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Honest opinion from a new Buck owner...without any bias one way or another

aza77 said:
GronK, I'm not complaining. Just opinionating. I don't complain about things, just try to learn about them. I am a 110 fan now but think there could be room for improvement.

Why can't the 29 dollar knife be as well put together as teh 65 dollar one? Please answer if you know the reason. I'm not trying to be snide, I'm honestly asking why is it that these two knives should have different fit and finish if they are the same model but just with different and more expensive materials. We don't expect that on the same model car, why on a knife?
Click to expand...

OK her i go with my .03 cents (yea i yak to much, cides read what i is saying not the speeling K?)
speeking on the main stay of buck the 110
that buck had some quality issues is know and the years of it were known to most collectors
reasons - word of the move to post falls and the old guard ceased to care as much as they felt why worry i will lose my job any way... so for thoes years issues came up

they moved to post falls
a new factory and lots lots of NEW equiptment and all new personal
takes timne t train and devlo9pe pride in makeing a knife
this is starting to happen
we are knife people that is a fact by us being here
what we look at and say gee issues the folks makeing it still dont know that it is not jest a knife... they look at it and ask gee what is wrong with it?
they jest dont know andhave not become buckaroos yet
some of the new people it is jest a yob still no pride yet
some are learning FAST
but it dont happenover nite
the one ten had quality issues back in 64 when it come out
both al and chuck buck both questioned contuening it
but it was so inavatave a knife it sold and they took care of the issues and then the forever warenty... they replaced or fixed every one sent in
now i told you yesterday to sent it in
DID you do so ?
or are you going to do so ?
if you are great if not
well why bitch and contune on the subject ... if you are not going to send it in or take it to the store you got it at
why all the Fuss?
conversation ?
agravation ?
it dont mater how cheep or what ever..
buck would want you to send it in...
because they want you happy with their knife
now if you dont want to send it to them ...
well email me maby i can help you ...
 
hmm, this is an interesting question. First, i wouldn't base what you got in a department store to what you would get in the custom knife shop. There is a steep price difference for a reason. That price difference occures because of labor costs, and because of parts that can be used. The price to match wood scales on a 110 would be massive, because it would take a lot more time to match them than it takes to just put the scales on. (that is my assumption of how it works, and i could be TOTALLY wrong.)

For me at least, part of the appeal of a 110 is that its never exactly the same as another knife. If i wanted that, i could spend the same amount on a spyderco delica or endura, and get comparable quality. I have had five or six buck 110's, as well as a delica and pacific salt, so i have reasonable expierience with each. One of my favorite aspects of the 110's is that they are all different.

with a buck 110, buck is producing what the buyer is looking for. Perhaps the wood handles wont match, etc, but the knife will work very well for a very long time. The quality doesnt actually suffer at all. In the defects you have described, buck has managed to make a knife of lesser visual quality than a custom, but it costs a lot less. This is really how it should be, providing a variety of options to a variety of uses. Sure, my swisstool spirit is very shiny and not scratched up, but the screwdriver tips are polished as well. The knife looks great, and is offered for a pretty low price, but it was apparently cheaper to polish everything than to polish specific implements. The 110 however, shows no loss of quality, just a less perfect exterior.

similarly, your ipod comes polished very well, but there are a lot of corners cut in actual functionality. You can't replace the battery yourself, the harddrive is a more expensive harder to find size, and the software is optimized for use with an apple, not a pc, which the majority of users own. So really, the back may not be scratched up, but the company has traded fit and finish for practicality.

Essentially, the classic buck 110 was built for a certain consumer base. a base that will continue to buy them as long as they are made. Something that loses no functionality but retains a low price. Perhaps you are willing to increase the price to get custom quality. That is great. I am not willing to do that. So basically, the custom shop exists for folks like you. If you don't like the basic 110, dont buy any more of them ;-)
 
Kronos;4570166]hmm, this is an interesting question. First, i wouldn't base what you got in a department store to what you would get in the custom knife shop. There is a steep price difference for a reason. That price

as i understand many of the workers are paid per gross of parts...most all are NEW and to them wood is wood and to take time to match a chip of wood cost them money!
 The price to match wood scales on a 110 would be massive, because it would take a lot more time to match them than it takes to just put the scales on. (that is my assumption of how it works, and i could be TOTALLY wrong.)



