Idaho date stamp

Plumberdv

Plumberdv

Joined
Sep 26, 2008
Messages
8,160
Was the Idaho date stamp EVER used prior to the move to Idaho? A dumb question perhaps, but I have a reason to ask.

Could some made in El Cajon have been stamped that way in anticipation of the move? When did actual production begin in Post Falls?
 
Production in Idaho started in 2005. That's the year that the Idaho state outline is the date code for domestic products also.
 
Uh Well,,,, I dug out my 110/112 Transition and the box has a 12/16/04 date on it.

I suspect it was made in Cali.

Maybe someone can run some numbers. B110-SP78-0 33753 09802

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I've seen a Buck with the Idaho date stamp in a box marked 10/25/04. That's the reason I asked because I wanted to know if the stamp was available and being used before the actual move. The knife in question was supposed to have been purchased BEFORE the move to Post Falls.

Here's something I dug up in the archives.

"Larry Oden
Registered User Join Date: Jan 1999
Location: Peru, Indiana
Posts: 785

FYI
.
Buck moved the factory operation from El Cajon to Post Falls, Idaho during December 2004 and on into early 2005. By late February or March, as I recall, they had production underway in the new plant.
Joe can correct me if I missed these dates a bit."
 
Logically, Buck would have laid in some inventory to carry them through the "getting up and running" stage in Idaho.
 
Plumberdv said:
So there could be "2005" knives out there that were actually made in El Cajon in 2004.
Click to expand...

Or at least knives assembled in Idaho, with parts (like pre-stamped blades) that were made in El Cajon in anticipation of the move. It would make sense to build up a stock of parts ahead of time, so they could get the new plant into production ASAP.
 
Another Buck knife story full of turns. What fun we have. I guess we have to see if Joe has "the rest of the story".
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
Or at least knives assembled in Idaho, with parts (like pre-stamped blades) that were made in El Cajon in anticipation of the move. It would make sense to build up a stock of parts ahead of time, so they could get the new plant into production ASAP.
Click to expand...

The owner of the knife in question says it was purchased in El Cajon "before" the move to Post Falls.
 
Plumberdv said:
The owner of the knife in question says it was purchased in El Cajon "before" the move to Post Falls.
Click to expand...

Assuming what the owner says is true, that would at least confirm that the pre-stamped (i.e., Idaho-stamped ahead of time) blades were already available prior to the move. Wouldn't be too difficult to imagine that a few of them might've sneaked through final assembly before the 'official' move.

Edit:
Also consider that a very large factory like this would likely move their production in phases, with some small amount of production at the new plant before the 'official' move is complete. Another possibility might be that even if the knife was purchased in El Cajon, that wouldn't necessarily mean it was produced there. If it was built during the transition, it seems possible that Buck's store might've sold product made in both plants concurrently.
 
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The owner now says he was mistaken. The knive was purchased after the move to Idaho. The label still says 10/25/04, so who knows.
 
It's hard to say how well the date on the box would correlate with the date the knife was made.

Maybe they made up too many boxes with the 04 strip on them and took them along and used them in Idaho.

Things get chaotic in a move like that, I suppose.

Seems I heard that new equipment was used on some knives at the new place, so that would be a clue on at least those knives.

I'm thinking that I may have heard of a change in the equipment used to do the blood grooves on the 120s and 119s at the new place and you'd think there would have been other equipment changes.
 
Dave,

I have a penciled index card, in my extensive and highly developed file (dream on), that during 2004, 1075 - 110s, 500 -112s and 825 - 301s were built with so long CA stamp. It apparently didn't say what the date stamp was. I was interested in the 301 number and didn't query anymore models or versions.

Wish I would have got a 112. Do have 301, someone else can have my 110 if they are still holding it somewhere.

300Bucks/ch
 
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