- Joined
- Jan 10, 2006
- Messages
- 10
Reading this forum has rekindled a long smoldering love affair with Buck Knives. Up until Monday, I'd always been a buyer of small to medium blade knives. My 110 has the largest blade of knives I've carried afield for the last 30 years, with the possible exceptional of the Personal that sadly is long gone AWOL. But Monday I departed that tradition, and picked up a new 119. The information I got here on the Idaho tang stamp and the desire to maybe go a little retro in the knife arena tipped me over the edge. It was a real bargain at $35.00 at Wal-Mart - which I assume is at least partly due to the nylon sheath. Now it's a good nylon sheath, with a hard plastic insert and heavy ballistic nylon - extremely practical. But I may have to find a black leather one on down the line, for tradition's sake it should probably be the old style with the full leather flap. Who knows what the future holds.
The knife was decently sharp when I got it out of the box. A 100% useful edge - lots sharper than the last folding Case stockman I got for example. But I dearly love a very sharp knife and enjoy getting them that way. So it didn't take long to get the Lansky together with the 119. It took a good while with the coarse stone to get that big old long blade taken down to the 20 degree per side angle. Yesterday I thought I had it there and went on to the medium and finished up with the soft arkansas and then a little stropping. But I was wrong, on closer inspection there were a couple of places that were not quite there yet, so, back to the old drawing board - er, the old honing clamp. I gave it another 20 minutes or so with the coarse and examined everything with the 15X lens of my handy dandy radio shack special three lens magnifying glass. The edge was now uniformly reshaped to the desired angle. A few minutes with the medium stone and another 30 minutes or so gently but firmly with the soft arkansas really has it nice. Stropped it again and it's an absolute no joke razor from guard to tip. Just the way I like it.
It's now happily in it's case, in the side pocket of the door of my pickup, patiently waiting to be called on to do it's duty. It's ready.
There is a problem with this though. I posted about getting a 110 give away at a John Deere function that is Idaho stamped and has the John Deere in the scales. That knife is also in the same state of razorsharp hood. I deer hunt now with my daughter and son in law. They live in S.W. Arkansas and hunt deer with hounds. It's an absolute blast and a very traditional way to hunt with some great people. I've hunted with a Ruger M77 lightweight bolt action and a Remington 7600 pump gun. Both rifles are good choices and fit in well with the traditions there. Last year was the M77, this year will be the 7600. I need to get some blood on that 110, but for this year, to go with the 7600, I just can't see taking anything but that new 119. Anybody see any problem with making the 110 wait a year or two for field carry?
The knife was decently sharp when I got it out of the box. A 100% useful edge - lots sharper than the last folding Case stockman I got for example. But I dearly love a very sharp knife and enjoy getting them that way. So it didn't take long to get the Lansky together with the 119. It took a good while with the coarse stone to get that big old long blade taken down to the 20 degree per side angle. Yesterday I thought I had it there and went on to the medium and finished up with the soft arkansas and then a little stropping. But I was wrong, on closer inspection there were a couple of places that were not quite there yet, so, back to the old drawing board - er, the old honing clamp. I gave it another 20 minutes or so with the coarse and examined everything with the 15X lens of my handy dandy radio shack special three lens magnifying glass. The edge was now uniformly reshaped to the desired angle. A few minutes with the medium stone and another 30 minutes or so gently but firmly with the soft arkansas really has it nice. Stropped it again and it's an absolute no joke razor from guard to tip. Just the way I like it.
It's now happily in it's case, in the side pocket of the door of my pickup, patiently waiting to be called on to do it's duty. It's ready.
There is a problem with this though. I posted about getting a 110 give away at a John Deere function that is Idaho stamped and has the John Deere in the scales. That knife is also in the same state of razorsharp hood. I deer hunt now with my daughter and son in law. They live in S.W. Arkansas and hunt deer with hounds. It's an absolute blast and a very traditional way to hunt with some great people. I've hunted with a Ruger M77 lightweight bolt action and a Remington 7600 pump gun. Both rifles are good choices and fit in well with the traditions there. Last year was the M77, this year will be the 7600. I need to get some blood on that 110, but for this year, to go with the 7600, I just can't see taking anything but that new 119. Anybody see any problem with making the 110 wait a year or two for field carry?