For me at least, part of the appeal of a 110 is that its never exactly the same as another knife. If i wanted that, i could spend the same amount on a spyderco delica or endura, and get comparable quality. I have had five or six buck 110's, as well as a delica and pacific salt, so i have reasonable expierience with each. One of my favorite aspects of the 110's is that they are all different.
buck has a note about natural markings and even tho it is a composit it is not artifial

with a buck 110, buck is producing what the buyer is looking for. Perhaps the wood handles wont match, etc, but the knife will work very well for a very long time. The quality doesnt actually suffer at all. In the defects
it is not a defect in a useing knife it is a undesired atrubute in a custom or much more expensive knife not in a mass produced knife

you have described, buck has managed to make a knife of lesser visual quality than a custom, but it costs a lot less. This is really how it should be, providing a variety of options to a variety of uses. Sure, my swisstool spirit is very shiny and not scratched up, but the screwdriver tips are polished as well. The knife looks great, and is offered for a pretty low price, but it was apparently cheaper to polish everything than to polish specific implements. The 110 however, shows no loss of quality, just a less perfect see abouve not less then perfect-jest not matchedexterior.
....
Essentially, the classic buck 110 was built for a certain consumer base. a base that will continue to buy them as long as they are made. Something that loses no functionality but retains a low price. Perhaps you are willing to increase the price to get custom quality. That is great. I am not willing to do that. So basically, the custom shop exists for folks like you. If you don't like the basic 110, dont woh- as a clasic user buy them as a visuley perfict knife order one!buy any more of them ;-)[/QUOTE]

there has been discusion and some time short words on quality of a buck knife
it is truly a great thing that buck has become so attached to the work wuality that the name buck is quality
quality is definded many diffrent ways as many as there are knife collectors
tell a few years ago any thing other then pure functionaly to me was a deterant to buying it as i did NOT want to pay for pirty...
pirty knives were like dateing pirty ladys they cost more and dont do any better job kissing or cooking...
i only wanted dammm good function and if it broke to get another one...
now i want damm pirty knives... why i dont need users any more...
so it hindges on final use in the mind of the buyer!

that is why i dont get it ... if it is a user ... why squak on a look?
it it is for pirty ... well good looking gals did not want to eat mcD's ..

but it dont mater realy as if what you get is not what you want send it in!
Buck and Joe bend over backwards to please!!! i can tell you that from first hand experance !!! ask any here my nick is decaf dave for a reason!
picky should be ma middle name

i used to buy one to use and i wanted the blackest wood i could find as it did not show oil and dirt as bad ....
now i want stag ... ivory ... and gold or cut out blades....
still have pleanty of users!

 
I think I gave you a couple of pretty good tips about buying, but I never addressed your IPod question or the matching scale question.

Your IPod is not displayed in a store, is it? I'm thinking that Buck DOES protect the boxed knives from scratches by wrapping them, so boxed knives are a better bet (and available cheaper than your clamshell knife).

See, it's awful hard to protect a knife that has to be displayed in a transparent clamshell. Your IPod would probably get pretty scratched up in a clamshell, too.

As far as the matching scales question goes, I think if you simply picture yourself as a worker who puts on the scales, you can see how much time it would take you to search for matching scales.

Since most scales don't match other scales anyway......it would take ages to sort through and find a pair that matched even FAIRLY well. Then on to the next knife and go through that search process again.

That's just WAY too expensive when most people who buy the $29.95 model don't care how the scales match anyway.

Now, you......the discriminating buyer, should really think about buying from the Custom Shop to find real happiness.

I do totally understand where you're coming from--you want a custom-quality knife at a mass-production price.

I guess we can all share your dream, but it just ain't gonna happen.
 
Thanks a lot for all your input. I'll probably just go and exchange this one for another rather then send it back. Reading between the lines, I get a sense that my original hunch was correct. There ARE some issues with the production of this knife but they have been accepted or forgiven not as a defect, but rather as "personality and individuality" by the Buck community.

I can live with that.

I have decided to support the company even though I was not satisfied with the knife. I believe the company and the made in the U.S.A. stamp is more important than a few defects on what a few are calling a cheap priced knife that I should not be expecting perfection of. I will always expect perfection from a mass produced product, but in this case will overlook it :)

Thanks again for your info and thoughts.
 
Buck 110...

wow...thanks for reply. You're the first person that articulated what I was thinking but not saying.

I agree one hundred percent and was wondering if anyone else did as well. :)

I will check out that thread.
 
I think aza77 has made some serious and valuable points.
Telling him, that you would never pay 40dollars for this knife is rather like talking with hindsight, he was not familiar with the knife.

