Minority report

[Quiet]

The Buck 110 has not had a high failure rate that I am aware of. It locking mechanism has worked for decades. So there is no problem. Putting a Triad lock on the same knife, to me is a lot like the electric Mustang, its not a Mustang. Give it new name new name for god sake. Same with changing the 110. The lock problem does not need to be solved, cause there is no problem.

To be fair, it's not about solving problems, it's about offering new things that customers may enjoy. If Buck DIDN'T do this, then you wouldn't see any:

- Stealth runs
- Buck of the Month
- Custom Shop
- SFO special variants

After all, what's wrong with plain old wood scales, 420HC blades, and brass bolsters? I mean, right?

No. If Buck offered a 110 with the recipe I described, a ton of people would buy one. At the end of the day, this is what it's about. Offering customers new things to enjoy, new variants to capture their interest and dollars. So, what you're saying we don't need....technically is something Buck already thought about and said "But we do". There's no reason to have better steels than the BOS 420HC, right?

Buck clearly feels differently. However, they also still sell the classic recipe for everyone for whom that's enough.

 

[jlauffer]

Have no interest in the "normal" crossbar lock as I don't like the openings on the sides that can let in lint, etc, to gum things up. However, I received a Kershaw Diverge XR for donating to Knife Rights, and it's designed such that those holes are blocked in both positions, and gotta say it's pretty nice to play with.

 

[donnord]

To be fair, it's not about solving problems, it's about offering new things that customers may enjoy. If Buck DIDN'T do this, then you wouldn't see any:

- Stealth runs
- Buck of the Month
- Custom Shop
- SFO special variants

After all, what's wrong with plain old wood scales, 420HC blades, and brass bolsters? I mean, right?

No. If Buck offered a 110 with the recipe I described, a ton of people would buy one. At the end of the day, this is what it's about. Offering customers new things to enjoy, new variants to capture their interest and dollars. So, what you're saying we don't need....technically is something Buck already thought about and said "But we do". There's no reason to have better steels than the BOS 420HC, right?

Buck clearly feels differently. However, they also still sell the classic recipe for everyone for whom that's enough.

This is more of a marketing discussion I think. Would they still buy it if it was called the Buck 100 and marketed as a new model better than 110. Then put it out as a limited release, while banking on the reputation of the original. If it catches on continue.

 

[Quiet]

Would they still buy it if it was called the Buck 100 and marketed as a new model better than 110. Then put it out as a limited release, while banking on the reputation of the original. If it catches on continue.

But that wouldn't be what happens if it's a 110 except with a different, beefier backlock. Buck has released many 110s with different scale materials, blade steels, and even bolsters in nickel silvers or copper. So, as you can see, an established history of them upgrading or changing elements of the 110 already exists. So, this particular sacred cow has already been led out back and seen to, if you catch my drift.

Anyway, it's worth remembering that we're simply discussing something I would like, not something that Buck has made any mention of building and selling. But, that said, once the Triad lock is fair game for other manufacturers, I would expect to see knives offered with it, if the explosion of knives last year with crossbar locks is any indication.

 

[brianv]

You literally just said that you found locks that aren't typical fun I mean, they make double stack 10mm 1911s

My point is, how many ways can you sell a knife that has been copied to death before it becomes functionally obsolete? My old man is turning 70 at the end of the month. He's been carrying a 110 for 50 years. It's all he likes. It's all he knows. I've got him a custom 110 in Magnacut and antler with polished nickel engraved bolsters and blade. It's something he will never use, but it's a nice gesture for a milestone birthday. I respect the hell out of the 110, but I won't carry it as it stands regardless of blade steel or handle material.

For me... It's going to take more than a Magnacut blade before I buy another 110. Although I would never carry it, having THE OG folding hunter sporting sporting one of the toughest lock would be worth at least adding it to my collection. I would be interested in how Buck kept the lines but figured out how to work in the space that the Triad requires to function. How they would work the lock positioning of the iconic rear bar with the Triad or would they move it up mid back?
I think the 110 is the perfect knife to let a new generation tinker with. It's a classic knife, and think it would be interesting to see how much they could change or adapt it without making it something completely different.

I honestly believe it isn't possible for a knife to become functionally obsolete. It would even be difficult for a knife to become obsolete at all unless you're talking about specialty knives. Knives have basically been the same for thousands of years.

