I bought all of the knives in the Buck Vantage line, and it's kind of hard to review them individually without making a cut-and-paste review, just changing blade steels and handle materials. I'll try though.
This is the Buck Vantage Avid, which is right in the middle: higher quality than the Vantage Select, but not as premium as the Vantage Pro. The Vantage Avid is model number 346GYS, and it's made in the United States. Mine costed $35 on-line.
Here are the specifics...
The Handle: The closed Vantage Avid is 4-1/2" long and 7/16" thick. It's a thin knife; a tiny bit thicker than the $20 Dozier knives from Kabar. The liners are stainless steel, and they're solid (not drilled out). The handles are Dymondwood with a smooth texture and no real pattern; just some random wavy lines. The Dymondwood that I've seen on-line for this knife looked very dark to me, almost black. In real life, the handle scales are pretty nice to look at.
The Buck Knives logo is inlaid into the left handle slab.
The slabs are held in place with two T-6 screws on each side, and the blade pivot pin is adjustable (also a T-6). The knife is an open-build design; there's the blade, a pillar, and a stainless spacer in the butt, and the rest is open. I like this. There is no blade stop pin; instead the liner lock itself stops the blade from overtraveling.
Speaking of the lock, it's a linerlock. Lock-up is solid; no blade play in any direction. The liners are each 1/16" thick. I'm sad to say there is no jimping on the liners where you'd expect to find some jimping on the lock. In fact, there isn't jimping anywhere on the knife at all. It's not a deal-breaker, but it would be nice to have.
The pocket clip is stainless steel, and is held in place via two T-6 screws. It's tip-up only, but can be reversed for left or right-hand carry. It's a deep-carry clip like a SOG in that it rides on the butt of the knife. However, the SOG's clip screws into the butt; the Vantage's clip screws on to the butt.
Clip retention is great; not too loose and not too tight. I thought that because of the smoothness of the handle and the clip, it would move around in my pocket. Not so. It stayed put. The clip is engraved with Buck's anvil logo.
The handle is nice, both in use and in looks. It fits great in your hand due to the finger choil and palm swell.
Continued below...
This is the Buck Vantage Avid, which is right in the middle: higher quality than the Vantage Select, but not as premium as the Vantage Pro. The Vantage Avid is model number 346GYS, and it's made in the United States. Mine costed $35 on-line.
Here are the specifics...
The Handle: The closed Vantage Avid is 4-1/2" long and 7/16" thick. It's a thin knife; a tiny bit thicker than the $20 Dozier knives from Kabar. The liners are stainless steel, and they're solid (not drilled out). The handles are Dymondwood with a smooth texture and no real pattern; just some random wavy lines. The Dymondwood that I've seen on-line for this knife looked very dark to me, almost black. In real life, the handle scales are pretty nice to look at.
The Buck Knives logo is inlaid into the left handle slab.
The slabs are held in place with two T-6 screws on each side, and the blade pivot pin is adjustable (also a T-6). The knife is an open-build design; there's the blade, a pillar, and a stainless spacer in the butt, and the rest is open. I like this. There is no blade stop pin; instead the liner lock itself stops the blade from overtraveling.
Speaking of the lock, it's a linerlock. Lock-up is solid; no blade play in any direction. The liners are each 1/16" thick. I'm sad to say there is no jimping on the liners where you'd expect to find some jimping on the lock. In fact, there isn't jimping anywhere on the knife at all. It's not a deal-breaker, but it would be nice to have.
The pocket clip is stainless steel, and is held in place via two T-6 screws. It's tip-up only, but can be reversed for left or right-hand carry. It's a deep-carry clip like a SOG in that it rides on the butt of the knife. However, the SOG's clip screws into the butt; the Vantage's clip screws on to the butt.
Clip retention is great; not too loose and not too tight. I thought that because of the smoothness of the handle and the clip, it would move around in my pocket. Not so. It stayed put. The clip is engraved with Buck's anvil logo.
The handle is nice, both in use and in looks. It fits great in your hand due to the finger choil and palm swell.
Continued below...
