Forum Knife Updates and comments

[Gary W. Graley]

My review stands as I think Buck did a very good job, my example that arrived was tightly made, no gaps, both blades operated nicely with good pulls and snaps, my only pet peeve and usually I stand all alone in this was the blade thickness behind the edge, after I sharpened them up they cut better, but for me just too thick, most are probably ok with that as it does provide a stronger blade.

So, if you guys/gals view the video...my first unboxing video, you can turn down the volume so as not to hear my poor wife's coughing which is not something she's ever had as bad as this...and no, she is not a smoker, just some virus we think.

So the video, images are there to bolster the fact that there are nice knives delivered, among those that did have some hiccups, again my point is the blade thickness could be thinner and that is all that lead me to move mine along.

G2

 

[DelOro]

Nothing wrong with passing along a knife you like, but may never use.

Actually, it's a gesture of good faith.

Hope your wife gets to feeling better too!

- Del

My review stands as I think Buck did a very good job, my example that arrived was tightly made, no gaps, both blades operated nicely with good pulls and snaps, my only pet peeve and usually I stand all alone in this was the blade thickness behind the edge, after I sharpened them up they cut better, but for me just too thick, most are probably ok with that as it does provide a stronger blade.

So, if you guys/gals view the video...my first unboxing video, you can turn down the volume so as not to hear my poor wife's coughing which is not something she's ever had as bad as this...and no, she is not a smoker, just some virus we think.

So the video, images are there to bolster the fact that there are nice knives delivered, among those that did have some hiccups, again my point is the blade thickness could be thinner and that is all that lead me to move mine along.

G2

 

[Modoc ED]

My review stands as I think Buck did a very good job, my example that arrived was tightly made, no gaps, both blades operated nicely with good pulls and snaps, my only pet peeve and usually I stand all alone in this was the blade thickness behind the edge, after I sharpened them up they cut better, but for me just too thick, most are probably ok with that as it does provide a stronger blade.

So, if you guys/gals view the video...my first unboxing video, you can turn down the volume so as not to hear my poor wife's coughing which is not something she's ever had as bad as this...and no, she is not a smoker, just some virus we think.

So the video, images are there to bolster the fact that there are nice knives delivered, among those that did have some hiccups, again my point is the blade thickness could be thinner and that is all that lead me to move mine along.

G2

Gary W. Graley - I never considered the thickness of the blades because it is a stockman (Buck 301) minus the spey blade and this particular knife is 4". Most stockman this size are meant to be a work knife thereby requiring a stout, robust, thickish, blade meant for work around say a ranch, farm, etc..

I can see where you're coming from Gary but a thinner, flexier, blade, in my mind, would not permit the heavy use such a knife was intended for. The Buck 303 was an option but did not gain the majority as I think most wanted a bigger knife not realizing/considering the thickness of the blade of such a knife.

Hope the wife gets better.

 

[gaj999]

Out for delivery! Finally. Four days late. Yee Haw. Soon I find out how I did in the lottery ... fingers crossed.

 

[cigarrodog]

Gary W. Graley -Hope your wife feels better soon.

 

[Buzzbait]

I can see where you're coming from Gary but a thinner, flexier, blade, in my mind, would not permit the heavy use such a knife was intended for.

I understand your point, but I don't think this is a durability issue. The grind on some of these forum knives is even thicker than a standard Buck 301, which is almost legendary in terms of toughness. The spine thickness is the same as a standard 301, but not the thickness behind the edge. Caleb from Buck knows of the issue with my particular knife's thick grind, and has determined this to be a manufacturing aberration. The intended thickness was the same as a normal Buck 301, but there seems to have been some accidental variation in the run.

My knife went back to Buck yesterday. I'm sure that Buck will make things right. They've always done right for me in the past.

 

[Icky Thump]

Very pleased. The gnarls and crags are a little deeper and more textured than are coming across in pics. Main seems to have a great edge, good walk and talk..snaps shut. Sheep is a little lazy to open, decent snap close. A little mineral oil and some working should remedy that lazy open, Im expecting.

Fine example. Much thanks to Buck and SKBlades for great knife and great effort. The Forum knives are a representation of something that is greater than its sum of parts and materials. This example is a winner in my book.

I may move this down the road. If anyone feels the need for an explanation, please PM me your home phone number and I will call you at my next convenience.

Thank you, again to Buck and SKBlades..

 

[madcap_magician]

That's not actually true, you can have the same behind the edge thickness regardless of grind...Buck just chose not to grind them as thin as I and some others would like. As you progress up from the edge is where the grind will make a difference.

~Chip

Oh I suppose that is true. You would have a less acute primary bevel though.

 

[Cvrobinson]

I can’t believe they’ve been received and resold on the exchange yet I sit and wait for mine to ship.

