Gentlemen,
During my teens in the 80s, Buck's 425 steel, had a reputation of being sharp enough to shave out of the box and hold its edge amongst local knife users. Whilst I had never openly bashed the 420HC Buck, currently uses on their 110. I had as many would term to be a 'biased' when it comes to the new 110 with 420HC as a whole.
2 weeks ago, I won/bought 2 'right leaning model T' 110s in their Clamshell packs from Eprey. I was alittle skeptical about the quality after reading a previous post in this forum regarding the 'quality' of the clamshell 110s, this was found to true to a certain extent when scrutinized closely.
#1 The spine of the folder was not properly ground as the pre 90s 110s, leading to a 'lean'/cant, whatever you choose to call it when placed on its spine.
#2 Once polished up with brasso, 'dips' and polishing swirls, were noticable on the brass bolsters and were not as truely flat as the older models, .
#3 The 'connecting joints' of wood scales and the brass had that awfull 'step' which was visually noticable.
#4 The 'stamp side' of the clip blade was not properly ground, leading to what many would term as a cosmetic flaw.
#5 The polishing compound, which many had complained about was in every nook and cranny of the lock work, however a quick shower with WD40, and a blast of compressed air at 60psi soon took care of it.
#6 The edge, although servicable was no where near a mint box new 'model <' residing in my drawer. That old vintage 110 was sharp enough that the edge would dig into skin if you were to hold your thumb against the edge and gently pressed downwards.
Having finally been satisfied and patting myself in the back about being 'right' all along, the new 420HC 110, was introduced to a wooden block.
*1 The steel, although not as perceivably 'tough' as its older 440 and 425 sibblings, was definately much easier to sharpen.
*2 To investigate its 'ease of sharpening'. The edge was subjected to shaving a block of Bornean iron wood until it can no longer 'slice' the block properly. The 110 was then given sometime with a medium grit stone and a black arkansas stone, which later resulted in an edge I was not able to achieve with most, if not all of my older 110s and others apart from my cutthroat razors. The edge on this knife, was actually able to 'split' hair ! (I can send pictures of that if someone is willing to upload and host)Impressive !!!!
*3 As a student in Singapore almost 20 years ago, I paid $89/- Singapore dollars for a Buck 112 and $140/- Singapore dollars for a 110, I still have the receipt somewhere !!! 2 weeks ago, I paid $41/- Singapore dollars each for the 2 new 110s from EPrey minus shipping. Factor in inflation etc etc etc, this is a real bargin !
In conclusion, whilst the 110 is no longer as carefully constructed as it was 20 years ago. The wood has since then changed from being solid ebony to a laminate/veneer. The bolsters went from flat to rounded. The steel went from 440c to 425 to 420HC. The knife remains functionally the same and may be acquired for considerably a lot less that what I paid for 20 years ago !
During my teens in the 80s, Buck's 425 steel, had a reputation of being sharp enough to shave out of the box and hold its edge amongst local knife users. Whilst I had never openly bashed the 420HC Buck, currently uses on their 110. I had as many would term to be a 'biased' when it comes to the new 110 with 420HC as a whole.
2 weeks ago, I won/bought 2 'right leaning model T' 110s in their Clamshell packs from Eprey. I was alittle skeptical about the quality after reading a previous post in this forum regarding the 'quality' of the clamshell 110s, this was found to true to a certain extent when scrutinized closely.
#1 The spine of the folder was not properly ground as the pre 90s 110s, leading to a 'lean'/cant, whatever you choose to call it when placed on its spine.
#2 Once polished up with brasso, 'dips' and polishing swirls, were noticable on the brass bolsters and were not as truely flat as the older models, .
#3 The 'connecting joints' of wood scales and the brass had that awfull 'step' which was visually noticable.
#4 The 'stamp side' of the clip blade was not properly ground, leading to what many would term as a cosmetic flaw.
#5 The polishing compound, which many had complained about was in every nook and cranny of the lock work, however a quick shower with WD40, and a blast of compressed air at 60psi soon took care of it.
#6 The edge, although servicable was no where near a mint box new 'model <' residing in my drawer. That old vintage 110 was sharp enough that the edge would dig into skin if you were to hold your thumb against the edge and gently pressed downwards.
Having finally been satisfied and patting myself in the back about being 'right' all along, the new 420HC 110, was introduced to a wooden block.
*1 The steel, although not as perceivably 'tough' as its older 440 and 425 sibblings, was definately much easier to sharpen.
*2 To investigate its 'ease of sharpening'. The edge was subjected to shaving a block of Bornean iron wood until it can no longer 'slice' the block properly. The 110 was then given sometime with a medium grit stone and a black arkansas stone, which later resulted in an edge I was not able to achieve with most, if not all of my older 110s and others apart from my cutthroat razors. The edge on this knife, was actually able to 'split' hair ! (I can send pictures of that if someone is willing to upload and host)Impressive !!!!
*3 As a student in Singapore almost 20 years ago, I paid $89/- Singapore dollars for a Buck 112 and $140/- Singapore dollars for a 110, I still have the receipt somewhere !!! 2 weeks ago, I paid $41/- Singapore dollars each for the 2 new 110s from EPrey minus shipping. Factor in inflation etc etc etc, this is a real bargin !
In conclusion, whilst the 110 is no longer as carefully constructed as it was 20 years ago. The wood has since then changed from being solid ebony to a laminate/veneer. The bolsters went from flat to rounded. The steel went from 440c to 425 to 420HC. The knife remains functionally the same and may be acquired for considerably a lot less that what I paid for 20 years ago !
