first impressions of Buck Mayo 172

Got the Buck/Mayo this morning, Mon. It was here last Sat. but was unable to get it until this morning. This knife is great. The fit and finish is great. Lock up is solid and the opening is smooth. This is the sharpest I have had a production knife come out of the box. I would like to encourage anyone interested in one to trade with Larry Oden. Price is right and Larry is a stand up guy that gives good service.
 
I had the good fortune to handle TWO Buck/Mayos on Saturday, one at Knife Expo '03 and my own when it arrived! Another plug for Larry: he's a great guy to deal with.

My first reaction when I picked up the display piece was, "Wow, this thing is light!" At less than 3 oz, it's comparable to my Victorinox Soldier in heft. The show knife was flawless, as to be expected, with very smooth action and secure lockup. No finish or grind errors at all.

I scrutinized my own Buck/Mayo when it arrived and am delighted with it. The high hollow grind and thinly-ground edge makes it an extremely efficient cutter for most materials. Make no mistake: this is no prying tool, nor is it a heavy-duty folder. I have faith in S30V, but even fantastic steel and heat treat can't overcome a geometry unsuited for extreme work. I measured my blade at a hair over 3 1/8", tip to scale. No blade play vertically or horizontally when locked.

Okay now for a few nit-picky things: I agree with Larry about the electro-etched logos. They look fine from a distance but close up they're not very 'clean' and precise. Stamped or laser-etched would be great. Near the base of the edge I found a speck of scale that the polisher missed. No problem, just rubbed some CrO compound with a q-tip and it's gone. The inside of the opening hole is kinda rough, so I took some 100-grit SiC powder on a moistened q-tip to smooth it out some. (If you try this be very, very careful not to get any SiC in the pivot, or you will hear a sickening grinding sound when you open/close the knife!)

The lockup is tight, but the locking bar only engages the tang about 60%. More contact would be nice but I'm not worried, breaking the knife in and eventual wear should move the bar over in time. The handle scales are machined very well, with no unsightly tool marks or errors. Even the edges of the holes are chamfered nicely. The pocket clip is slim and TIGHT. I have a really hard time clipping the knife to jeans and even khakis. The clip is positioned perfectly between the slot for the frame lock and the holes on that side. Very unobtrusive, as Rob19 pointed out, and does not interfere with reinforcing the frame lock.

The action on my 172 was not as smooth as the display model I handled at the show. The beginning of the opening stroke was smooth, but it got a bit rough about halfway open. Cycling the knife should smooth it out. Buck uses a thicker, gel-like lubricant that makes the action feel more fluid. I felt this on their Alpha folder also. The washers are very thin and almost impossible to see. Using a very bright light, it appeared to me that one is white and the other is copper-colored. I asked the Buck rep and he said that Buck is moving towards bronze washers, but he didn't know about the 172 for sure.

I took a risk and flushed out all of the original lube with Gunscrubber. Now the action was rough the entire stroke. I heated the joint with a hairdryer and applied some Militec-1. I could immediately tell that the blade opened easier, as if I had loosened the pivot. This week I'll be reapplying Militec several more times to see how smooth I can get it. The stuff has done wonders for my BM Axis AFCK and my friend's Emerson Specwar, and I know it takes a few applications to get it really smooth.

The perfectionists out there will not find Sebenza-like QC but the 172 has all the right elements to excel as an EDC cutting tool: excellent steel, heat treat, and blade geometry, lightweight handle, solid lockup, smooth action, and fit & finish that most production folders can't match. And if I may say so, this is simply one SEXY knife ;) .

Look, it's designed by Tom Mayo and executed by Buck. What more needs to be said? :D
 
Best knife i have ever owned,so far. I still want it tip up carry. Just made a titanium clip for it. Anybody know what thread size the screw is for the clip? Have to buy the tap.Thanks.:confused:
 
The blade is thin and incredibly sharp out of the box.

Thumb slot is well placed relative to the cut-out in the scale.

The clip is unbelieveably tight - just as useless as the one Tom puts on his knives - which is okay with me, as I don't clip my TNT anyway.

I have always liked Tom's double guard feature on the medium design, and this one is no different. I wish more knives were designed this way.

The whole package is exceptially light, which is always a pleasure.

The least appealing feature to me is the beadblast finish - too coarse for my taste, although it will smooth out with time. It is nothing like Tom's glass blast finish.

Another feature that I can only evaluate in my imagination since I have cut anything with it, are the square-edge scales. Even with a light grip, these seem a bit harsh. It seems to me that a simple chamfering or easing pass over the edges is warranted.

Overall, an excellent design. The execution on the scales needs improvement IMO, but I assume this will come in time, as comments from users flow in and more Buck/Mayo projects take place over time.

