-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
Lock back question
- Thread starter Dean51
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2010
- Messages
- 2,392
But it's a good question, because often the lockbacks are the ones that most closely toe the line between modern and traditional (though not your Buck of course.) E.g., I have some Al Mar mid-locks that would qualify as traditional if only were I to remove the clip and thumbstud, and in fact there are versions of the same lockback knives that come with nail nicks and a pocket slip as opposed to a clip. Other models like the Case Trapperlock are also right on that line.
The real disqualifiers are thumb studs and pocket clips. Otherwise there are a bevy of slipjoints and lockbacks made with modern steels, cover materials, and constructions methods that (as far as I know) will still fall under the scope of the forum.
The real disqualifiers are thumb studs and pocket clips. Otherwise there are a bevy of slipjoints and lockbacks made with modern steels, cover materials, and constructions methods that (as far as I know) will still fall under the scope of the forum.
I think the basic lock back is a very traditional knife. John Wilkes Booth had a lock back folding knife in his pocket when he was killed at Garrets barn. I've seen old lock backs from the 1800's, old Spanish Navaja's from the 1800's, with a lock back design. They go pretty far back, even if they were not as poplar as the more stereotypical slip joints of the era.
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2014
- Messages
- 205
What about adjustable pivots, and the use of screws vs. pins for handle construction?
Don't forget the genre-blurring Case Trapper Lock w/Clip. One hand opening with thumbstud and pocket clip but, otherwise, a traditional Case. Even comes in CV steel and yeller delrin.
Some of us are old enough to remember the Buck 110 as being "modern" when it was introduced in the 1960s.
Some of us are old enough to remember the Buck 110 as being "modern" when it was introduced in the 1960s.
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2006
- Messages
- 44,247
I've just replaced a Buck 501 and the question has popped into my mind is it a traditional?
On one hand it is a slip joint but I don't see much about lock backs here in the traditional sub forum. The Buck forum is full of 110's but not here.
Thanks
Nope doesn't have thumb studs or pocket clips or assist.
I took me a while to find a replacement for a 501 but settled on a 501 from the Buck custom shop, S30V and water buffalo handle. Couldn't be happier.
In answer to your question of whether it is traditional, suffice it to say that one of the Traditional Forum mods frequently shows off his Buck 501 with S30V blade in the Traditional Forum threads. It's one of his favorites.
And as a side comment on the S30V. NOBODY heat treats S30V better than Paul Bos. I've done considerable side-by-side edge retention testing. My Buck S30V blades outperform S30V blades from more famous sources of knives with that alloy. Highly recommended.
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2009
- Messages
- 3,198
I think if you are in your late 40s or early 50s and you watched your father use a 110 as a kid, you think of it as a traditional pattern as it has been around longer than you have been in this earth. But I remember that around here, when they came out they were a novelty for years (of course, then took off like a rocket!) as folks that carried that type of folding knife for hunting usually carried a big CASE or BOKER hunting folder. At their weight, their blocky contours, and the fact they were uncomfortable to carry in the pocket made them slow to catch on with me and all the folks I was around. I remember the ridicule of having a knife with a lock, derisively called out by my father and his buddies as a knife with "training wheels". With that in mind, I don't think of the Buck 110 as a traditional pattern.
On the other hand, I do think of it as the quintessential example of a workingman's knife. It was the first big, hard working, locker I had ever seen on the job site. Everyone seemed to have one all of the sudden, everyone loved them and they used them for all manner of knife and non knife uses. At that time, a Buck was worth 10X what you paid for it, then it started to find its way to the hunting camps, even replacing fixed bladed knives with some of my friends. In that way, since it was the first of its kind 50 years ago, I think of it as THE traditional working man's knife.
I think it is hard to define the limits of design, materials and blade steels as a traditional pattern as there is always something that shows up to push the limits even further to be an exception to the rule. But you have to start somewhere, so we can all stay on the same page for a while.
Robert
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2007
- Messages
- 3,372
NOBODY heat treats S30V better than Paul Bos.
Can't agree with you more :thumbup:
I bought this 503 in the early 90's as a change from small stockmans. The 503 makes a nice watch pocket knife.
As far as lock backs go I don't really see a need for them, I can't thank of any task the Buck 501 can do that a Northwoods IRJ can't do just as well. I just like the feel of the knife, it fits my hand and pocket nicely.
I looked up Penny knife and the term farmer knife & sodbuster came up along with Opinel. Who put a twistlock on in 1955. Like jackknife said Spanish Navaja's from the 1800's, had a lock back design.
The line between modern and traditional may be blur sometimes, but you'll never see me use a stockman with an axis lock. That would just be wrong.
Hey mike I like your knife. :thumbup:
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2011
- Messages
- 1,884
You said it yourself "Case Trapperlock w/clip and thumbstud". No blurring here. Definitely NOT traditional. Just because it's made by Case doesn't make it Traditional.
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2004
- Messages
- 18,490
:thumbup:
- Joined
- May 7, 2011
- Messages
- 3,426
I think no one here considers a Buck 110 outside the borders of traditional knives. Not even the "carbide attorney" 
who proudly owns and carries one 
I think the answer to your question lies in another point.
Lockbacks represent a small percentage of current production models. GEC has a few, Queen has one or two, so does CSC, and so on.
The vast majority of production (and custom, for that matter) traditionals are slipjoints, so that's why you don't see many threads on lockback knives here.
Fausto
who proudly owns and carries one I think the answer to your question lies in another point.
Lockbacks represent a small percentage of current production models. GEC has a few, Queen has one or two, so does CSC, and so on.
The vast majority of production (and custom, for that matter) traditionals are slipjoints, so that's why you don't see many threads on lockback knives here.
Fausto
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2011
- Messages
- 658
since lockbacks have been around for a very long time, as Jackknife said, in what particular way was the Buck 110 lockback revolutionary, or 'modern' in our time? Was it just because of the distinctive look? or that it was bigger than a standard pocket knife and could do the jobs a fixed blade could? (As I type these I have my first ever Buck 110 on my desk in front of me, from the early '70's, forged brass and ebony, this is the first time I have handled one (they are not so common in Europe), and I can see why people love them. I will make my own thread about it and some other knives arriving this week later.
I have pondered that question many times over many years. Before the Buck 110 came out, I owned a few lock backs. When I was a teenager, I bought a Mercator K55 from a surplus store not far from my home. It wasn't a bad knife, but it didn't do anything my scout knife didn't do, but not vice versa, so it went down the road to a friend. When I enlisted in the army and had access to free TL-29's and emo knees, I carried them. Then the PX on base started to carry Buck knifes. I looked at the 110 out of novelty, and couldn't understand why anyone would carry a big brass framed knife that weighted what a small pistol weighted. And one with only a single blade in it. Totally beyond me, and still is.
I liked Buck knives. I had a Buck 301 that was my everything knife. A few years later I bought a Buck 102 woodsman to relieve the 301 from some of the hunting and fishing duties. If I wanted a hunting' or fishing knife, the 102 woodsman was lighter, easier to clean up, and stronger being a sheath knife. The 301 was lighter, pocket sized, and gave me a choice of three different blades to use.
To me the Buck 110 is a mystery right up there with other phenomenon like Harley Davidson motorcycles and bungy jumping.