I agree with him, a new knife should always LOOK new,full stop.There are no excuses for scratches, dirt or serious mismatches or faults. I gives a poor impression and that impression can linger.

Of course he CAN send it back, but he should not have to. The Japanese soon learned that the key to success in the US and Euro car market was consistently superior quality control so that you don't HAVE to waste time taking things back.That's crucial.

I begin to wonder about the QC at Buck myself. My Alpha Hunter was supplied with defective scales and despite promises, I never received any replacement scales from Buck -YET .So I've had to sand them off and revarnish them myself, I don't feel I should have to spend time on a new knife like that. The Alpha Dorado folder in camo scales I have has a very suspicious lock, I don't trust it at all as it barely engages. You would not need a spine whack test to dislodge this, more like a simple tap.Consequently,before I can use it safely I have to push the lock rightwards with a small screwdriver-not very practical in the field and this is a 55dollar product.Not expensive as such but I had hoped for more not surprisingly. Yes, I could send it back I suppose but since I live outside the US this could be lengthy. The basic Alpha Dorado with birchwood scales that I also own is thankfully excellent, no lock problems, no finish problems and I'm very fond of its compact practicality.But 2 out of three knives being below par is not a good ratio:thumbdn:
 
aza77 said:
Buck 110...

wow...thanks for reply. You're the first person that articulated what I was thinking but not saying.

I agree one hundred percent and was wondering if anyone else did as well. :)

I will check out that thread.
Click to expand...
There are others that have had initial disappointments with their first whatever from Buck. I posted my issue with my 889LE and that if it was my first Buck, it would probably have been my last. Read the whole thread for the happy ending (I ended up ordering another one and it was perfect BTW):http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4415869&postcount=46

But, when you talk about the 110, and this is meant to be funny, it's like telling us (110 Lifers) that our kids are ugly.
 
it is pretty rediculus to base your opinion of a knife company's fit and finish on threads on an online forum. If you looked at every thread made here about poor fit and finish/quality, you likely wouldnt be anywhere near 1% of buck's total customer base. There are also going to be far more unsatisfied customers on here than there will be among the masses, because we all expect a lot more from a knife than many people who just work with them do. This isnt to say we expect higher quality, it is to say that we expect more in general.

aza77, you dont seem to understand that the things you have brought up are not "issues", they are just a case of you not liking something in particular. i personally LIKE the mismatched scales, and i dont particularly care if the brass is perfectly shiny or not. This doesnt make me wrong, it makes us have different opinions. from a function and quality standpoint, the knife IS perfect, it just has some cosmetic traits that you do not personally agree with. A knife from the custom shop will likely have better quality than one you purchase off the shelf, as i said before, a few isolated cases have no statistical relevance to buck's over all quality.

if you LIKE the buck, continue to buy them, if you DISLIKE the buck, then dont. It is unfair however to classify your opinion on cosmetics as the mark of quality
 
I have to agree with those that said the price should not matter for fit and quality. I have a lot of knives under $40 that were fine right out of the box. I have never had in mind oh under a certain price take what you get and if I run across those knives that are like that I don't buy.

A company like Buck that knows how to do this right and can fix whatever they need to in order to make things right. So to make an excuse like price is not going to cut it. Now if you want better than 420 or better than basic wood then damnit spend a little more, why because the materials cost more but the process to make them just don't change all that much.

Most forum members have dozens of knives that cost less and yet look good hold an edge last a long time and come clean when purchased. If you think the take it for the price attitude helps Buck your wrong I don't think Buck got the rep it has starting out that way.

One thing is good that Buck backs their knives up the way they do, but then so do a lot of companies. That’s a business choice more than anything and Buck has proven its a smart way to maintain a customer base.
 
I think people post their disatisfactions not because they are some pedants finding fault,but because they had hoped for more and better things.Fact is, if companies like SAK, Opinel,Spyderco and Case can deliver out of the box smartness at around the same or lower price levels, then one wants Buck to be up with them as well. My first Buck, the Alpha Dorado 271 was very good, the other two have been below standard in my view as a user, not collector.
 
willgoy said:
I think aza77 has made some serious and valuable points.
Telling him, that you would never pay 40dollars for this knife is rather like talking with hindsight, he was not familiar with the knife.
...a new knife should always LOOK new,full stop.There are no excuses for scratches, dirt or serious mismatches or faults. It gives a poor impression and that impression can linger.
I begin to wonder about the QC at Buck myself.

