known techical liner-problems with Buck Striders?

D

dennis75

Joined
Jan 2, 2003
Messages
820
hi,

lately i got both the Buck Strider 880T tanto and the 880SP spearpoint. the tanto had a very hard to unlock liner because the titanium liner seemed to really 'bite' into the steel of the blade, but became better when opened and closed more often and now it only locks firmly when i flick the blade open. when i use the thumbstud to slowly open it, the lockup isn't 100% and causes slight vertical blade-play.

but the worst problem is with my lately acquired 880SP. i'm sending it back tomorrow because the blade has excessive vertical play, and i mean big-time excessive! (only after a couple of dozen opening and closing already ;-(........). i think the liner doesn't close up on the blade firmly to lock it properly or something......it's really bad. this knife also seems to have a lot less stronger liner on it (it needs only a slight touch to unlock it), opposite to the tanto, which has a much 'stronger' feel to its liner.........

are these 'liner-problems' common with the Buck Striders? am i right to think that titanium liners are better not combined with steel?

and what is there to do about it, other than sending it back to the shop? (i consider trying to fix it myself if the problems keeps arising on both knives, sending a knife back for repair/replacement s*cks bigtime.....). by the way, do 'real' Strider knives also have this problem, or only the Buck-Striders?

thanks in advance for help,
dennis
:(
 
for what its worth

i have the big spearpoint, and allthough the bearing feel out the first day its very solid, i agree with you that the titanium really sticks, perhaps you should move this to the buck forum, where they dont talk about much else but our knife.

cheers

josephus
 
The sticking of the liner is one of two things, either it is just a little off on the dimensions from where it should be, or it is the titanium galling. Ti tends to have galling some, where there is increased resistance when you are pushing against it.

One thing to check, does it look like the liner is heat tempered near where it engages the blade?
 
my 880 tanto stuck like ya describe when knew, but quickly loosened up perfectly, w/no blade play at all, if ya have lots of bladeplay send it back to buck, they will fix it, and they are also very good at customer service, cant beat joe houser imho

greg
 
Yep - send it in to Buck. Joe will take care of you. He's a great guy!
 
I had a large Buck Strider Spearpoint and I hated it in every way from the beginning. I even carried it for a month and a half to give it a decent chance.

The liner lock always stuck and was HARD to disengage.
It was tough to open due to friction and wouldn't smooth out with lubrication.
When I loosened the pivot screw just enough to make it easier to open, the blade wobbled in all directions and it rubbed the liner on one side and wore a spot on one side of the blade.
The handles were WAY too rough. The edges were saw-like rough and beat up my pants and hands.

I simply thought it was a bad product and traded it off. I'd never buy another Buck Strider or any kind again.

This was one of the few TRULY bad experiences I've had with a knife during my many knife experiences.
 
My Buck-Stider spearpoint was a tad stiff to begin with but after a bit of use (and a tiny bit of BreakFree) it smoothed right out. Solid as a Cadillac door after a couple of years.
 
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