Nighthawk Seals Question

DeSotoSky

DeSotoSky

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The Nighthawk was originally conceived as a submission for Navy Seals testing. When did this testing take place? My own understanding was that the evaluations took place around 1991-1992. The Nighthawk was not selected and was released as a commercial product around 1994. There are two Nighthawks being offered for sale claiming to be Navy Seal testing samples. They both have 1996 date codes. Both are missing the rubber handle overmold.
I take this to be sales hype or is my understanding of the timeline wrong?
 
DeSotoSky said:
The Nighthawk was originally conceived as a submission for Navy Seals testing. When did this testing take place? My own understanding was that the evaluations took place around 1991-1992. The Nighthawk was not selected and was released as a commercial product around 1994. There are two Nighthawks being offered for sale claiming to be Navy Seal testing samples. They both have 1996 date codes. Both are missing the rubber handle overmold.
I take this to be sales hype or is my understanding of the timeline wrong?
Click to expand...

When you look that seller over carefully and read his description..........you think he looks a little odd. If he were for real I think he'd have some provenance.

Your test dates are correct.....probably August '91 to April '92.

Google yields no other tests on Nighthawks, so I doubt there were any.
 
I haven’t seen the exact twO Knives you’re referring to ( dates ect)but I do know for a fact that the Nighthawk was originally submitted for SEAL testing! The story goes that the SEALs were on the beach in Coronado early 1990’s and they were testing a whole bunch of different knives! A Commander came up and asked the sailors what the heck were they doing on the beach ! A Senior Chief told the Commander that they were testing Knives for the teams! The Commander looked around at the knives said “quit wasting citizens tax money” grabbed a knife through it solidly into a water soaked Log and told the sailors to “get back to the beach “! That knife was a SOG!
 
First : I just saw the two you are talking about....
same exact pictures for both notice the rip on the paper by the t !
Defiantly WRONG time frame according to the stamping!

Second: More than likely the SEAL test variations would be sterile (unmarked) or would of Had
Pat PEND!

At least the seller spelled SEAL upper case unlike others !
Third: a few years ago I gave Commander Coulter (BuckMaster on a napkin /PHROBIS name,SEAL Team 1,3 and 6)
a Bad ass Black and orange handled nighthawk. ill look if I can find a picture. The Commander like Harley's so this was a great gift. YES it was a prototype...
 
For information: here's a Mail I found in an old thread about tht Nighthawk.

Haebbie


I am not sure what it is that you are asking? I'll type some more though and see if I answer your question. ;-) I know that we would not have started a production run through the shop in anticipation of a military contract. The contract would contain info pertinant to the manufacture so there is no way we would have started without one.
The 650 came out about 2 years after we changed from 425mod to 420hc. So why does the catalog say it was made of 425mod in 94 and 95? In the 96 catalog it doesnt mention the steel type and we can surmise that in 96 they were made of 420hc. I might be able to find someone here that remembers the project and can shed some light. In the meantime, my theory is that when we pitched the idea of the 650, the steel type made sense for the military's aplication. Even though they did not pick the 650, when we went to production of it we decided that we would keep the same steel type since it made sense for the military and it could be a marketing point that the knife met a majority of their requirements. After a couple of years we switched.
Another possibility is that we had a boat load of 425mod in the proper thickness and decided to use it all up on the 650.
Either is possible and they may both be true.
I hope this helps.

Joe Houser
Director of Consumer relations Buck Knives Inc.
Buck Collectors club Liaison, Member #123

 
Haebbie said:
For information: here's a Mail I found in an old thread about tht Nighthawk.

Haebbie


I am not sure what it is that you are asking? I'll type some more though and see if I answer your question. ;-) I know that we would not have started a production run through the shop in anticipation of a military contract. The contract would contain info pertinant to the manufacture so there is no way we would have started without one.
The 650 came out about 2 years after we changed from 425mod to 420hc. So why does the catalog say it was made of 425mod in 94 and 95? In the 96 catalog it doesnt mention the steel type and we can surmise that in 96 they were made of 420hc. I might be able to find someone here that remembers the project and can shed some light. In the meantime, my theory is that when we pitched the idea of the 650, the steel type made sense for the military's aplication. Even though they did not pick the 650, when we went to production of it we decided that we would keep the same steel type since it made sense for the military and it could be a marketing point that the knife met a majority of their requirements. After a couple of years we switched.
Another possibility is that we had a boat load of 425mod in the proper thickness and decided to use it all up on the 650.
Either is possible and they may both be true.
I hope this helps.

Joe Houser
Director of Consumer relations Buck Knives Inc.
Buck Collectors club Liaison, Member #123
Click to expand...

"Another possibility is that we had a boat load of 425mod in the proper thickness and decided to use it all up on the 650."

I love this. I suspect that many decisions are made based on such criteria.

;)
 
I did find and order an older 650. Thread got my interest up. 650\
 
rich XDguys said:
I haven’t seen the exact twO Knives you’re referring to ( dates ect)but I do know for a fact that the Nighthawk was originally submitted for SEAL testing! The story goes that the SEALs were on the beach in Coronado early 1990’s and they were testing a whole bunch of different knives! A Commander came up and asked the sailors what the heck were they doing on the beach ! A Senior Chief told the Commander that they were testing Knives for the teams! The Commander looked around at the knives said “quit wasting citizens tax money” grabbed a knife through it solidly into a water soaked Log and told the sailors to “get back to the beach “! That knife was a SOG!
Click to expand...
I guess the Commander must have liked Serrated blades :D
IMG_1864.JPG
 
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