Buck Marksman, looking for comments...

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moray campbell

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Mar 8, 2018
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I am considering purchasing a Buck Marksman and wanted comments from owners past/present or those who have used it for a good while on how well the lock functions. Looking for comments on strengths and weaknesses of the lock design and its application in the Marksman. I am also interested in comments on the Paul Bos heat treat. Overall comments good bad or indifferent on the knife. I just want to get feel for the knife. Thanks.
 
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I have both the tanto and drop point. Out of box the tanto had better lockup than the drop point but should be easily adjustable if you have the proper tools. The lockbar I think is designed for two hand closing but one hand closing is possible. The pivot screws on mine loosen after every 50 or so repeat open/close but I think it is a trade off between letting the bearings glide to allow the blade to flail with no resistance or to tighten the screws and add some extra flick when opening. Here is an abuse video I found if that helps with the lock design aspect although I'd never put mine to such abuse lol.
 
The Bos heat treat is the best in the industry.
I can't comment on that knife, since I've never had that one.
 
Wallace Mutt said:
I have both the tanto and drop point. Out of box the tanto had better lockup than the drop point but should be easily adjustable if you have the proper tools. The lockbar I think is designed for two hand closing but one hand closing is possible. The pivot screws on mine loosen after every 50 or so repeat open/close but I think it is a trade off between letting the bearings glide to allow the blade to flail with no resistance or to tighten the screws and add some extra flick when opening. Here is an abuse video I found if that helps with the lock design aspect although I'd never put mine to such abuse lol.
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Hey thanks for the reply and also for posting this video. I did see that and it shows a flaw in the application of this design. I agree I would not be pounding on my bearing/pivot assembly. However it highlights the effect of a jarring impact upon the locking strap. some sort of secondary lock would deal with that but in normal use I cannot imagine this problem being a concern but that is why my post to see what owners have found.

Have other owners experienced any situations which caused the lock to fail? I won't be beating on my knife so that won't occur for my use. Have you considered using some locktite on yor pivot screws to keep them in place?
 
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I've carried and used mine quite a lot. Well made knife, no failure issues or difficulties. The lock is fun and interesting and you can definitely close it one-handed once you get the trick of it. Action is very, very good, but be careful closing it, as it can be a bit of a finger guillotine.

Heat treat seems spot on with mine, but I'm also using a limited edition with S35VN, so I can't comment on the performance of the 154CM.
 
Buck heat treats all their blades in-house.
Paul Bos developed all the heat treat for Buck before he retired. Paul's protege (if you will) took over that department when Paul retired.
Even without the "BOS" on the blade, it has the Bos heat treat, regardless of the blade steel and knife model.
 
if that is the case then why do some Buck knives bear the Bos logo? I don't doubt that Buck do a good job and agree that they know how Bos treats the steels they use but why then pay extra to have the Bos logo on a blade. Why pay extra to have exactly what Buck can do for less?
 
I have used and abused mine. It’s now my work knife when I’m building something or working on the house.

I have the original 154CM model. I put different scales on it 2-3 years ago and haven’t taken a wrench to the pivot yet, and don’t recall whether I used any thread lock.

It’s a terrific design that in all I’ve put it through, hasn’t failed me once. The blade holds a great edge and comes right back with a few licks on the sticks.

If tactical folders with high quality materials and great fidget-factor is your thing, I’d bet there are few better ones out there!

Yeah...
 
moray campbell said:
if that is the case then why do some Buck knives bear the Bos logo? I don't doubt that Buck do a good job and agree that they know how Bos treats the steels they use but why then pay extra to have the Bos logo on a blade. Why pay extra to have exactly what Buck can do for less?
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It’s branding and simple recognition. You’re not paying more or less because of that logo.

Buck only marks blades made with steels other than their standard offering, which is 420HC.

If you’re really into knives to the point that metallurgy is important to you, then how the metal is tempered and hardened should be equally as important.

Q. How do you know if your that person?
A. You know the difference between “S30V” and “BOS S30V”.
 
One says BOS...Ha!Ha!

