Poll: 2018 BF Trad. Knife Buck Options - You Choose

[Old Hunter]

501...

ITE, welcome to the Traditional sub-forum. Check out some of the other threads and show some of your beautiful Buck Customs. OH

 

[sunnyd]

The stamp is always superior, I hear that it can be done with 154 and that is a very nice stainless.

Even though we can't vote until next week, the GEC proposal feels like an also ran, no distinguishing features, same old carbon/brass-you might be lucky&get all steel liners, all part of a general run that can be fitted in and in alliance with SFOs. This latter point could I suppose make the potential GEC Forum Knife attractive to potential flippers....something many people dislike. Some people have talked about making it special by having a cap-lifter, have they actually HELD a 14? I feel it is too puny to host a lifter realistically and anyway, we had one on the 2011 Forum Knife, a completely new pattern I might add that GEC was able to use as a test-bed for their expertise in bottle openers. They also made a load of other 85 variants from the success of this Forum Knife and very good knives too, never any stainless of course But perhaps the behind the scenes discussions may yield more interesting details from GEC, it ought to!

I mooted the 14 as a Sleeveboard to give it a distinct profile but apparently it's too difficult to fit into GEC's schedule this year - despite using a frame and blades that already exist - well OK fair enough they've got a full order book and that's excellent business. In other words, they can't really offer the forum anything special or different this year so let's leave them out. Let's get something special organised by them for 2019, why this mania to have a run of the mill GEC for this year because it can be fitted in?? We could have an all stainless high steel Large Stockman or 2 Blade variant with our choice of scales, blade stamp, delivered quite quickly from a long established manufacturer that has not been given its chance to make a Forum Knife. Something new, something different, something possible and something to measure GEC's worth by as well.

This idea that we could start organizing a rather special GEC 2019 BF traditional forum knife has now come up two or three times, and I am in on this fine idea. Getting a pattern, blade types, steel choice, covers and such well ahead of time sounds like a great idea. Starting this soon would not only derive much valuable input by all our blade brethren and sisteren, but being early enough for the word to spread around other parts of BF and perhaps we could end up with 500 or so participants here for this proposed 2019 BF knife?.

 

[Jack Black]

Just a word of caution on working out details for a 2019 Traditional Forum Knife so far in advance Eighteen months from now, a good proportion of the folks who vote on it, will most likely not be posting here. Personally, I don't really care a great deal about what folks from other parts of the forum think about the details of a Traditional forum knife, if they had an interest in traditional knives, they'd already be posting here. It just means that those of us who do post here will have to read a lot of tiresome posts about why the Traditional Forum Knife should be anything but traditional, sometimes expressed in a way which we would not usually see here. Perhaps, for now at least, we should just concentrate on the 2018 Traditional Forum Knife

 

[22-rimfire]

...Perhaps, for now at least, we should just concentrate on the 2018 Traditional Forum Knife

I agree. We can start earlier with the 2019 forum knife. Based on my read on the 2018 knife, it looks like there is general satisfaction with a Buck. Since it's the traditional forum, I lean toward a 301 with two blades (probably clip and wharnie) in a modern steel like CPM-154. CPM-154 makes for a great steel for regular carry and it's a little special relative to traditional knives.

 

[Peregrin]

FYI
Unless something changes between now and early next week, there will be a Buck-GEC poll. knarfeng will include details with the poll.
Thanks to skblades and knifeswapper for their efforts to make the 2018 Traditional Forum Knife a reality this year.

 

[akaMatt]

There's been a lot of talk about all the upcoming runs of 14s, with various SFOs, etc... Being kind of new to the GEC game, and looking toward the upcoming Buck vs GEC vote, what would be my odds of getting my hands on one of the 14s that are already scheduled to be produced? Since that is really the one knife I targeted for this year, would I have a good shot at landing one anyway, or will they all be snatched up pretty quick by presale or lottery, etc? Bottom line, my annual knife vote may be swayed if my only real shot at landing a 14 is via the annual knife.

 

[Ramrodmb]

If I had to bet, I would think they are going to do a huge run of 14's, much like the last time, if not bigger. There should be plenty to go around, especially if you are paying attention and ready for them. You would have to be asleep at the wheel to miss out on the 14's coming.

 

[JD Bear]

The 501 is still listed as an option. Why is it so wrong for him to mention it? People are still bring up a 14 so it's not even a lock that Buck will be the manufacturer this year...

 

[22-rimfire]

Yeah, unless you only check dealer inventory every 6 months, I don't think you'll have much problem finding a #14 that you like. I had no problem on the last batch and there are still some available at GEC dealers. The single blade seems to be preferred where as I prefer the two blade.

 

[MerryMadMonk]

There's been a lot of talk about all the upcoming runs of 14s, with various SFOs, etc... Being kind of new to the GEC game, and looking toward the upcoming Buck vs GEC vote, what would be my odds of getting my hands on one of the 14s that are already scheduled to be produced? Since that is really the one knife I targeted for this year, would I have a good shot at landing one anyway, or will they all be snatched up pretty quick by presale or lottery, etc? Bottom line, my annual knife vote may be swayed if my only real shot at landing a 14 is via the annual knife.

I believe Chris told me the #14 addition to their schedule would take them into November. Can't remember for sure, but the schedule on their site is into September without it - and it is looking like a 3000+ knife run with all the standalone and add-on sfo's. So, my guess is that we are looking at all but maybe one pattern on the books for this year - and then you would be sitting right on Christmas. Items many times get inserted in the schedule, but seldom moved up. Anything could happen, but that is why I would stick to the #14.

I agree with skblades in that we probably need a friendly choice of the Buck 301 -vs- GEC 14 soon so the details can start getting worked out by one maker.

I doubt anyone will have a problem acquiring a #14 from the upcoming run. That's a lot of #14s and as already mentioned, there are dealers who still have stock almost 2 years after their initial release.

 

[knifeswapper]

I will say that I don't pay much attention to other dealers stock - but I haven't had a #14 for a long time - and I ordered a handful. No hidden agenda, just responded that that specifically.

 

[knarfeng]

This was supposed to be a poll about which model would be the proposed knife from Buck. The poll was closed already, so I am closing the thread.

There is still work that is being done offline to determine what is possible for a GEC offering. I think this particular poll has chosen a 301 frame, but has not chosen number of blades, blade alloy, or grind. Once the GEC offering is clarified, I will put up a poll to choose between something from GEC or something from Buck. This should happen in the next couple of days.

But I see there are already comments about a 2019 Forum knife. So let me say this about that.
Gary and I are not happy with the annual circus of the forum knife. It turns nice people into people who post mean spirited comments about each other, the knives, the people working on the project, and the manufacturers. Something that started out as a friendly endeavor among a few close friends has turned into a huge monster that no one can control.

So. There will be changes to the entire process if there is a 2019 knife. Still working out what those are. But we're not going to go through this turmoil again.