Help me out with a 103 handle question.

DeSotoSky

DeSotoSky

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Found a 103 today. The handle is a solid piece of translucent jade green plastic (lucite?). It's a 2-line with 1 fiber spacer in the guard and one in the pommel, no fiber spacers against the handle at either end. The dealer initially said he had called Buck about it and they told him it was made by them but later in the day when talking with him again he wasn't as sure and maybe it was a different knife he had called about. Did Buck ever experiment with anything like that? My gut feeling said not factory. Any help? It's a 150 mile round trip and he's asking 2 to 3 times what the knife would be worth as a standard 2-line. Took a picture with my phone, not sure how that turned out. I'll post it if worthwhile.

It's a picture from my phone. Not the best.

greenBuck103pic5.jpg
 
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Buck stopped using Lucite in the early 50s and never in the 60s, so I'm pretty sure its a re-work. If you could post pictures it would be helpful.
 
That looks like a bad re handle job. I can't tell from the picture but it looks as if the pommel pin has been punched out and put back in. The handle, the handle is, I don't know what to say about the handle. It looks bad... I wouldn't make the trip. My Opinion...
 
mbjannusch said:
That looks like a bad re handle job. I can't tell from the picture but it looks as if the pommel pin has been punched out and put back in. The handle, the handle is, I don't know what to say about the handle. It looks bad... I wouldn't make the trip. My Opinion...
Click to expand...

+1 Don't waste the gas in my opinion.
 
Thanks guys. My very first impression was a rehandle job and I wouldn't have given the knife a second thought for $150 except that the dealer was so insistent that he had talked with someone at Buck who told him they did do some with green handles. Just didn't want to get bit by something I didn't know...:o He later backed off on that story a little.
 
Desoto,

I'd be a buyer of the knife at $100 less than the offer price....The photo is not the best. But, I would not call it "bad", looks to have been well done. Anyway, I would have laughed at the seller's asking price and he would have gotten mad at me and no deals could have been made at that point. I was at a flea market a few years back and found a three line 102 in flap over sheath. The seller said he knew nothing about old Buck knives, but, a fellow flea marketer told him it was a rare and very old knife worth $120. He was mad as hell when I laughed and told him it was not that old, it was not rare and in used condition, I'd give him $20-30 for it. Well, we will just say no deal was made;).
jb4570
 
For $150 You could send Stone Knife Works a knife of your choice and Heath can do a rehandle job that would blow your mind.
 
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