Was at a local chain home improvement store last night and saw the sale area, had a Buck 119 for a good price..looked good to me as I am not in the know on Bucks anymore i guess. Took it home, broke it out of the plastic box and got a good feel of the grip. I got to say, it didnt feel great, seemed like maybe the quiality has gone down a little as the blade and whole knife actually felt kinda cheap. I am so dissapointed as i remember the Buck i had growing up was, in my opinion, a phenominal knife. Sadly i lost it fishing right before i graduated. Am i being too hard on the knife or am i on point? Sheath is mexican, but a nice quality. Says made in USA for knife and lifetime warrenty. Gonna put it through its workout tonight..Farm work will show its true colors.
Spider 991,
Probably more as a rationalization for accumulating more knives, I decided to update my hiking gear with Becker knives. I accumulated the BK2, BK7, BK7, BK9, BK10 & BK12. I acquired sheaths more appropriate to hiking and then some new scales. Years ago I accumulated Buck knives in the same way. I haven't been a "constant accumulator" but I seem to do this from time to time. When I found some nice (appropriate for hiking) sheaths for my Buck 119, 120 & 124 I began taking them seriously once again.
I did buy a new 119 like the one you have, but I still have my old Buck/119/USA. That dating code means I bought it between 1978 and 1986. I didn't use it all that much because it rattled in the Buck sheath so it is in virtually new condition. There are differences, but they are mostly in the blade shape. I think the 2014 version of the 119 holds an edge better then the Buck/119/USA version. As to the other differences they don't in my opinion amount to much; they certainly don't apply to quality of build -- at least not in the two knives I have as far as I can tell.
Now perhaps because of my Becker experience the stock 119 seemed way too light. What I would recommend to you if you can manage it is to buy a Buck 119 with a Cocobolo handle. From someone who moved from handling a lot of Becker knives to handling the Buck knives, the Cocobolo handles being heavier and more study-seeming inspire more confidence IMO.
Having spent the last little while accumulating Buck knives (mostly 119s, but also a cocobolo-handled 120 and a used Rosewood-handled 124) I couldn't help but notice that the Buck knives seem capable of lasting almost forever. In looking at my Becker knives I wonder if that will be true of them. Becker knives are subject to rust and the Buck knives don't seem to be. Becker sellers don't emphasize the rust danger but if you buy a Becker BK12, aka Doug Ritter MSK MK2 you may notice the comment "The 1095 steel is not rust resistant in the least, so you will need to take appropriate care of the blade to prevent rust, including the laser engraved portions and the threaded holes for the tapered plugs if the plugs are removed. I recommend a dry film rust inhibitor such as Sentry Solutions TUF-CLOTH or TUF-GLIDE, but you can use any rust preventative or treatment you prefer, or none at all. If you do not take precautions, it will rust. Rusting of the knife is NOT covered by the warranty." And Doug Ritter's BK12 uses the same steel as the rest of the Becker knives. Also, Doug Ritter put the same anti-rust coating on the BK12 as Becker put on the rest of the other BK knives I acquired.
Having said that, I need to say that all the above comments comes from the viewpoint of a hiker. If you want to do all that Youtube type camping stuff to demonstrate that you can produce a fire, for example, without matches, best stick to your Becker knives. I was questioned here about whether a Buck 124 would baton well and said I wouldn't recommend it. I'm sure it will, but it was patterned after a diving knive, the Nemo 122 and batoning was far from the designers mind. If you want to baton with the Buck 119, the steel is as thick as that of the BK7 or BK12 (and if not it is too close for me to tell the difference) but the 119 has a clip blade with a nearly sharpened back edge. I don't do any batoning on my hikes but I would think that you couldn't help but have a problem with the clip.
Over here on the Buck forum no one seems to be out there trying to start fires without matches, but there is a line of Buck knives that seem better suited to that task than the old 119, 120 & 124. They were created apparently during the Zombie fad and still have Zombie-type names. Check out the Buck Thug for example. The Thug looks as though it would baton as well as the BK7, but Buck is coming late to the batoning game and the Zombie names for its knives don't help sales IMO.
Lawrence
