Made in China?

S

Snotwad

Joined
Oct 3, 2006
Messages
146
I'm a little amazed as the Buck "Trio" that I just got is marked "CHINA". Been using Buck knives almost exclusivly since 1960, and when I saw this Trio in the display, I just got it without a lot of thinking. The size was right, nice blade selection, and since its a Buck, I just plunked down the plastic and walked out with it. Imagine my shock, when I got it home and on close exam I see the "CHINA" thing. It had never occured to me that Bucks were made anywhere but USA. I checked all the rest of them that I could round up, and they are all USA. Question, when did this start, and is there a few that are still made in USA?
 
The pocketknives like your Trio are part of an import line that began in 2005, but Buck still makes it's USA made ones also.

373 "Trio" is imported.
303 "Cadet" is domestically made.


The majority of Buck Knives are still made in the USA
 
I admit that the thought of a "China" Buck soured me a bit. So I actually bought one three months ago, the 371 Stockman, I had to find out for myself... I have been EDC'ing it and so far am really impressed, as funny as it looks to type that, it's true. I have been a little harsh on it and the little knife has been great. A few weeks ago I cut, delimbed (small limbs) & sharpened 11 marshmellow sticks for all the kids at a cookout, and the knife did fine. Very easy to touch up the edge as well. I will not buy any more China made bucks, but I feel this is a good quality knife.
 
The bucks made in China are made to Buck specs and are every bit as good or better than American-made knives that cost two or three times as much.

This fact is apparently slow to sink into some heads. Very slow.

Buy them while you can still get them cheap.....it won't last.
 
Snotwad said:
Been using Buck knives almost exclusivly since 1960, .... Imagine my shock, when I got it home and on close exam I see the "CHINA" thing. It had never occured to me that Bucks were made anywhere but USA.
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yes same thing happen to a lot of us here we bought it and found china in it,,
happened to me ... not a bad little knife.. good for tackle boxes, lenders, ect...
Word from the Mountain was that bringing all
production back to USA is in the works..
 
That was quite a find on the web site, A.P.F. My EDC is a Alpha Dorado and I just tried to take it out upside down. Grabbing it from the hinge doesn't make it easy to open later.
 
Word from the Mountain was that bringing all
production back to USA is in the works..
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That's not likely to happen.....but if it did, the excellent Bucks that were made in China would suddenly be a much sought after commodity.

Funny how that works.

;)
 
Rocinante said:
The bucks made in China are made to Buck specs and are every bit as good or better than American-made knives that cost two or three times as much.

This fact is apparently slow to sink into some heads. Very slow.

Buy them while you can still get them cheap.....it won't last.
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It's not that the quality is lacking (it's definitely not) it's just that I can't make myself carry a knife made in China.
Especially when I can carry a Buck made here in the U.S.A. :thumbup:
 
allenC said:
It's not that the quality is lacking (it's definitely not) it's just that I can't make myself carry a knife made in China.
Especially when I can carry a Buck made here in the U.S.A. :thumbup:
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Well, there's nothing WRONG with carrying or not carrying a knife made in China or anywhere else, but if you don't like to carry anything but American-made knives, I just say, "to each his own."

We all use more foreign-made products than American-made products every day of our lives, and that's not gonna change........and there's nothing more sacred about knives than any other of a thousand of those foreign-made products we use every day.

Myself, I'm picking up the best of the China-made knives when I can get them real reasonable. I think those knives of this era will be rare and desirable some day and some values will go quite high.
 
........and there's nothing more sacred about knives than any other of a thousand of those foreign-made products we use every day.
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I have to disagree.
A man's knife is something special.
 
A.P.F. said:
Just slightly OT, but did anyone notice that the Alpha Dorado is in it's sheath upside down? :eek::confused:
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To be truthful, I had not.

That 154CM AD is on my want list.

Ack! So many knives, so little money.
 
knarfeng said:
To be truthful, I had not.

That 154CM AD is on my want list.

Ack! So many knives, so little money.
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You will love it, Knarfeng. I just picked up a 154CM Mossy Oak Alpha Dorado to add to it's brothers. The build quality and blade geometry are very appealing. Certainly one of my top 5 favorites for EDC. :thumbup:
 
Thanks big time for all the responses. I have definately learned a valuable lesson here. I'd never even noticed the little flags on the Buck web page, but rest assured it will be the first thing I look for in the future. Granted, much of the stuff we have to day is imported, but there is just something about a Buck knife that is not made in the USA that strikes me wrong; can't put my finger on it, but its just something.
 
Snotwad said:
...Granted, much of the stuff we have to day is imported, but there is just something about a Buck knife that is not made in the USA that strikes me wrong; can't put my finger on it, but its just something.
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I hear you and feel the same way. I believe that it is because Buck is strongly associated with grass roots 'Americana', from bikers to farmers. My Grandfather was a Nebraska dirt farmer who always carried a 'Buckknife' with him and later went to a 300 something slip joint.

Will I buy a Chinese Buck? Sure, it is still a 'Buck'. Do I prefer a US made Buck? Damn straight!

P.S. - Welcome to the Buck forum!
 
AL, I am sitting here chuckling that you are right the sheathed Dorado is absolutely butt first instead of nose first...I will share that with our marketing dept with great relish.

As to China, I have answered this before and it is probably in a thread somewhere, we knew that if we put Buck on a knife it would have to withstand our Forever Warranty. With that said, and I appreciate the comments on the quality of the knives we import, we are beginning to bring back the less labor intensive products because we are getting efficiencies within our factory that are dramatically narrowing the gap in cost. Not to mention the tremendous increases all will be getting with fluctuations in the dollar and raw material increases.

Our focus is to provide reliable value to our customers and even though we get a few nasty letters from time to time I feel good about the quality at a different pricepoint we can offer to folks.
 
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