Buck and I

A

Alberta Ed

Joined
Jun 29, 1999
Messages
9,575
After meeting C.J. ‘Chuck’ Buck at the new Bass Pro Shop grand opening in Calgary the other day, I got to thinking about how long I’ve been a Buck fan. Turns out that Buck and I go way back, 30 or so years (OK, 40… at least). Naturally, in that span of time I’ve acquired a handful of other blades– Remington, Russell, CS, Marble’s, Mora, Roselli, Benchmade, Dozier -- but often as not, it’s a Buck on my belt. So, in roughly chronological order, allowing for the brain cells I’ve lost along the way…

I think the first Buck I owned was a Ranger, which I wore out along with the pockets of several pairs of jeans. Loved that knife, but it was tough to sharpen, and I eventually wore the blade down on carborundum stones (diamond hones hadn’t been invented yet, those being the Dark Ages).

Then there’s the Buck stockman that now lives in my upland game shooting vest. Bought that in Vancouver, oh, 25 or 30 years ago, for $25. It probably was made by Camillus. There’s a gap where one of the bolsters seems to have spread out a tad, but still no wiggle in the blade. It remains a great whittler. Hard steel, excellent edge-holding properties. Responds best to diamond hones.

Next was a BuckLite 426, the first synthetic-handled folder I’d ever seen. It was way beyond cool. It was a pain to sharpen, but it held a great edge when you got it there. I used it a lot when fishing in Bella Coola, and it’s still in my tackle box, still sharp, and not a spot of rust.

I carried a 119 for hunting and fishing in British Columbia for several years. Gave it to a friend, who still has it.

Around 20 years ago, I sent a letter to Buck inquiring about the new Kraton handled hunting knife, essentially a 119 with a Kraton handle, which I wanted to include in a review of knives for Outdoors Canada magazine. To my surprise, not to mention gratitude, Buck sent me one, along with a nice little rubber-handled paring knife, which is still one of my wife’s favorites (the paring knife has been honed down to a splinter but it gets used daily). The 619 also came with a plastic-lined nylon sheath, another innovation. I used it to field dress a moose. Had to touch up the blade once, but otherwise it sailed through just fine and the grip was unsurpassed when it came to messy, bloody work.

I found a later generation BuckLite on a construction site a few years later, and one of my sons now has it, along with a BuckTool I gave him as a survival tool when we went off to college. (Since he successfully graduated, I want the BuckTool back.) Then there’s the Buck/Strider 880 Spear Point, a Texas-sized tank of a knife I carried off and on for a year. A brother-in-law down in Texas now has it.

My all-time favorite, though, is the classic 110. For some reason I keep coming back to the 110. Chuck Buck mentioned that they’ve made around 12 million of ‘em so far. IMHO it ranks with the humble Mora as one of the best bangs for your Buck (sorry, I just had to say that):D.
 
Ed,
Great stories! Although my father gave me a 102 when I was very young in the early 60's, my first independently purchased Buck knife was a 112 in 1972. Great knife! Thanks for sharing.
Mike
 
In 1967, I bought a Buck 301 stockman at an army PX. I used that knife for the next 25 years in all sort of conditions, to include a tour in the Republic Of South Viet Nam. As I was an army engineer, it saw a lot of use on construction sites. Opened countless bags of cement, cut lines for survey and marking of foundations, sharpening stakes for said line, cut open a million cardboard boxes of rations, and a zillion other uses. Home and out of the service, it saw daily carry and use in my job as a machinist, and as a small game and fish knife. It did well as a trout and bird knife.

In the mid 80's it started to get a bit phased out on the trout and bird knife duty by a Buck 102 woodsman. The woodsman was a great camping and canoing knife, and is still in service to this day. The old stockman has been in semi-retirement.

Unlike some, I never got into the 110, just too big and heavy for me to settle for having just one blade. The stockman gave me a nice choice of three blades, and I loved the versitility, and pocket size dimensions.

For the past two years and some months, I've been carrying a Hartsook that a friend gave as a gift to me for driving him around to his medical treatments. I was sceptic at first, but after carrying it so as to not hurt his feeling, I bacame a Hartsook convert. I love that thing! Like all the other Bucks in my experiance, it does what it was designed to do; cut.

In over 40 years of using Buck knives, I haven't had one let me down yet. To borrow the phrase; They are a lot of bang for the Buck!:thumbup:
 
I met C.J. as well at Bass Pro and the Chinook centre store, "the knifery".

Glad i had a few blades on me and was able to have that sit down with the Buck team. The Ranger story was most memorable.

The new bass store is huge, Calgary is starting to have it all.

Was a pleasure and overall great experience. Definitely keep on buying and gonna have to do the factory tour at some point.

-Tanner.
 
Ya know, Post Falls isn't all that far away... maybe fire up the Harley and amble down this summer:D
 
I bought my first Buck, a 110, in 1976. By the late 70s I had added a 501 (micarta), 118, 119, and 301 to the collection. Since then I have always been a Buck fan, eventually getting things like a couple 112s, an original crosslock, an Alaskan Guide crosslock, a 501MS, 172, 171, and just recently a custom shop 110.

In addition to making great knives, Buck has always impressed me as a company led by people with integrity, and that is important to me in my knife purchasing decisions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top