Older Buck Sharpening Equiipment Information?

J

JD Spydo

Joined
Nov 20, 2004
Messages
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I was wondering if any of you guys/gals here on the Buck subforum knew of any websites that went into areas of Buck's History as a company. The reason being is that I have a few of Buck's older sharpening tools and I was wanting to do some research on them.

For instance I have a set of Arkansas Buck stones going back to the early 70s and I was wanting to know about them as well as some of their other sharpening gear from that era and the early to mid 80s as well.

Any information will be much appreciated.
 
Becoming a Buck Collectors Club member you have access to catalogs dating back to the late 40s. There have been only a few threads on sharpening equipment. The things just don't change very often. The things I can remember off the top of my head were in the 80s and 90s. The 137 Steel master, the whet stones, 140 mini Crock sticks, just to mention a few that I know of. To get a better idea you would have to research some of the old catalogs. They carried these for a long time. I don't know if they were good sellers or not. With the new Super steals on the market you need a diamond stone to cut threw that stuff.


What is it that you have?
 
If you can post some pics I'm sure people here will be able to help you out with the info you want.
 
JD, I collect those and display them at shows along with the knives of the era you mention. So, ask away and display pictures if you have them. DM
 
If you email me, I can send you the short article I did a few years ago about the early Buck oil stones. It was in the BCCI newsletter but I do not recall the exact issue. I suppose it has been at least six or seven years.
 
David Martin said:
JD, I collect those and display them at shows along with the knives of the era you mention. So, ask away and display pictures if you have them. DM
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Currently I don't have any way of putting up pictures because at this time I'm in kind of a temporary living situation. I've actually thought of joining the Buck Collector's Club in the past because I do run into many of Bucks older knives and other items of their on occasion at different gun & knife shows, estate sales, garage sales ect, ect,.

The 2 stones I have from the early 70s are one small Hard Arkansas stone which is opaque white in color and about 1 inch by 2.5 inches. The other stone I have is multi-colored and it about 2 inches by 5 inches. They are both novaculite Arkansas stones. I even remember where I bought them at and I was in high school at the time.

I did find many of Buck's sharpening tools to actually be of decent quality which is totally different than the grade of sharpening tools from many other knife companies in the past. It seemed like only Buck and Case had sharpening tools that really were good quality which is why I kept most of them.

After the first of the year I'll have some extra dollars and I check into joining the Collector's Club.
 
JD - You probably have the stones that came in this kit:

IMG_0417.jpg


I purchased it new back in the 70's.

Also, to post pictures, all you need to do is open an account at one of the image hosting sites, and use the "IMG" code to post them,or since you are a Gold member, you can post them directly.

Peter
 
peterinct said:
JD - You probably have the stones that came in this kit

I purchased it new back in the 70's.

Also, to post pictures, all you need to do is open an account at one of the image hosting sites, and use the "IMG" code to post them,or since you are a Gold member, you can post them directly.



Peter
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I've seen that kit before but that's not what I have. Because the 2 stones I bought were both separate from each other. They came in acrylic factory boxes that snapped together. One was labeled "Hard ARkansas Stone" and the other was labeled "Arkansas Stone". But I didn't get any honing oil or anything else for that matter. They were both in Buck factory boxes that snapped together and I still have one of them for sure and maybe both if I look in my storage unit long enough.

I also do have that model 137 steeling device. I've had it for quite a while now too. I am going to try to check out joining the Buck Collector's Club. I also still have a few Buck knives from that era.
 
Hi JD , is this the stone that you have it's labeled "Hard Arkansas Stone" it's about the size that you mentioned , this one's was given to me as a gift I know nothing about it it has #130 printed in the right hand corner 2012-12-13 15.08.21.jpg
 
Driggert said:
Hi JD , is this the stone that you have it's labeled "Hard Arkansas Stone" it's about the size that you mentioned , this one's was given to me as a gift I know nothing about it it has #130 printed in the right hand corner View attachment 318352
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Yeah Driggert that's the one exactly. Both boxes were the same other than the bigger one having a larger box of course. That smaller Hard Arkansas Stone was white Opaque just like the one in your picture. That Hard ARkansas stone was a really good little stone by the way and in it's time it was a premium sharpening tool>> I just wish it could have been larger so I could have used it on fixed blades and so forth but it worked great on most folders that I sharpened. I actually learned to sharpen with whetstones on that set of Buck stones. I've been told by a couple of old guys that live in the Hot Springs ARkansas Area where they mined that "novaculite" that some of the better grades like the white/opaque grade is pretty much mined out and really getting hard to find.

The one thing that intrigues me about Buck's Sharpening gear is that unlike most knife companies that market their own sharpening gear Buck always had fairly good quality items if not really good. But by today's standards and with newer and harder steels most of the Arkansas Stones just don't get the job done like they used to.

Yep that's just exactly what the box looked like. It may not be collectible I guess but I would like to know more about their stones and how they stacked up against the competition. Because I do collect sharpening equipment as much as I do knives. Thanks for the help guys and if you have any more information I'm all ears and eyes
 
This is the first stone sold / advertised by Buck a model 101. Only the first ones had a paper glued around the box with their Congress St. address on it from 1961 and before. Later came their model 131 which was this same stone, early on. Then later this same model 131 stone was changed to a Washita, in 1964 and a different box.
100_2364.jpg
DM
 
These man made carborundum / SiC stones were and still are a very good material for cutting/grinding the early Buck knives of 440C and many other steels of today. This stone is very hard to find today because one has to find the box with it and most are thrown away after they tear apart. DM
 
David Martin said:
These man made carborundum / SiC stones were and still are a very good material for cutting/grinding the early Buck knives of 440C and many other steels of today. This stone is very hard to find today because one has to find the box with it and most are thrown away after they tear apart. DM
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That's very interesting David. Because as a kid growing up I distinctly remember my dad having a lot of Carborundum stones and some of their other stuff as well. I'm 99% sure that he also had some Carborundum grinding stones as well.

As I said before Buck always seem to have very good quality sharpening tools that they marketed. I can't say that about very many of the other knife manufacturers that also marketed sharpening gear.

The Arkansas stones in many ways have become obsolete due to the newer and much harder blade steels we've seen hit the market in the past 15 years or so. There are a few grades of novaculite that are still somewhat good as finishing stones but with the newer selection of diamond and ceramic and to some degree waterstones have all overshadowed the older Arkansas stones.

I've often wondered how the Arkansas ( novaculite) stones here in the USA stack up against the coticules ( Belgium Razor Stones) found over in Europe which have had a lot of people talking well of? Don't mean to derail the subject but it's always interesting to see the evolution of products and industry.
 
I don't know anything about this, but it's the oldest I have. I'm thinking it was from the early to mid 1960's, but not sure.


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No tech knowledge on these folks, I am just a photographer....300Bucks

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Stumps, I'm sooo pleased you have the model 101 I'm sure that is from 1962 or near. Those are very hard to find. How did you come by it?
The Buck Hone Master model 136 in Craig's nice photo was offered in two formats. One with the patent wording and number and earlier models had the patent pending wording as the patent had not yet been awarded (early 70's). DM
 
David, it has been my experience it is a little hard to find one of the honemasters without one of hinges broken off the plastic box or the box cracked. So beware guys and if buying online make sure the box is good. 300
 
300Bucks said:
David, it has been my experience it is a little hard to find one of the honemasters without one of hinges broken off the plastic box or the box cracked. So beware guys and if buying online make sure the box is good. 300
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Funny you say that about the box. I bought mine new, used it but not abused it, yet on one side the plastic hinges broke and the top has cracks?

Peter
 
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