 

[brianv]

Quite, I largely agree with you with the possible exception of BOTM. It seems to me that it has been somewhat lackluster the last 6 to 10 months.

 

[Danke42]

It's not an algorithm, it's Knifecenter's "New Knife Day" videos I was talking about specifically, soooo....

I don't get any of those. My last KC email is Benchmade, Maniago, and Demko.

Just like on Amazon. Buy one Lava Lamp that'll last you a lifetime and till the end of time they're sending you the Lava Lamp News.

 

[Dagoth_Blur]

I mean, ok?

Crossbar locks are fantastic. Strong enough to hold up to most uses for a pocket knife, and they allow you to open and close the blade without needing to put your fingers in the path of a blade slinging closed.

If those features leave you "cold and uninterested"...I mean, good for you, I guess?

I like them but they do have a pretty unique downside of having very little closed bias. I have carried many lock styles over the decades and the only ones to ever open in pocket or waistband was axis locks.

 

[Hammer67]

The following is strickly my opinion.

I will fully acknowlege that I am probably, make that undoubtedly, in the minority. Yes, the cross bar lock is good and safe lock. It seems though that at one point Benchmade folders were exclusively cross bar locks with perhaps one or two exceptions. Now that the patent has run out at least ten more companies have jumped on the cross bar lock bandwagon.

Just another reason why modern pocket knives leave me cold and uninterested.

I can empathize. Once the patent ran out sheaths for fixed blade knives, and everyone started using them, I lost a lot of interest as well.

 

[The True North]

I don't get any of those. My last KC email is Benchmade, Maniago, and Demko.

Just like on Amazon. Buy one Lava Lamp that'll last you a lifetime and till the end of time they're sending you the Lava Lamp News.

Youtube is a hell of a resource.

It's a website that hosts videos, you don't get youtube to your email address.


And no I don't know your Facebook password Dad.

 

[brianv]

Another thing I will say about cross bar locks. I have a Mini Grip and regular Grip. No other cross bar lock knife I've had has come close to being as well designed amd emplimented.

 

[norcalAF]

Sorry OP, but these get my motor running more than any BM, and they don't have political BS associated. I have had two adamas folders and I have had two BMs with lock rock. Small sample for sure, but two for two and I'm good on the brand.

 

[Danke42]

Ennui is the real danger in the knife game. Some day, maybe soon we all realize all knives are the same and they just cut stuff.

 

[norcalAF]

I think the most enlightening part of that thread is the mistreatment of the designer by BM....

 

[MattWRog]

Benchmade did a “CQI” and put the axis lock in the AFCK anyways in the end.

 

[Steely_Gunz]

I honestly believe it isn't possible for a knife to become functionally obsolete. It would even be difficult for a knife to become obsolete at all unless you're talking about specialty knives. Knives have basically been the same for thousands of years.

By obsolete I mean left behind to the point that the function of the model no longer fits the needs and demands of most people purchasing a knife. Like we just wrapped up an old hot rod car show here. These are cars built in the 20s and 30s. The look cool, sound cool, and generally truck down the road mostly. However, there is a running joke as to you know that it's August when you see all the hotrods broken down on the interstate trying to make it to the show. They are iconic but obsolete as to what people want to purchase in terms of practically and reliability.

The Buck 110 is a heavy chonker of a knife with a thick brass frame sporting a steel that most would consider useful but nothing groundbreaking. The blade cannot be tuned to center if it comes out of whack from the factory. The blade cannot be easily opened with one hand. The knife requires a pocket sheath or belt sheath lest it lay weird in your front pocket (my dad had literal holes worn in his jeans from his 110 laying diagonally across his thigh in his pocket as he finished concrete back in the 80s.)

All of these things do not make the 110 less iconic. I love the knife. I have at least half a dozen of them. My childhood memories revolve around my old man taking his knife and all the change out of his pocket and laying it on the kitchen counter. I would line his knife up and stack his coins largest to smallest next to it as a habit while he got a shower before dinner. Only decades later did he tell me he purposely left that stuff out because he always got a kick out of his knife straightened out and his coins piled up. It was sort of our thing when I was little. We didn't get a lot of time together in the evenings, and that little ritual with his 110 and pocket change is something he still brings up 40 years later.

