Buck 891GCK - anyone have one?

[Thaeris]

I just want to say that... I hope my recent purchases were not made in poor insight. I recently picked up the spearpoint combat-oriented model, and the tanto utility-oriented model. I'm hoping to see them in the mail soon. My consolation is, I'm pretty sure prices aren't going to get any better any time soon. Even better, what was available was at discount. And furthermore, if anyone was trying to get one of these... I'm not trying to rub this in your face! I feel confident that anyone looking for one of these in the coming days will still be able to get one if they seek them out.

I do hope to see the line continue and evolve - I ordered mine in black but I really wanted them in olive drab (which as of this writing was never an option)! In fact, I'd like to know more about the grip materials - I kind of want to see if I can get the handle scales changed out from the black G10 to the brown micarta (I had something similar done with my Vantage Force Pro - I had the G10 changed to wood, and the resulting knife looked so much more classy and was much more comfortable to hold). I wonder if the micarta is more tactile, and I think the color contrast looks great with the brown handle and black blade. Sharing an aesthetic not unlike the Compadre Camp Knife certainly couldn't hurt!

I think the problem for Buck likely stems from PayPal. I have enjoyed using PayPal to date, but I understand the grief some have shared in dealing with them. And, unfortunately, you don't understand that grief until it hits you personally. For instance, I am a big fan of Arms & Armor over in Minnesota. PayPal accused their affiliate, the Oakeshott Institute, of trading in arms, or something like that, and then confiscated their accounts. ...The Oakeshott Institute is a non-profit research organization! And it doesn't matter that PayPal was wrong in their assessment, it seems that as of this writing, they just don't care, and their judgement will stand. In any sense, you will note that there's not a whole lot of "tactical" over at Buck these days, though I still saw the boot knife available for purchase. And, you still have the option to buy from Buck... with PayPal.

But... hopefully this guesstimate is very wrong. I'd love to see more tactical knives from Buck. Either new designs or revisions of previous designs have so much potential - just think of the Intrepid, but in 5160 and the new-style suspension! The future is going to make itself known soon enough, I suppose...

 

[Thaeris]

I thought I'd follow up on this again, seeing as someone else brought up the subject again recently:

890 series discontinued or just out of stock?

Are they gone for good or just out of stoc?

www.bladeforums.com

...Now, I did see the tanto GCKs back on Buck's website a week or so ago, but they're gone now. Not sure what exactly was going on there, but does anyone have some actual details to what's going on with these - if they can say, at least - beyond the phrase, "DISCONTINUED"?

Some notes after having these for a while:

1. The first time I had G10 from Buck it was on the Vantage Force Pro. I didn't care for it and they replaced it with the wood scales from one of the "lower end" Vantages. That knife is with me every day and I love it, but that's another story. The G10 on the 891 is amazing, however, and if I had to assess how it compares to micarta (based on my 104), I'd pick the G10 every day. It's fantastic!

2. Both blade forms are great, but I think the tanto version was a bit of an afterthought after handling both. The differences in handling will be extremely minor, but the 891 (spearpoint) just has that magical feeling to it, if you will. I imagine it was the original design of the knife, and that the tanto was designed afterwards to offer a greater emphasis on "tool" rather than "weapon." Needless to say, with what I know now, if I would have just bought the 891, I'd have been very happy with that choice alone.

3. The design of the spearpoint might seem confusing at first, but it's honestly very good. If you're into medieval arms, you'll note that many weapons had reinforced tips to deal with armor and other tough targets; Buck has done something similar with the 891's blade grind, which incorporates both a distal taper as well as what becomes a triangular reinforced tip! It's really neat, though it is not what you'd normally expect, and so you question the design. The Gideon's Tactical guy did a review which shows the strength of the blade tip very well in this regard if you are inclined to know more. The false edge might seem confusing as well, but this design element is more common than you might think: Japanese tantos had such an edge which was not sharpened (no hardened steel on the spine) to assist in ease of penetration. What becomes odd for many modern users is that the spine could be sharpened, but is not, and that the spine now chews up batons and what have you because it's close to having an edge. This was in fact the issue I had with a Ka-Bar tanto I had for a while, but the overall weight, balance, toughness of the GCK sells me on the package. It carries a few design compromises in order to do a bit of everything well as a general purpose field knife. This is basically the TLDR version of point #2, I suppose.

4. The lack of a guard is a pro or a con depending on the situation, or at least so I am told. If one had to make a field mod to compromise, having some jimping on the knife spine might be the thing to do. Hopefully you'd not be inspired to do such a thing after having an accident of sorts!

5. Those new "Pro" boxes are ridiculous! I've never been so impressed by a piece of fancy cardboard before - it's like some sort of gilded distraction!!!

...Anyway, hope everyone is well, and hope everyone that wanted one of these got them!