his engineers look at the design.

They came to the same conclusion that I did: to fix it would mean retooling. Very expensive. And as has been mentioned, while it's noticeable, I'm unaware of anyone ever reporting that they caught their finger in it, or even that the end got dull from the exposure. As you say, a design oddity.

One thing that is not an oddity is the lovely way the sheepsfoot is right where you want it if you are opening it and are right-handed. That's part of what they produced when they redesigned the knife.

LOVE the 301 and 303. But most of you folks knew that.
 
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