Buck 501: Telling S30V and 420HC apart?

BG42EDGE said:
Mine don't give that information, but my packing slip does.

As with all things Buck, there are variations.

Yours is an improvement, I hope they stay with it.

(Hope they improve the steel offered, too.)

:)
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That's good to know BG, I never have kept the packing slips:o

Anyone have one of the 501 Heritage knives? If so, how were they marked?
jb4570
 
KDUJ said:
I have a 501 from Buck’s custom shop with S30V with no marking on the blade. The packing list is the only thing that has S30V on it.
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That's the same with my new 501, but I ordered it as an EDC, and it shouldn't bother me that it's not etched or stamped.....but it does

My Heritage 501 has the S30V Bos stamp
 
McGrain said:
Thanks for all the replies up till now. I guess I will have to order from buck-knives directly and ask them to stamp bladesteel-name and BOS logo on it for me.
I guess I am just not at peace if I were to buy one from elsewhere on the internet with a lingering possibility to get a fake or plain 420HC one.
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McG, good luck when you call Buck... I just got a new 110 N/S F/G ram handle for Christmas and the blade sucks... I love my knife and all, but I hate when they etch or laser etch the blade... My COA doesn't say anything about the blade, But like BG said my packing slip does... ITE ...
 
all this talk about no etchings, no stamps, plus the whole batches of knives for the BCCI without steel type etchings got me to thinking about my AGR canoe...it came in with a tang mis-stamp..the top half of BUCK was missing, also it had no signatures AND no blade steel type etchings...Even with a COA I thought...down the road how the heck am I going to prove this thing is authentic ??? That was last March. I sent it back to AG for a replacement...if enough knives get returned perhaps the squeeky wheel will get the grease! Perhaps the Custom shop is just overwhelmed with buisness...or perhaps there just aren't enough checks and balances in place...
I would think that Custom means perfect and would include a thorough inspection....I started wondering if Buck knives are individually inspected or Batch inspected, whereby someone grabs one or two here and there and gives them a "look-see"....Sorry for the rant:rolleyes:
 
BG42EDGE said:
I saw from the start that this change to etching and lasering instead of stamping was going to bring trouble.

Apparently they refuse to stamp blades anymore, so I'll give them no more business in the Custom Shoppe.

If they thought they could increase their profits by etching instead of stamping......they miscalculated.
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Its possible I won't ever buy another "new" Buck. In November I bought a csar-T folder and the etching is aready fading out. The C is already gone and the rest of letters is getting really light.
 
exiled13 said:
Its possible I won't ever buy another "new" Buck. In November I bought a csar-T folder and the etching is aready fading out. The C is already gone and the rest of letters is getting really light.
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What you are calling an "etch" on the CSAR-T is not an etch, I believe it's more accurately called a "pad print". The etching being discussed here is actually etched into the metal, not something "printed" on it and will take a lot to wear it off."

Here's an example.

Koatangstamp2.jpg
 
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Doesn't matter what you call it, the name isn't the issue.

The issue is that it's a cheap, crappy way to mark a blade and it promotes fakes.

It is clearly a cynical cost-cutting and profit-taking method that is unworthy of the Buck family and an insult to Buck customers.

That's the issue.
 
My point is that the CSAR-T is not etched, and is not a CS or Limited Edition from the BCCI so it isn't relevant to the discussion IMO. I've yet to see a CS knife that was printed (like the CSAR). They either have nothing (mistakes or oversights) , etched or stamped if they are a premium steel.

This thread was started regarding a CS knife and not production run knives with the printing on the blade.

I agree that the new etching is less desirable and classy than the old stamped versions but I'll not put my own spin on why Buck has chosen to do that. Joe gave an explaination some time ago and if that's not good enough for some folks, so be it.
 
Oh, it's relevant......all discussion about stamps and etches and lasering is relevant.

Joe's explanation (stamps break blades) doesn't hold water.

Buck blades were stamped for more than 50 years and this "problem" was never mentioned.

Buck is not our daddy (at least not for most of us) and "because I say so" is not gonna work in this case.

If the extra expense of stamping blades is going to put them out of business things must be even worse at Buck than we thought.
 
Relevance, like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If the intention is to derail the thread away from the Custom Shop stamps and etches then it's relevant, but it deserves a thread of its own.

I've not seen as I said, a single printed one come from the CS, but there are bunches of others that are and have been for sometime, printed and not etched. That's nothing new.
 
ItsTooEarly said:
McG, good luck when you call Buck... I just got a new 110 N/S F/G ram handle for Christmas and the blade sucks... I love my knife and all, but I hate when they etch or laser etch the blade... My COA doesn't say anything about the blade, But like BG said my packing slip does... ITE ...
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Did you miss this?

It sounds to me like he's talking about a Custom Shoppe knife.
 
ItsTooEarly said:
McG, good luck when you call Buck... I just got a new 110 N/S F/G ram handle for Christmas and the blade sucks... I love my knife and all, but I hate when they etch or laser etch the blade... My COA doesn't say anything about the blade, But like BG said my packing slip does... ITE ...
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Did you miss this? Picture added.

PC291484.jpg
 
All of us can argue the potato -VS- patoto type issue's all day and get no where fast. The OP was on the steel up grade blades that have no marking to show they are an up grade in steel. Why Buck is not marking now is anyone's guess and that decision is above our pay grade as we are all just customers and not part of buck's management team.

When I buy a knife that has better than the standard steel used on the majority of a knife makers products; I want to see it marked on the knife period. I don't care if it's stamped, deep laser etched, or laser burned on the blade. That's just me, if i pay for an up grade in steel and it's not marked on the blade, i'll contact the maker and if they don't want to show that information on their product....i'll spend my cash some where else. We all have free will on that, it's just that simple.
jb4570
 
I did miss that and if it's a print of some kind and not an "etch", then I'll stand corrected. I only said that I'd never seen one. I just got off the phone with Armand (ITE) and when he gets home today he will take a better and clearer picture of the tang and give his opinion of whether or not it's a print or etch of some kind.
 
As I said before, it doesn't matter what name they tag it with or how they do it--just look at it.

It looks cheap and crappy and encourages fakes.

That's the important issue that Buck needs to deal with.
 
Plumberdv said:
I did miss that and if it's a print of some kind and not an "etch", then I'll stand corrected. I only said that I'd never seen one. I just got off the phone with Armand (ITE) and when he gets home today he will take a better and clearer picture of the tang and give his opinion of whether or not it's a print or etch of some kind.
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Thanks Pdave, for the phone call, it was really nice to hear from you... Okay I was really trying to take some good pics of the markings on the blade but it's so hard to get any because the etching is so lite... So anyway I think it is laser etch real lite on the blade, because I can feel some real lite nicks with my fingernail when I go across the markings... It is a Buck CS knife... Like I said I love the knife, I just don't care for the way they stamped or laser etch the blade... I sure hope they go back to there old way of stamping there blades... ITE

Sorry about the pics...
P1081529.jpg


P1081530.jpg


P1081531.jpg


P1081532.jpg


:)
 
It looks to me to be the same method that was used on mine. Your's may be lighter, but looks to be much better done. Mine looks like it was done freehand and by someone maybe just learning. I can feel the metal displacement with my fingernail as you can so it's into the metal, not on it. I don't know what method is used to do it (laser or engraver) but it isn't just printed on like the CSAR-T and many others. Mine is really ugly compared to what I can see of yours.

Koatangstamp1.jpg


Koatangstamp2.jpg
 
Pdave, that B on your knife blade really sucks... Now that's bad... I fill lucky now... LOL... :eek::eek::eek:
 
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