Like to know the age of a couple "new" knives

O

Old Smith

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Jun 9, 2004
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While at a gun store near me I noticed a Buck display case in the corner. What I found was two new two dot 112s, a 116 Caper, and a 118. The 116 and 118 are marked (blade down) with "Buck - USA" and no model number. They have two red spacers on each side of the handle and flap over sheaths.

If anyone could help me with the approximate age of these fixed blades, I would appreciate it.

The shop also has a 102, but it is a latter model and the blade is marked with the model number, but no year mark. Is there anyway to tell what the blade steel is on this knife?

Thank you for the help.
 
The 2-dot 112s should date to 1974-1980. I believe the fixed blades with just the Buck/USA stamp are 1968-1971 (maybe someone knows better than I do and will correct that). For the 102, I believe that the year marks were started in 1986. If it is 1980 or earlier, it is 440C; they switched to 425M sometime in the early 80s.

How much are they asking? It might be worthwhile to pick up a few of those.
 
Appreciate the information. I paid $90 for the four. Seemed like a great deal, as I would have paid that for the two 112's.

As an aside, they had a couple more 112's that were newer production. I seem to recall that Buck could replace the blades with new BG42 steel blades. Anyone know if they still provide that service and the cost?
 
Contact Joe Houser at Buck. He handled that for us. The cost was 30 plus shipping. I dont know if he has any more left. The offer was 2 years ago?
 
Old Smith said:
As an aside, they had a couple more 112's that were newer production. I seem to recall that Buck could replace the blades with new BG42 steel blades. Anyone know if they still provide that service and the cost?
Click to expand...

I sent in a 112 last year for the BG-42 upgrade, at that time the cost was $35. I highly recommend it. They are pretty busy right now after the move to Idaho, but when the dust settles they might have a few BG-42 blades left. Joe Houser will know for sure.
 
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