My Buck Spitfire is sloppy...

D

darkdomino

Joined
Oct 23, 2011
Messages
199
I spent about 50 bucks at my local knife shop on a Buck Spitfire because the silver aluminum with orange accents really caught my eye.

Unfortunately the shop was trying to close up for the night so I didn't get a chance to really play with the knife before buying it... First mistake...

My Buck Spitfire is just sloppy... Plain and simple. The lock shifts around and chambers... The retention is so poor that I can literally shake this thing open.

The pivot is completely loose and spins freely... I can spin the bolt on the pivot with my finger and I can feel that it isn't threaded or connected with the other side.

The blade play in this knife is... Kinda unforgivable for a lockback. The blade wobbles back and forth and up and down fairly noticeably. When the Spitfire is close up, it can clammer against the sides of the scales. Centering is also really bad.

The spacer is not level with the scales... It looks pushed in... So the spine of the knife handle is not flush or even. I also notice that the lockback button thingy extends a little beyond the scales and I can actually see under the lock bar.

And to put the nail in the coffin... The grind on this blade is just plain sloppy. There are visible burrs and slight unevenness all up and down... Almost as if someone was drinking at the grinder when they did this knife or something.

Did I just get a dud or is this the legendary "Buck quality" I keep hearing about. Seriously... I have Cold steel folders from Taiwan that have better grinds and lock up tighter than this Spitfire.

I'm just really disappointed. I don't even know if it's worth calling Buck about because all these things seem to be just how the knife was made and not manufacturer defects.
 
Just take it back where you got it. To be honest it seems like most of what you describe would take a couple of seconds to discover.

With regards to your last sentence a simple search on this forum for Spitfire would show you that it's not "just how the knife was made".
 
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I would also be interested in some pics of this example. I would take it right back to where you got it and return it or exchange it for another. Possibly a china made knockoff?
 
dr_fosg8 said:
I would also be interested in some pics of this example. I would take it right back to where you got it and return it or exchange it for another. Possibly a china made knockoff?
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Or someone else bought it, screwed it up and returned it. I've not seen any knockoff Spitfires yet but that's probably just a matter of time.
 
I wish that I could bring it back... But I bought this Spitfire while on a camping trip at the Chicago Cutlery store in Missouri. It would take me 9+ hours to drive back to the store.

I will upload pics ASAP
 
I guess your only recourse then is to contact Buck. I'm sure they will repair or replace. You could still email or call the store and tell them about it.
 
You said you bought it "at my local knife shop" now you say it was at a store "9+ hours away".
 
Yeah I misspoke. I have family up there so it's local for them... I unfortunately was visiting from out of town so I don't know if I'll bother with the store.

I called Buck and they told me to send it into them. I'm working on taking some pictures.
 
I was really looking forward to an orange Spitfire, but there seem to be a lot of reviews that talk of problems. Hoping to make it to a Buck dealer about an hour and a half away from me in the next few weeks, that usually has the entire Buck catalog (except for 300 series slipjoints) in stock, and see if I can get "hands on" one instead of ordering online.
 
I did a search on this forum for Spitfire and found most reviews were positive with only an occasional, minor complaint. Most were quite favorable so I'm not sure were folks are seeing these problem reviews. I'm still waiting for the pics the OP said he was going to post.

I did some more searches and did find a couple of members that stated they had "lock rock" or what ever you call the blade and lock moving together but no mention of lock failure. Still most reviews have been pretty favorable. Haven't been able to find much if any follow up on the ones that did have an issue so don't know if anything was ever determined, resolved, etc.
 
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Badhammer said:
I did some more searches and did find a couple of members that stated they had "lock rock" or what ever you call the blade and lock moving together but no mention of lock failure. Still most reviews have been pretty favorable. Haven't been able to find much if any follow up on the ones that did have an issue so don't know if anything was ever determined, resolved, etc.
Click to expand...

I put a call in to my vendor this morning, they are going through their stock on hand checking them for me. I really liked everything about this knife, except the blade/lockbar movement. Will post update when I hear back from my vendor...
 
UPDATE:

I just got off the phone with my vendor, and the nice lady had all of the orange handle plain blade Spitfires on her desk. Her words were, You know, I can feel all of the lock bars move a "little bit", but I've got one here that's real tight...it doesn't hardly move at all...so I placed my order for that knife. I will post a review on that knife as soon as I have it in hand.
 
I've had a green one with the orange backstrap for about two weeks now and it has been in my EDC rotation. It is one of my favorites. I can't complain much about mine at all. Fit and finish is generally solid. The grind was good. There is no lateral play in the blade. The blade is centered when closed and the locking bar provides enough tension on the blade when closed that I do not worry about it deploying unexpectedly. My only criticism is that it has a very small amount of up and down play when deployed, but not enough to be worrisome. I have a tough time sometimes in the morning deciding between it and my Kershaw Skyline, another favorite EDC of mine.
 
Not gonna make it today, my sister came through that same area yesterday afternoon returning from Church camp, massive road construction that took 1.5 hours to go 14 miles. Not about to get in that crap with Sat. traffic. :(

May try again Tuesday.
 
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