The process of the tempering of the metal, BOS used extreme cold to achieve his goal, didn't he?
 
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I like mine well. Lock is neat, I did adjust mine some when I got it but since then its been great. I prefer the Vantage as it fits my hand better and is more comfortable in use. If I had any negative on the Marksman it would be that I find the metal handle a bit sharp and hard on my hand if I'm using it much, may just be me though.

Great knife for the price.
 
Thanks for your response. I do not doubt Paul Bos's skill as a heat treated he has a stellar reputation. I simply wanted to have a better understanding of of the agreement that Buck and Bos have . I have seen videos of Bos treating Buck blades and I see his name on some of the blades so they must be paying to have his name there. I also wanted to know if when Bos treats a blade if you get a different/better treat than what Paul Farner will do at Buck?
My next fixed blade knife will be a 420HC Buck blade I want to compare it to a 420HC Portland Gerber that I have. The Gerber takes a great edge easily and quickly but I fully expect the Buck 420HC to better the Gerber so far as edge retention goes and yet still be as easy to sharpen.
An easy way to make a knife keep its edge longer is to decrease the angle of the cutting edge. I usually re-profile to about 15 degrees inclusive for my pocket knives. The sharper edge requires less force to cut so it encounters less daily pressure/wear and thus it will last longer than the same blade with an inclusive angel of say 20 - 25 degrees. This all depends of course on what you plan to cut and how but I generally don't ask my knives to do hard use. Almost as important as a good heat treat is a cool edge grinding. Belt sanding edges can cause enough heat build up to damage the treat on the steel near the edge. I have found a good number of blades which did not hold an edge well until they had bee sharpened a number of time to remove the damaged steel at the edge. I have to thank Michael Christy for this information. I watched a number of his videos one including a pocket knife from a respected maker which took over a half dozen sharpenings to get down to good undamaged steel, this was an extraordinary case. Scraping off the old edge before putting on the new will remove the old and damaged steel making the blade ready for a clean fresh edge.
 
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ohen cepel said:
I like mine well. Lock is neat, I did adjust mine some when I got it but since then its been great. I prefer the Vantage as it fits my hand better and is more comfortable in use. If I had any negative on the Marksman it would be that I find the metal handle a bit sharp and hard on my hand if I'm using it much, may just be me though.
Great knife for the price.
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Thank you for responding. When you comment on the handle being sharp in your hands are you referring specifically to the scales or to the lock strap or both? One review suggested that the lock strap was fine in some holds but in a full round grip such as carving wood used to cut feather sticks, the twisting action of the blade made the serrated edge on the side of the lock strap cut into the hands. Did you ever find this an issue?
 
moray campbell said:
I also wanted to know if when Bos treats a blade if you get a different/better treat than what Paul Farner will do at Buck?
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Same...
Paraphrasing to the best f my recollection.
Paul Bos heat treated some blades for Buck many years ago.
Buck like this so much, they hired him.
Paul Bos set up and overseen all of Buck's heat treating until his retirement. He still treated blades for the customers while at Buck and one can still send blades to Buck to be treated using Bos' system.
Paul Farner worked with Bos at Buck for 126 years. Farner maintains Bos' system still today.
Buck owns the Bos logo and system for treating blades.

You can find this information in greater detail via a forum search.

To sum things up, have faith that Mr. Farner is capable enough that it's like Paul Bos has his own hands on the blades.
 
Thanks a lot. I will do some searching. Do you know if Buck also include a cryo bath/soak as part of their standard treatment? I am curious but I do not doubt that Buck know how to treat a piece of steel and I will be happy with that.
I am getting the impression that the Marksman is a flippers flipper and a very good knife on top of that. I like the tanto blade version most but that's just me
 
The Marksman is my favorite Buck model, I have the regular, S35VN, and CF/S90V model ( which has much smoother scales than the other two) I don't find any of the handles particularly uncomfortable. I haven't had any lock failures in regular EDC tasks, but haven't beat on our batoned them though either. Adjusting the lock is very easy, which I did on the S35VN version to get it where I wanted it and haven't had to adjust it since.
 
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