Lets go with 122 ranger circa 1951

mbjannusch

mbjannusch

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Apr 1, 2010
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I recently picked up this knife. In the 1951 catalog it shows a 122 Ranger that best describes this one. The Ranger was said to have a blade length of 3 1/2". The blade of my knife has an over all length is 7 1/2" inches long with a blade length of 3 11/16'" inches. This doesn't fit the 4" inch hollow ground blade length of the 102, by a total of 5/8", But it misses the 3 1/2" blade length of the Ranger, by 3/16". I'm calling it a 122 Ranger. Here are the pictures.

If anybody has info on either one of these knives, please speak up.




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Very nice Matt. Do you think the tree has to be in California? Is it a regional thing? I've never seen a pre factory Buck in the mid-west and I beat the bushes hard. /Roger
 
Roger, The collector whom I bought this knife is from ID. You may recognize the knife from a SPS a few weeks back. Another forum member snapped a picture of this knife with a collection of other pre factory knives. Several Lucite and LV knives. I contacted the collector and after a few phone calls purchased a couple of the knives in his collection. I will post pictures of the others later.
 
Well it seems as though people don't quite know what to make of this thread.

In the 1951 BUck catalog, they had three knives that all were virtually the same. They displayed the 102 Woodsman in lucite, stating it was a 4" hollow ground blade used for small game and birds. They also had a 122 Ranger with a LV handle and a 3 1/2" hollow ground blade, again great for small game and birds. In addition to those two knives they had a 124 Scout with LV handle and 4 1/2" hollow ground blade.

Because there are no definates in old Buck knives, sometimes you just have to wing it. Thats what I have done here.
 
A very nice knife, but it looks more like a 1955 to 56 era. Remember knives of that era were hand made, hand ground....and you could specify the blade length you wanted, for just "a few dollars" more...those old 1956 "few dollars" more, when you might have been making $70 a week
 
Scott Hartman said:
A very nice knife, but it looks more like a 1955 to 56 era. Remember knives of that era were hand made, hand ground....and you could specify the blade length you wanted, for just "a few dollars" more...those old 1956 "few dollars" more, when you might have been making $70 a week
Click to expand...

I used the '51 catalog as a reference, in the 1956 catalog it seems as though they were well into the leather spacers, and using ebony and stag. LV may have still been an option but it fits into the '51 catalog a bit better. Whatever the case the knives of the '50s were not down to a science.
 
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