Nice knife. I've got one just like it. Mines impregnated birch but I guess if you want to call it rosewood that's fine too. I've seen folks call the scales on Buck knives everything under the sun. Doesn't change the fact that it's a great knife.
Yeah, Buck is pretty mysterious or secretive about what some of their handles are made of. My first job in Engineering was to take the incomprehensible descriptions of engineers and turn them into readable English for our customer (the USAF). This required talking to the design engineer. "Okay, putting what you wrote into my own words, here is what I would say," and the engineer would very often say, "no, no, that isn't what I meant," but only after a lengthy dialogue could I figure out what he really meant. In the case of Buck, the makers of the dymondwood process and the many sellers of Buck knives, it is impossible, IMO, to work from the descriptions and know beyond doubt what sort of wood (if any) is in the handle of the knife I have in my hand. I spent a good deal of time Googling this matter without success. If I were back in Engineering I'd wonder what these people are hiding. Are they calling something wood that isn't really wood? Are they taking a lamination that is part wood and part composite and calling it a wood? What is "impregnated birch" for example? Is the impregnation process like the current dymondwood process or is it different?
My Rosewood handle, if it is impregnated, isn't as impervious to nicks and dents as knives with micarta or dymondwood handles. Are other woods impregnated besides birch? Why is birch the favorite wood of the dymondwood people? Do the dymondwood people use woods besides birch? And why beyond anything else would they use only birch but call it by the names of other woods (a common belief on this forum)?
Mostly because it looked nice but partly because I wanted to move toward a clearer description of this situation, I just ordered a Cherrywood 119. This is a new knife -- the seller implies a special run was made by Buck just for them. Paperwork, hopefully, will come with this knife. Maybe I'll learn something.
Lawrence
:grumpy: