Got my Alaskan Guide 110 today

J

JayC783

Joined
Nov 16, 2015
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120
After what seemed like an eternity, I finally got my Alaskan Guide 110 today. It sure is a beautiful knife! It almost makes me hesitant to actually use it. When looking at the scales in the sun, that deep rosewood color looks like it goes on for forever. I think it looks a lot better than the standard scales. I'm loving the dark blade. I think it makes the 110 really pop. The Alaskan Guide logo on the blade doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. It seems like after a while it might start coming off the blade with use. I hope that won't be the case. I also noticed something a little odd. The box has a date of 12/10/2015, but the date code on the blade is the 2016 symbol. I would have thought it would be the 2015 symbol. I was also thinking that if the date on the box is six months old, I guess Cabela's doesn't move a whole lot of these things. That would be a shame since it's such a nice knife.

I have one question. I tried looking on the forums here, but couldn't find an answer. Are the scales actual rosewood, or are they just that pressed dymondwood stuff like what the standard 110 has?

I'll try to get some pics tomorrow since we all like pics. :D
 
Congrats. The AG's are great knives. I'm pretty sure they are Dymondwood but still look great.
 
The Alaskan Guide emblem with a ram has stayed on my blade and I use it. The Ti coating on the blade will stay on until the cows come home. A great model. DM
 
love mine, aesthetics speaking, the scales are rough cut and there are saw marks in the ends where the wood meets the bolsters. doesn't affect the cutting performance. Good knife
 
I think the coating on the Guide is TDLC (Tungsten Diamond like Carbon) which is basically Tungsten Carbide with an HRC (hardness Rockwell C scale) of 72. Since the blade is hardened to about 60 HRC, the coating is much harder than the blade. You can use the sides of the blade as a finishing steel to sharpen your other knives.
Your knife is also a sharpening tool.
 
Cabelas says rosewood. Here are some pics of cabelas 110 and std 110 wood.
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Very cool.

The Cabelas Alaskan Guide Buck Vanguard 192BR with rosewood grips and S30V steel is the knife that got me into the hobby.
 
tiguy7 said:
I think the coating on the Guide is TDLC (Tungsten Diamond like Carbon) which is basically Tungsten Carbide with an HRC (hardness Rockwell C scale) of 72. Since the blade is hardened to about 60 HRC, the coating is much harder than the blade. You can use the sides of the blade as a finishing steel to sharpen your other knives.
Your knife is also a sharpening tool.
Click to expand...

David Martin said:
The coating is titanium nitride. Hardened to close to 80rc. DM
Click to expand...

I knew the blade was nitrided, but I didn't know it got that hard. :eek: I think I like this knife even more now. :D

Makael said:
Cabelas says rosewood. Here are some pics of cabelas 110 and std 110 wood.
Click to expand...

Those are some nice 110's! I saw that on Cabela's website, too. Since they didn't say it was dymondwood, I was just curious if it was real rosewood or not. It doesn't really matter either way. It still looks great. I just wondered.

I had my AG 110 on me today at a gathering. I didn't expect to need it, but it turned out to be quite useful. I'm glad I had it. I used it to snip a few small branches for a little project. It worked great. I was surprised the blade didn't even get scratched, but after reading the posts above I guess I shouldn't be. lol I used my Spitfire to slice a vacuum cleaner hose and it got scratched just doing that.

I'm really loving the AG 110. I've been looking for a knife for awhile that had a better steel. I looked at the modern offerings from other brands, but nothing stuck out to me. I guess I just like the rugged simplicity of the Bucks over the modern designs of other brands. The 110 is just so comfortable to hold and use. The 112 and Spitfire are also real comfortable for me. The blade treatment on the AG 110 is icing on the cake.

Here's a few pics of the AG 110. I just love that deep rosewood color. :cool:









 
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The steel with the hard coating is what made me pull out my wallet. The more you use it, you will see the benefits of that coating. Cut material skates off of it and salt or chemicals don't phase it. DM
 
The ag 110 is the best of the best available imho.I have tested this knife extensively,even on the Atlantic Ocean where it was subjected to cutting bait,rope,anything needed.drenched in salt water for months and still no rust that's a heckuva knife!
 
I looked it up. Cabelas says the blade coating is TiAlN (Titanium Aluminum Nitride) which has an HRC of 92. The TiN (Titanium Nitride) coatings Rockwell at 82 and are dark Gold in color. The ZrN (Zirconium Nitride) coatings are 85 HRC and light Gold in color.
I have some Alaskan guides, and they are much darker than my Buckcote blades which are also coated with TiAlN. The color difference made me guess that the A/G's were coated with TDLC. The coatings are naturally hard and do not have to be heat treated. Because of the HRC pecking order, you can use a TiAlN coated blade to steel all of the other combinations of coated steel except CBN (Cubic Boron Nitride) which is second in hardness to diamonds.
 
Ok, thanks for looking it up. I was off on the hardness. It's much harder than I said. I recall CJ came on and posted about these knives when they first came out in 2008 and he called it Titanium Nitride. You may use the search to find his post for more information. DM
 
My earliest ag110 has a 2004 date code on the blade,it's a much lighter coating with the older style clip blade.I m thinking I have 8 ag 110 models,some stag and the rest wood,I had one with some issues and jeff Hubbard went out of his way to hand select a replacement that is my main user.after a lot of hard use,I'm happy to say it has no blade play and still looks up rock solid.gawd I love these knives!

I've read some literature that came with a new ag rubber vanguard and it was black widow coatings doing those ,it was labeled. A dlc coating .
 
I wouldn't see the apparent discrepancy in the packaging vs. blade date as anything. Not uncommon for it in the industry at all. I remember back in the day when our cars all seemed to come out of Detroit the next years cars started showing up in the Fall of the previous year.
 
TDLC (Tungsten Diamond Like Carbon) is sometimes called DLC for short. It is basically Tungsten Carbide and Rockwells at 72. The coating process is usually PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) done in a vacuum chamber. You can also apply WC (Tungsten Carbide) to the edge of your blade with an electric arc using a WC electrode. This plasma deposition process is usually applied to the backside of a chisel sharpened blade. The deposit looks like fine sand paper. You then sharpen the non-coated side to expose fresh WC. The operation is called Carbidizing.
 
JayC783 said:
Are the scales actual rosewood, or are they just that pressed dymondwood stuff like what the standard 110 has?
Click to expand...

I handled one of these at Cabela's and really liked the AG logo on the blade. Gives it a nice touch. As for the rosewood scales I am pretty sure it's real. Dymondwood is the only laminate that I know Buck uses. The AG 110 is a custom knife and Buck's custom shop offers other wood options like Walnut, Cherry, and Oak, which are all the real thing.
 
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