My Backwards 301

mill428

mill428

Joined
Jan 11, 2010
Messages
348
Back in '91, I was working with my FIL in the families scrapyard/recycling center. I learned quickly I always needed have a larger durable pocket knife on me. I've always steered toward traditional style blades and had gravitated for years to Old Timers. But in the summers, I sweat so much it would rust them up pretty quick. And then I found the 301. It was perfect because it came sharp, it was easy to keep that way and it was stainless steel. The job wasn't particularly "gentle" and the tools got used pretty hard. At some point, I snapped the spey blade on that first 301. I ground it down and redressed the blade but I eventually decided to buy another. I got the new one home, took it out of the box, gave it a quick once over, admiring my nice shiny new knife and put it right in my pocket. Needless to say I was a but surprised a few days later when I went to use the spey blade and saw this.

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No nail nicks. And how was I supposed to get to the spey blade buried in the middle? I turned it over and opened the main blade and saw this...

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Huh. How did that happen? I'm sure a few of you have seen something like this over the years. I guess I could have taken it back but it was a different time and it still had 3 good useable blades - so I kept it. I did use it for a little while but found opening the main blade to get to the other two got kind of annoying so I put it back in the drawer and started using my old broken 301. Every once in a while I show people the factory mistake more as a novelty but haven't done much else with it. A couple of years ago I got an idea. I was sending a few knives in to Buck for a spa treatment and sent the backwards 301 along with at note about the blades. Apparently they either missed the note or decided not to do anything about it. They did give it a spa treatment, sharpening the blades up nice and making the bolsters shiny - which I was thankful for. But it returned still not quite as useful. I guess I should find someone who needs a backwards 301 for their collection and trade it off. Anyone else have one like this?

Craig
 
MT_Pokt said:
When Buck switched from a 2-spring to a 3-spring design on their 300 series slip joints, the spey and sheepsfoot switched ends.
Your 301 probably has a leftover blade from the 2-spring days. Pretty cool!
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Excellent! Didn’t know that.
 
mill428 said:
...I guess I should find someone who needs a backwards 301 for their collection and trade it off. Anyone else have one like this?

Craig
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Let me introduce you to my ol' pal bertl bertl rumor has it, he's been looking for one for his collection.

;)
 
I've read about this knife, I'm trying to remember where. I've never found one. I'd be interested in it.

Okay, the usual disclaimer: When it comes to Buck knives there are few absolutes, so the following may be highly flawed.

When Buck brought the 301 in house, the knife had two springs, and the Sheepsfoot was on the end opposite the Clip, I don't remember why. When they changed to a three spring knife in the 1989 - 1990 timeframe the Sheepsfoot returned to it's usual place at the same end as the Clip.

As my colleague MK said your knife somehow got the wrong blades.
 
dsutton24 said:
I've read about this knife, I'm trying to remember where. I've never found one. I'd be interested in it.

Okay, the usual disclaimer: When it comes to Buck knives there are few absolutes, so the following may be highly flawed.

When Buck brought the 301 in house, the knife had two springs, and the Sheepsfoot was on the end opposite the Clip, I don't remember why. When they changed to a three spring knife in the 1989 - 1990 timeframe the Sheepsfoot returned to it's usual place at the same end as the Clip.

As my colleague MK said your knife somehow got the wrong blades.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Thanks for the explanation. I’ve always wondered if there was a reason.
I remember I bought it in late ‘91 or early ‘92 but I see the blade dates it to ‘90. Which would be about the right time I guess. Got it in a hardware store in Manhattan KS. Must have been on the shelf a while.
If Bert decides he’s not interested, you are second in line. I’ll let you know.
Craig
 
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