The 110 is probably the most sentimental production knife in the world to me. When my dad passes on, I will 110% (heh...) get a tattoo of one on me because that's how I think of my dad..that's where my mind goes. There is nothing that oozes "work knife" more than a beat up and worn down Buck 110 with dirt in the pivot and dings up and down the scales.

That said...
It's still a big ol' heavy knife that isn't easy to pack. There are knives that pack easier, cut better, lock up tighter, and are made of better materials with tighter tolerances. If you are looking for a strong 3+ inch folding knife, there are quantifiably better options out there than the 110.

That doesn't detract from the 110. It just means that for all intents and purposes it is obsolete when compared to other cutting tools. There is nothing wrong with that. It is what it is. It's the hotrod of the 20s and 30s that reminds us of days gone by even if it is broken down on the Interstate. I still love the knife, but I don't mind seeing what can be done with the design. It may not be what my dad would carry...but my dad is 70. There aren't a ton left who would still pack around a bruiser like the 110, and that number is sadly shrinking every year.

So in closing, I say long live the 110. Long live the brass and it's 420hc glory. May it never be paved over and forgotten and always left in production...but I still don't mind seeing what could be done in the spirit of the folder to keep it viable beyond "well yeah it's heavy as a dead pig and cuts ok, but my dad carried one so it's good enough for me..."

If none of us wanted to see something more than that, then we all would still be fine using man's oldest tool as a bit of sharpened flint.

 

[norcalAF]

By obsolete I mean left behind to the point that the function of the model no longer fits the needs and demands of most people purchasing a knife. Like we just wrapped up an old hot rod car show here. These are cars built in the 20s and 30s. The look cool, sound cool, and generally truck down the road mostly. However, there is a running joke as to you know that it's August when you see all the hotrods broken down on the interstate trying to make it to the show. They are iconic but obsolete as to what people want to purchase in terms of practically and reliability.

The Buck 110 is a heavy chonker of a knife with a thick brass frame sporting a steel that most would consider useful but nothing groundbreaking. The blade cannot be tuned to center if it comes out of whack from the factory. The blade cannot be easily opened with one hand. The knife requires a pocket sheath or belt sheath lest it lay weird in your front pocket (my dad had literal holes worn in his jeans from his 110 laying diagonally across his thigh in his pocket as he finished concrete back in the 80s.)

All of these things do not make the 110 less iconic. I love the knife. I have at least half a dozen of them. My childhood memories revolve around my old man taking his knife and all the change out of his pocket and laying it on the kitchen counter. I would line his knife up and stack his coins largest to smallest next to it as a habit while he got a shower before dinner. Only decades later did he tell me he purposely left that stuff out because he always got a kick out of his knife straightened out and his coins piled up. It was sort of our thing when I was little. We didn't get a lot of time together in the evenings, and that little ritual with his 110 and pocket change is something he still brings up 40 years later.

The 110 is probably the most sentimental production knife in the world to me. When my dad passes on, I will 110% (heh...) get a tattoo of one on me because that's how I think of my dad..that's where my mind goes. There is nothing that oozes "work knife" more than a beat up and worn down Buck 110 with dirt in the pivot and dings up and down the scales.

That said...
It's still a big ol' heavy knife that isn't easy to pack. There are knives that pack easier, cut better, lock up tighter, and are made of better materials with tighter tolerances. If you are looking for a strong 3+ inch folding knife, there are quantifiably better options out there than the 110.

That doesn't detract from the 110. It just means that for all intents and purposes it is obsolete when compared to other cutting tools. There is nothing wrong with that. It is what it is. It's the hotrod of the 20s and 30s that reminds us of days gone by even if it is broken down on the Interstate. I still love the knife, but I don't mind seeing what can be done with the design. It may not be what my dad would carry...but my dad is 70. There aren't a ton left who would still pack around a bruiser like the 110, and that number is sadly shrinking every year.

So in closing, I say long live the 110. Long live the brass and it's 420hc glory. May it never be paved over and forgotten and always left in production...but I still don't mind seeing what could be done in the spirit of the folder to keep it viable beyond "well yeah it's heavy as a dead pig and cuts ok, but my dad carried one so it's good enough for me..."

If none of us wanted to see something more than that, then we all would still be fine using man's oldest tool as a bit of sharpened flint.