A good addition to the overload. ;)
 
I put my comments else where, but I'll just add that the addition of some CRK grease helped the action of mine quite a bit.

Can anyone say that owns both a Buck and real Mayo, what percentage of the Buck is like the real one?
 
Well Dave - I have a large, thick-bladed Mayo upswept-wharncliffe in Stellite 6K, so except for the fact that they are both framelocks with thumbslots, and that they both have a useless clip :p ; I'd say in my case they really have nothing to do with one another.

Seriously, while the blade on the 172 is pretty well finished, the handles seems like they are perhaps how a CNC blank might show up at Tom's doorstep if/when he starts making mid-techs.
 
useless clip my ass!!!!

Its made to stay put..........you dont want to lose that thing do you??? :confused:


We ground the S30V thin on purpose, in case any of you didnt read the Simonich article in BLADE last summer, that stuff CAN REALLY TAKE ABUSE!!!!!!!

Also, the washers are made from teflon, like mine are, getting them too hot cant be a good idea! :eek:


Thanks for the kind words...........Tom
 
Thank you, Tom! Don't worry my hairdryer doesn't get too hot, but the heat does help thin the Militec out so it penetrates easier and bonds better. I look forward to more collaborations in the future!
 
Both of the Washers are teflon.
A Militec-1 grease is used on bearing surfaces (It is not used on Alpha)
Steel, Why do you feel you won't get Sebenza type QC? I can tell ya we went over these with a fine tooth comb. Please let me know how you think my group can do better..

Tom, you crack me up.. I'll take a look at belt clips for tightness...

I'm glad the overall impression is a good one. We spend a lot of time on each one to get them right..

Jeff
 
Forget about clipping your knife in jeans ! Mine won't go in unless I pull the clip open first(not the way it should be).I will be rounding out the edges of mine. Will Buck refinish it for me? Or does anybody do refinishing like bead blasting,etc? Love the knife though.:p
 
Jeff,

You guys are doing a fantastic job; I hope you don't take my comments to mean that the QC needs improvement, or that Sebenzas are all absolutely perfect in every way. Let me elaborate a bit on the minor flaws I found on my 172. I consider the following as items that should have been caught before the knife left the factory.

At the base of the blade (where the steel becomes full thickness, near the edge) on the "BOS" side I found scratches and a ~1.5 mm speck of gray scale that was not polished off. I easily removed this with CrO compound, but that area missed the satin polish that the rest of the blade got. You can still see that it is slightly rough. The "BUCK" side of the blade was fine in this area.

Near the end of one of the handle scales is a faint discoloration of the Ti. It was not residue or something that came off with water or windex.

The inside of the oval opening hole was dark gray, rough and unpolished. I tried to smooth it out and at least now it is the same bright metallic color as the rest of the blade.

About 60% of the locking bar engages the tang on lockup. Closer to 100% would be nice, but normal wear should improve this.

The action was smooth out of the box, but a little rough from halfway until fully open. Not gritty or that catch-and-slip feel, but almost like the detent was riding over slightly rough metal (not sure of this). The Buck Mayo at the show was smooth all the way, even while opening slowly.

Boy that pocket clip is TIGHT! To clip it to my pants I need both hands: one to push the knife down and the other to simultaneously pull the clip up slightly. Perhaps a taller flare at the end of the clip will help it catch the fabric better. Right now the tip of the clip just rams into the edge of the pocket and refuses to lift at all.

Aside from the pocket clip, I would like to see a finer bead blasted finish on the handle scales. That's it, otherwise this is as perfect an EDC as I can imagine (barring customs ;) ). If you don't mind Jeff, could I exchange my 172 for another? I know what your team is capable of (having examined the Knife Expo 172) and maybe I'll get a better one this time around. I'm the only one here mentioning these problems :D so everyone else must have 172s like the one I handled at the show :eek: .
 
larry.....heard anything else about the trickling source of these knives?......havent heard anything in a while from you....have you received any more than the initial 20?....i have prepaid for 2 and am still waiting patiently.....feverdoc
 
feverdoc,
I don't know where you ordered from, but I got an email last Thurday from Bayou Lafourche saying mine was being shipped.
Yesss!:D :D :D
G.
 
Larry:

Do you have any idea when your next one's will ship. I've been waiting patiently;) for a few months.

Dan
 
Mine came!
:D
I haven't had the chance to check it out much yet. It did have a little "goop" on it. It was kind of like masking tape residue on the blade and end of the handle. Blade was verrry sharp.
I also noticed inside the thumbhold was a little blue. I wouldn't have noticed it or looked for it except someone else's post mentioned it. The knife is light for it's size which is not a surprise. I like the blade a lot. Clip was NOT too tight. Blade was centered well and opened smoothly.
Did I mention it was very sharp?
Looking forward to carrying it.
G.
;)
 
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