The Alpha Dorado I have has a very suspicious lock, I don't trust it at all as it barely engages. You would not need a spine whack test to dislodge this, more like a simple tap.Consequently,before I can use it safely I have to push the lock rightwards with a small screwdriver-not very practical in the field and this is a 55dollar product.Not expensive as such but I had hoped for more not surprisingly. .
But 2 out of three knives being below par is not a good ratio:thumbdn:
Click to expand...

Buck_110 said:
Going the more expensive route and ordering a 110 from the BCKS guarantees nothing...
The greatest parts on the face of the earth mean nothing if not properly fit and finished. Lesser quality components will actually outlast higher quality components if assembled correctly. ... with attention to detail will make all the difference. ...
it does cost money for postage to send it to Buck; yet adding to the cost of the knife. Unfortunately, and it pains me to say this,
but "proud American workers" have been on the endangered species list for quite some time now.:(
Click to expand...


Buckaholic said:
But, when you talk about the 110, and this is meant to be funny, it's like telling us (110 Lifers) that our kids are ugly.
Click to expand...

i fall in the 110 lifers catagory i guess ...
i have gotten were i had to have decaf for days later
over what i consiter buck bashing ...
and it hurts and sadens me to hear of so many issues of late...

this thread is not bashing at all and a discusson is needed and yes buck does need to look at things...

am i makeing excuses for buck with the new plant and new employees issue?
i hope not, i have preformed maintenance at places such as ben hogan feders ac and other inculding aircraft and nuclear power resurch and elect plants.
all persons have a give up point like when it was learned that a move was ...
all persons have a learn pride curve
at buck now they are trying to make a liveing first!
the pride WILL come soon (i hope)
i the interm QC is the last check so i feel they need to check there NOW...
for the long hall QA needs to look in to why the defects are happening...
i once sujested putting a name with each custom and low and behold there was a name with the one and it did have some issues...
so were does buck go from here....

i dont know do you ?
that they have some issues is true and no mater how i suport them unless i am there i cant do a thing about it ... i wish i could ...
i CAN try to deter the bashing ... and when it is not bashing i can offer what i have experanced at production factorys... it is hot dirty work...
equptment issues with new machines were a bain in my work to keep them on time and production by working corectly...
i know this happens as i have BEEN there!
short of joe and cj running a machine, and they would if it would help i am sure, i dont know what to say to make issues go away...

i guess i jest want to ask you guys,,, the ones that are knife afectionatos
to maby cut them a break ... no i dont know how long to say to cut the rope of understanding ....
jest give them some slack .... let them catch up some time...
here what we say IS some times a topic for discuson at the dinner table of famley busness ... and a point of concern...
it is like every one poops and mostly it stinks
but do we want every one to show off our poop and let every one semll it
no
i feel it is enught to say
Buck, excuse me but i found some poop...and let it go
not go to every one and say
hay look what i found like man here smell it...
dont you think this stinks !?
i am sorry this turned in to a esay
i will try to reframe from doing it again...
on and on sending it in
unless they see it they cant fix what caused it...
thanks for reading
later dave
 
I agree w/Buck110 that the Custom Shoppe is really sort of SEMI custom.

It's more like Custom Mass-Production, you might say.

BUT.....what the OP could get there is far, far better than the one he found in the clamshell--and he wouldn't have to pay a lot more to GET a lot more.

A full-house, true CUSTOM knife is a different story, and will cost maybe five to ten times as much.......so there's a lot of unrealistic thinking going on.

In any event, it is true that a huge number of folks ARE pleased with the 110s they get from the Custom Shop.

Still a BARGAIN PRICE, choice of steels, bolsters, finger-grooves, serration, handles and engraving.....all in all, it's a nice service, even if it's not technically custom as most understand it.

You get what you pay for and you shouldn't expect to buy a Ferrari for the price of a Ford.

Should have entitled this thread "Unrealistic Expectations."
 
...No one should ever hesitate to post concerns about the quality of a Buck knife that they have purchased, be it an every day OTC 110 or a Custom Shoppe 110. If the knife has issues that the buyer doesn't care for and they represent a potential problem those issues should be addressed. Nothing can ever be done to address those concerns, however, if the company isn't aware of it or has not seen it.
...aza77...If there is any way you can toss out a few pictures of the problem areas it would be a great help to all of us who are trying to understand the problem and they may be especially helpful to Buck...
 
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