I’m in the boat with you brother! Keep rowing, we’ll get there. OH

Got any room in the boat for one more

 

[Peregrin]

Hey, folks! Requests to purchase or trade don't belong in this thread or the discussion forums at all. There are "wanted to buy" and "wanted to trade" sub-forums in the exchange. Any more posts on buying/selling/trading will be summarily moved offline, as soon as they are seen. Thanks.

 

[glocktenman]

Here are my two. I ended up with a smoothish one and a craggy one. The pull on both blades of both knives are about a five and three of them need to be pushed the last bit to full open. The clip blade of the smoother knife does actually snap open a bit. There is no blade-play or rub and the blades are pretty well centered. I can’t comment on how thick they are behind the edge having no micrometer. but they don’t look too thick to me. There are a couple small, inconsequential gaps between the springs and liners of the craggy example. The smooth example, on the other hand has quite a few gap problems. I haven’t decided if I am going to keep the smoother one, but I’m really glad I purchased two knives! I really, really like the craggy knife and included more pictures of it.

Thanks to everyone who worked on this project. Thanks to Steven, Buck Knives and BladeForums in particular.

That craggy one is a fine example. It looks great. I think the stamp even looks better than others I've seen in the thread. The long nail nicks look great too!
I don't think I would want to make a knife for a knife sub-community, if I were a knife company. There is so much pressure to produce a factory knife at a higher level of precision in such a community as ours, IMO. We are slip joint people and many people here have specific expectations in our knives. I imagine it's challenging for any knife company with so many workers who are involved in the process of making such knives in a good quantity.

 

[Icky Thump]

Hey, folks! Requests to purchase or trade don't belong in this thread or the discussion forums at all. There are "wanted to buy" and "wanted to trade" sub-forums in the exchange. Any more posts on buying/selling/trading will be summarily moved offline, as soon as they are seen. Thanks.

Noted and edited

 

[aji1]

Got any room in the boat for one more

If it makes you guys feel any better, you'll probably have yours long before I get mine! I just received my pre-shipping notice yesterday. I am pretty confident Buck and Stephen will get it on it's way quickly. I am even pretty confident that it will get across the Atlantic without too much trouble. At that point, though, it will be kidnapped by Customs. A black box. Days later, long after the tracking indicates my knife is in country, I will get the ransom note (value-added tax, customs duty, and a "processing" fee). Once I cough up the ransom (probably in the neighborhood of 30 euros), they'll take their sweet time getting it to my house. No way I get it before Christmas, I think. I am really looking forward to getting this, though, so I just need to be patient. Nothing to do but wait (and maybe order a Moki I have had my eye on to tide me over)...

 

[jc57]

I'm fine with the blade thickness on mine. I have thicker blades (Queen) and thinner (Case). This seems to be a good middle ground for me. I used it to cut down some cardboard boxes and it didn't bind up any, so that's my usual test for thickness.

Sturdy, pretty, perfect size, not too thick, super-pointy clip with not too much belly, straight edge for precision pull cuts, premium steel, great price, from a company that stands behind their products and is still in business. Works for me.

 

[PeterS84]

Anybody else have QC issues on theirs? Mine looks great but has some pretty pronounced side-to-side play on the clip point blade. Evidently I'm going to have to ship it back to Buck for warranty. Kinda bums me out because I was so excited to carry it. :/ All the same, I'm glad SK Blades was able to make this happen. Guess I'll just have to wait a while longer to enjoy mine.

 

[gunstockjack]

OK, it finally got light enough to take some photos of mine. One is light colored and 'saddle' shaped, and one is more textured but not what I'd call 'craggy':

Buck needs to store their stag where the mice can't get to it! A bit of an issue with me.

Covers get a bit thin on the light one:

Compared with a Buck of the Month made earlier this year; I'd hoped for stag somewhat like this one:

Lotta room in there:

So that's the stag, but the thing that irritates me most is the 'walk' on the sheepsfoot blades on both knives; they are very stiff and have to be pushed all the way open. The lower scale pin on the light knife seems to have wandered into a space where it doesn't belong. Gaps on these two not too awful bad, but not what I'd call 'tight'. JMHO I hope your stag and overall F&F is better!!!!!

 

[Prester John]

Just received my forum knife last night. I am very pleased with it. The elk is about what I was expecting, and the fit and finish were good. The blades came reasonably sharp out of the box, but I did touch up the edges a little. Certainly nothing to complain about; and if there was, I am sure Buck would make it right. Going to be carrying this one a lot.
Many thanks to Buck, SKBlades, & BladeForums!

 

[t.willy]

Got any room in the boat for one more

Mine just made it to Canada! That usually means a have 3 or 4 days to go before arrival but considering its this close to Christmas I'm thinking end of next week at best.

