Question to Mr. Joe Houser - overseas Buck owner here

K

Klaus

Joined
Dec 3, 2001
Messages
219
Let me first say that I´m happy to have found this forum and that I do love my 110 buck and the Bucktool I own as well - both I would like to add possibly a bit unusual for a german ;-)

Befor asking one or two questions let me shortly describe how things with Buck started for me - having read somewhere that "The Buck" knife is the ultimate in folding knifes (this was in the early 90ies) I asked an US friend (whom I brought over from CA to germany to work in the same company) if he could help me to get such a knife - so a while later his brother sent one over and I got this nice model 110 Buck Knife and I was very proud of it then and still am.

Years later and being very happy with the "The Buck" I bought your "Bucktool" in some mall in the Bay area even with the shop lady trying to talk me out of it and into buying something else.

Now on to my questions:

Having learned here about how to differentiate the different production years and such using the numbering sheme on the blade (and which steel was used in which year) - I tried to look this up on mine. What confuses me is that the "-" used on my blade in the 110 line is in front AND the back of the 110 - making something like " - 110 - " So while the - was used for the 92 models which would somehow correlate to the time I got it (don´t remember exactly but close enough to 92 to make sense) I also read here that the character is just AFTER the 110 which would be more like 110- I guess. Does this - 110 - make any sense to you ? If this -110- was possibly used around that time would this mean the 425 steel was used ?

Two other questions: As I hadn´t been using the knife too much and it was so wonderfully sharp and also kepth the sharpness very well I never sharpened it so far - so now its getting dull and I ask myself what to do - I don´t want to have someone ruin it as I read that Buck Knifes are more difficult to sharpen than the average one (which I thought was due to using better steel and holding the sharpness better) - I´m also not used to sharpening myself - also I didn´t find any "official" Buck outlet in germany and buck knifes are not so common here - I´m just too scared someone could somehow ruin it.

Another point I wanted to ask is - after having learned that in the custom shop I found on your fine web site there are BG42 steel blades available for the 110 - if those "better" blades can be fitted to older 110 - I mean if Buck or oneself can/would change the blade to a BG42 one on lets say my existing 110. This might cause a big laugh among the buck collectors here (like hey what the heck - just buy a new one with BG42 blade) but I´m not a collector of Buck or any other knifes (yet?) and I just thought that possibly upgrading to such a blade might help me in the longterm with my "sharpening problems" as described earlier.

Thanks in advance for your answer and let me express my positive surprise having a buck official being available to the public here on this forum. Seems like this is part of the "Buck experience" - and I´m even more happy to own my 110 and Buck Tool.

Kind regards

Klaus
 
As the buck guys seems to be busy (no offense) I spent quite some time digging deeper into this "buck universe" here - I found just one post about Joe Houser mentioning that sometimes in 92 something was changed and the one dash was changed to two dashes (no mentioning of that on the buck web site). I think this would describe my 110 pretty well as the year would fit and also the overall styling is from that area I would believe.

This also means that I have indeed the 425mod steel in that knife. I also tried to look up something on 425mod here (its not even mentioned on any of the steel pages on the buck web site) - and its very rarely mentioned - and when mentioned not very fabourably - seems like the 425mod has a name for being hard to sharpen and for getting dull quick - duuhh - interestingly I found 425mod mentioned in some writing of Mr. CJ Buck himself where he talked about the CATRA machine tests on the different steels (including 425mod) in one thread and that the complete report would be posted in some separate thread - in that separate thread all used steals and then some were mentioned EXCEPT 425mod - leaves me with some unshure feeling having my beloved 110 being kind of a "special animal" - steal used kind of "unloved" and almost never mentioned and talked about due to being "too bad ??" - and the two dash version being as well never officially mentioned - not significant ? too few ? problems ?

Still loving my one and only 110 (so far) but confused .... and happy to not have someone having ruined it yet in trying to sharpen it to no avail .... that gut "fear" I talked about might not have been bad after all.

And also found some interesting remarks about the bucktool rusting issues (had that a bit) - and learned that the green stuff on the brass is due to the leather sheets - really lots of information here.

Still loving my bucks though

Kind Regards

Klaus
 
My understanding is that you would be able to send your 110 to Buck and, for a fee, they could upgrade the blade to one of the premium steels offered in Pete's. I suggest searching the archive for reference to a "Buckbenza." One member bought a titanium handled Buck and sent it in for the upgrade to a better steel. Wish I could offer more specific advice, but it's all there in the archive. And I'd expect to see some of the other, more knowledgable Buck fans chiming in soon.
 
Take a look at this <a href="http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=168450&highlight=replace">thread</a>.
 
Klaus: You mentioned that having a 110 and Bucktool is unusual for a German. Just curious, what's a more-common knife for your countrymen to carry? What brand? What style of knife?
Take care!
 
Mnblade -

typically the SAKs of all sizes and brands (like Victorinox and Wenger) can be found quite often - I would say that these are absolutely the most common knifes here - for larger folders we do have some of the old german brands out of Solingen like Boker (with like the Speedlock for an Auto) which interestingly also are copying the 110 these days.

Seems to me they partly use imported far-eastern parts a lot these days - certainly to do with labour cost in germany (congrats to the Buck Company keeping most everything in the US) - most of these former local companies either went away, downsized and/or became mostly importers as far as I understand things.

For "tools" the Leatherman is pretty much the synonym - I used to have a PST, then a PSTII until I found the Bucktool to make me happier - have to admit that I lately also got the new Swisstool.

To sum it up you could expect a) a SAK for a small folder b) a leatherman for a "tool" c)a Speedlock for an larger (auto) folder.

I´m not too familiar with the larger fixed blades like used for serious hunting and extrem outdoor activities - also I´m lacking any special information/knowledge on security / tactical type knifes.

To end things I want to add that also here you find zillions of cheap copy-cats from Taiwan or China stealing their way into the market - but as most of the time you get what you pay for with these too ;-)

Regards

Klaus
 
Just want to update the thread to have it appear when the Buck guys hopefully come back to the forum - they seem busy with christmas shopping season - at least I hope so and all is well.

Best regards

Klaus
 
Just to end things in this thread for now - I´m happy that Mr. Joe Houser contacted me by email and that my knife will be on its way to Buck soon. I´m very impressed by this type of service and support.

All available thumbs up for Buck ! First class company & service !

Best regards

Klaus
 
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