What a beautiful post! Thanks for sharing the memories buddy! I have some great memories with my Pops always having a Huntsman SAK knife on him nearly always doing scouting stuff. I have been funneling the SAKs I get in trade deals to him, so he probably has enough to last to the end and then some at this point

 

[Quiet]

I don't get any of those. My last KC email is Benchmade, Maniago, and Demko.

Just like on Amazon. Buy one Lava Lamp that'll last you a lifetime and till the end of time they're sending you the Lava Lamp News.

Uhhhh....brother, are you seriously not catching what I was saying? I follow Knifecenter on Youtube, and am a fan of DCA. It wasn't an algorithm that brought me there, I was already there, and because they show new knife videos every week, I see what's coming in. Sadly, for every video where there are new American made knives, there'll be two or three videos where it's like "We just got a new batch of knives in from Civivi and QSP...."

 

[Quiet]

By obsolete I mean left behind to the point that the function of the model no longer fits the needs and demands of most people purchasing a knife. Like we just wrapped up an old hot rod car show here. These are cars built in the 20s and 30s. The look cool, sound cool, and generally truck down the road mostly. However, there is a running joke as to you know that it's August when you see all the hotrods broken down on the interstate trying to make it to the show. They are iconic but obsolete as to what people want to purchase in terms of practically and reliability.

The Buck 110 is a heavy chonker of a knife with a thick brass frame sporting a steel that most would consider useful but nothing groundbreaking. The blade cannot be tuned to center if it comes out of whack from the factory. The blade cannot be easily opened with one hand. The knife requires a pocket sheath or belt sheath lest it lay weird in your front pocket (my dad had literal holes worn in his jeans from his 110 laying diagonally across his thigh in his pocket as he finished concrete back in the 80s.)

All of these things do not make the 110 less iconic. I love the knife. I have at least half a dozen of them. My childhood memories revolve around my old man taking his knife and all the change out of his pocket and laying it on the kitchen counter. I would line his knife up and stack his coins largest to smallest next to it as a habit while he got a shower before dinner. Only decades later did he tell me he purposely left that stuff out because he always got a kick out of his knife straightened out and his coins piled up. It was sort of our thing when I was little. We didn't get a lot of time together in the evenings, and that little ritual with his 110 and pocket change is something he still brings up 40 years later.

The 110 is probably the most sentimental production knife in the world to me. When my dad passes on, I will 110% (heh...) get a tattoo of one on me because that's how I think of my dad..that's where my mind goes. There is nothing that oozes "work knife" more than a beat up and worn down Buck 110 with dirt in the pivot and dings up and down the scales.

That said...
It's still a big ol' heavy knife that isn't easy to pack. There are knives that pack easier, cut better, lock up tighter, and are made of better materials with tighter tolerances. If you are looking for a strong 3+ inch folding knife, there are quantifiably better options out there than the 110.

That doesn't detract from the 110. It just means that for all intents and purposes it is obsolete when compared to other cutting tools. There is nothing wrong with that. It is what it is. It's the hotrod of the 20s and 30s that reminds us of days gone by even if it is broken down on the Interstate. I still love the knife, but I don't mind seeing what can be done with the design. It may not be what my dad would carry...but my dad is 70. There aren't a ton left who would still pack around a bruiser like the 110, and that number is sadly shrinking every year.

So in closing, I say long live the 110. Long live the brass and it's 420hc glory. May it never be paved over and forgotten and always left in production...but I still don't mind seeing what could be done in the spirit of the folder to keep it viable beyond "well yeah it's heavy as a dead pig and cuts ok, but my dad carried one so it's good enough for me..."

If none of us wanted to see something more than that, then we all would still be fine using man's oldest tool as a bit of sharpened flint.

Yeah, man. This Steely_Gunz guy gets it. You're alright, man. You're alright.

 

[Danke42]

Uhhhh....brother, are you seriously not catching what I was saying? I follow Knifecenter on Youtube, and am a fan of DCA. It wasn't an algorithm that brought me there, I was already there, and because they show new knife videos every week, I see what's coming in. Sadly, for every video where there are new American made knives, there'll be two or three videos where it's like "We just got a new batch of knives in from Civivi and QSP...."

At least they took Emerson out of your #s.