 

[willard0341]

Thank you to all involved for making this happen

 

[J Hubbard]

All,
Thank you for all the feedback good and bad on this offering. Please contact me if you have any issues and we will get them fixed up for you. you can contact me here or jhubbard@buckknives.com or warranty@buckknives.com and we will take care of you.
Each piece of elk starts as a full rack and then the pieces are cut out of that. The 'bow' (concave or convex pieces) you see in some photos is due to the curve of the elk. We make each set out of the same piece of elk, so one side can be concave while the matching piece is convex.


Gaps are making me cringe on some of those.
Walk and talk should break in.

All in all, it seems like this was a good run with minimal issues.

Got mine in. Been pondering it for a little while.
- Overall knife is slender and seems like a nice pocket rider.
- I really like the Elk, nice and thin, and matching thickness. The two sides aren't a perfect match, but no biggie, I like em both.
- There are several decent gaps in the springs, but I could live with that, not the only knife I have with gaps.
- Sheep blade is fairly centered, Clip leans way to the edge, almost touching the liner. Could live with that as well, probably, but seems related to the question below.

What I'm struggling with is it doesn't seem right at the end/pivot pins, and I'm wondering if that might cause any issues over time. There are significant gaps at both ends. The clip doesn't seem to be set straight, almost twisted, and pin is very visible to the center. The sheep is fairly straight, but pin is visible on both sides. In my mind this is not good fit and may cause loose blades over some time. Was looking for any input from some of you if this is a big deal or not.

Clip end:

Sheep end:

Appreciate any input if I should just accept this, or possibly send it back in to be reset or tightened up.

Send it into us. That looks like we snaked the rivet when it got pressed

Got mine today, pretty pleased overall. Aside from a pretty decent gap under the end of one of the covers (by thumb in first pic) I have no other f&f issues but the covers are REALLY slim. I did get some pretty thick blades too (Main-.035"bte, sheeps-.025"bte).

View attachment 1035662 View attachment 1035663 View attachment 1035664

I'm kinda torn at this point though...do I take it to the grinder (losing the cool Bos etch) and make it a user, or maybe try to trade for an interesting Whittler?

~Chip

Add me to the list of happy recipients! This was my first time participating in a forum knife, and to be honest I would have preferred a GEC. Still I appreciated the voting system and how detailed it got, and I'm certainly very impressed by @skblades willingness to put in so much time and effort, and to do a good job of making it all come to fruition. Kudos Stephen!

As for my example, the fit and finish on mine is very good. Only very minor gaps (visible only when backlit with light). The transitions are all smooth, and though the sheepsfoot liner is slightly sunken, it doesn't feel or look bad at all. The pulls are light, comparable to the Churchill I have, but the walk and talk have improved already with just a few dozen cycles of opening and closing. No blade play. I don't have anything to measure thickness, but both of the blades came sharp enough to pass through phonebook paper without trouble, which, in my opinion, is a serviceable edge. I did pass each blade over a honing rod a bit and that made it even keener. The elk on mine is pretty nobby, which is fine by me. It is my first elk so I don't have any frame of reference. The knife is a bit longer than I had expected (I've never had a Buck, so I wasn't sure about exact dimensions) and a bit heavier, too, but that's ok by me. I do have a couple of questions though:

View attachment 1035711
View attachment 1035712

What in the world is the dark crusty stuff?

View attachment 1035713

Also, I found what I thought was polishing compound in the blade well, but some of it was sort of sticky, like glue. Any ideas on what that could be?

Neither of these things are a big deal to me. The crusty stuff makes for less appealing pictures, but I've always been a fellow who likes a little bit of character and difference.

Thanks to Buck for making us a knife, at to Stephen for playing the middle man on our behalf. Thank as well to everyone who participated and contributed to the fun of the experience.

That black crusty stuff would be the epoxy we used to glue on the scales.

OK, it finally got light enough to take some photos of mine. One is light colored and 'saddle' shaped, and one is more textured but not what I'd call 'craggy':

Buck needs to store their stag where the mice can't get to it! A bit of an issue with me.
Not sure what this references.. Mice?

Covers get a bit thin on the light one:
Each piece of elk starts as a full rack and then the pieces are cut out of that. The 'bow' (concave or convex pieces) you see in some photos is due to the curve of the elk. We make each set out of the same piece of elk, so one side can be concave while the matching piece is convex. All depends on the horn.

Compared with a Buck of the Month made earlier this year; I'd hoped for stag somewhat like this one:

Lotta room in there:

So that's the stag, but the thing that irritates me most is the 'walk' on the sheepsfoot blades on both knives; they are very stiff and have to be pushed all the way open. The lower scale pin on the light knife seems to have wandered into a space where it doesn't belong. Gaps on these two not too awful bad, but not what I'd call 'tight'. JMHO I hope your stag and overall F&F is better!!!!!

Please keep all the feedback coming. We can't better unless we know where we fail. There are some comments/questions embedded in Gunstockjacks quote, so pop it open..

Thanks,

Jeff