- Joined
- Mar 10, 2010
- Messages
- 86
I've had my Vantage Select for about a month now, and I'd like to share my thoughts on it.
Ergonomics: The knife feels great in your hand, and I don't even notice the pocket clip when I'm holding it, which is really nice. The top of the spine has a polish job on it, and therefore is pretty slippery. It's not a huge deal, but some jimping would have been really nice. Because the flipper acts as a guard, you lose about half an inch of handle space. It's fine for me because I have small hands, but people with larger hands might have a problem.
Fit and Finish: The F&F is pretty nice. The handle scales extend a tiny bit past the liners on the top and bottom, but line up perfectly on the sides. The bottom of the opening hole is a little bit rough, but no big deal. The blade centering is a little bit off, but not touching the liner. However, when I close it quickly, sometimes I push a little to the left and the blade rubs the liner. The edge doesn't hit it though, so it's no big deal for me. The lockup is tight, no play, and you get a good engagement with the liner. The blade was push cutting newspaper out of the box.
Design: One thing that I noticed right away is that there is no stop pin on the back of the knife. Instead, there seems to be a small metal stud attached to the blade inside the pivot area. Despite being small, the flipper works very well; after having it for a while, I can easily open it without a wrist flick. The flipper has the same polish as the spine, so it can get a little slippery. The blade detent is pretty weak, so you can shake out the blade if you want. The pocket clip is nice and rides deep. It's not too tight and goes in and out of the pocket well. Something I noticed was that it will flex a tiny bit side to side.
The blade grind is nice, and allows for a nice sharp edge. However, the spine is not swedged or tapered, meaning that the last half inch or so of cutting edge is pretty thick. It's still sharp, though. I do feel that it takes more effort to cut cardboard because the flipper takes up handle space, meaning your hand is farther back from the cutting edge. The steel is 420HC, but with Buck's heat treatment, it's pretty good. It gets really sharp and is easy to sharpen. It holds its edge about as well as my Kershaw in 8CR13MOV.
Overall, I'm very happy with the Buck Vantage Select. It's a great knife for the money and I think you should take a look at it if you haven't already. Thanks for reading and I hope this helped!
Ergonomics: The knife feels great in your hand, and I don't even notice the pocket clip when I'm holding it, which is really nice. The top of the spine has a polish job on it, and therefore is pretty slippery. It's not a huge deal, but some jimping would have been really nice. Because the flipper acts as a guard, you lose about half an inch of handle space. It's fine for me because I have small hands, but people with larger hands might have a problem.
Fit and Finish: The F&F is pretty nice. The handle scales extend a tiny bit past the liners on the top and bottom, but line up perfectly on the sides. The bottom of the opening hole is a little bit rough, but no big deal. The blade centering is a little bit off, but not touching the liner. However, when I close it quickly, sometimes I push a little to the left and the blade rubs the liner. The edge doesn't hit it though, so it's no big deal for me. The lockup is tight, no play, and you get a good engagement with the liner. The blade was push cutting newspaper out of the box.
Design: One thing that I noticed right away is that there is no stop pin on the back of the knife. Instead, there seems to be a small metal stud attached to the blade inside the pivot area. Despite being small, the flipper works very well; after having it for a while, I can easily open it without a wrist flick. The flipper has the same polish as the spine, so it can get a little slippery. The blade detent is pretty weak, so you can shake out the blade if you want. The pocket clip is nice and rides deep. It's not too tight and goes in and out of the pocket well. Something I noticed was that it will flex a tiny bit side to side.
The blade grind is nice, and allows for a nice sharp edge. However, the spine is not swedged or tapered, meaning that the last half inch or so of cutting edge is pretty thick. It's still sharp, though. I do feel that it takes more effort to cut cardboard because the flipper takes up handle space, meaning your hand is farther back from the cutting edge. The steel is 420HC, but with Buck's heat treatment, it's pretty good. It gets really sharp and is easy to sharpen. It holds its edge about as well as my Kershaw in 8CR13MOV.
Overall, I'm very happy with the Buck Vantage Select. It's a great knife for the money and I think you should take a look at it if you haven't already. Thanks for reading and I hope this helped!
