Quick review on Tan Buck-Strider Military folder..

J

jefff

Joined
May 27, 2005
Messages
747
Well I received the knife today .. I am already in love with this thing.. That being said..

let me get to some of the facts about it out of the box...
Like stated before .. the blade coating is not that perfect.. But you really can't expect it to be because it is black oxide and it is kinda like HA-III coating in the sense that not every batch comes out the same.. But it is a very nice coating non the less..

The Liner does seem like it should have been thicker but it works.. My liner went almost to the other side about 3/4 right out of the box.. but it still locks up like a tank.. and there is no blade play ..

The handle is the part I like the most.. it fits perfect in my hand and feels great.. even with the TACCOM scales.. it feels very stable and solid and the grip of the scales give me confidence that it will not slip even when sweaty or wet...

I am so glad I went ahead and purchased this knife.. it seems to be built like a tank and feels great to me.. I will post more later when I have had time to use it and see how good the edge stays. Right now we are fixing to get a pretty nice thunder storm..
Here are a few pics..
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And this is it now lol .. After a little blue remover and polishing compound and dermal.. I like it.. thought I would share it with ya ..

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Isn't that terrible .. not even a day old and I'm already changing stuff on it .. lol
Thanks for looking
~Jeff
 
jefff, nice. I too suffer from the same affliction, modding brand new knives! Looks good to me. Be sure to let us know how the knife holds up. Ie. the handle and blade steel and lock. Walter
 
Got some more Pics to post up .. These are pretty good .. showing things like liner thickness and lock up .. also my zebra stripes as my 3 year daughter calls it lol .. anyway I will keep you guys posted on how well she holds up .. so far so good. This is by far my favorite knife.. I feel bad though cause I think my CRKT's are getting jealous ;)
One note.. I think that one of the first things to buy for this knife.. is a good diamond steel.. to keep her nice and sharp.. I went to wally world and picked up a $5.00 pocket steel and it did wonders for the blade sharpness. Also second thing would be to treat it with some good PTFE lube.. on this one I tried out some new stuff I received in the mail called Super Lube.. It made the action like silk and really helped the knife out ..
Enjoy..
~Jeff
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The stripes look good. Much better than the all black. It also looks more Striderlicious with the stripes. Was it hard to get the coating off?
 
Nice pics. What about the blade shape? I´ve heard it is a hollow ground. Is it? Is it still strong, even though it is hollowed?

Is there anything to say about cutting performance?

Please keep us updated.
 
Was it hard to get the coating off?
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Yeah believe it or not It was pretty tough taking the coating off.. After hearing all the comments about the black oxide coating being streaky and stuff I figured it would fly right off there.. but it was a task .. I used Gun blue remover and that took it down to a dark grey.. then hit it with a polishing pad on the dremal and some blue metal magic polishing compound.. even then it had some signs of the black left.. So I applied some Naval Jelly rust remover to it with Q-tips and let it set for 15 mins then rinsed and went back over it with the dremal and polishing compound again...

Thank you for the comments..


What about the blade shape? Ive heard it is a hollow ground. Is it? Is it still strong, even though it is hollowed?
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I am still not sure what hollow ground means,.. but here is a close up picture.. see if you can tell from it .. and I really haven't had a chance to cut anything really substantial..But it preforms well on Mail so far .. I will keep you updated.. I believe that 420HC is a very good steel for hard use and wont snap like some of the harder steels.. I think they picked this steel because of the tasks like Prying and digging and such this knife might play a role in..
Hope this helps..
~Jeff
 
I don´t know what hollow means on that blade too. It was the answer to my question about who the blade is ground. Buck shows four different grinds. Semihollow, guess like on the 110, full hollow, typical razorblade, flat like on kitchen knifes and tactical flat.

Your blade looks to be fine.

I think about getting one, just for an impression about the quality and the blade.
 
Here is another pic.. it seem fine to me .. not weak in the least at any point.. It is a very beefy blade .. another note is that this thing has bronze washers also
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And here is another picture. I forgot to add of the back strap of the handle.. how the rivets are in place..

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Great pics, thank you.

I have read, there is no detent ball. Instead of this, the liner itself is stamped so it holds the blade closed. Does it work and hold the blade closed for sure?
 
Hmm I can't confirm that the liner is stamped .. just from looking at it .. it appears that there is a detent ball in place.. but it could be stamped :confused: .. I really can't tell.. .. If I could get the knife apart I probably could tell for sure though ..
But, what ever means they used it works great.. keeps the knife closed just like it should..
Now I am curious lol. The next thing I would like to do to this knife would be replace the rivets with torx screws so it was fully serviceable..
~Jeff
 
Damn, now I gotta git me one! :D Jefff, I'm really liking that striped blade. :thumbup:
 
Thanks for the kind comments.. I really like it too.. This is my first time trying something like this and I am pretty impressed with the results. I wish I had access to a bead blaster.. that would have gave me the non reflective finish I was wanting .. but this works too..
Today I took the stripes onto the clip also.. Looks pretty cool
~Jeff
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I also wanted to add.. that I had read that there were some problems with people trying to find the right size Torx bit to remove the clip screws .. They are T5.5 not T6..
 
jarrode93@gmail.com said:
That is sweet. I may have to get a strider. Alot of people said striders are overrated, is this true???
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It is true. A lot of ppl. did say this.

Interesting, that you speak of Striders, while we are discussing a Buck here, even though both models, the Strider SMF and the Buck SBMF are not the same. The Buck is not the copie of the Strider. They just look alike, but not more.
 
This one is alot cheaper than a real deal strider.. And blade material and liner lock and scales are not near what you would find on a strider and cost difference reflects this.. .. But looks somewhat similar and I am not affraid of using this one or loosing it.. although I would kinda with this one with the stripes and all.. I'm Kinda attached to it now..
 
And also imagine to use a $300+ folder real hard compared to a cheap one.

Some Stideristas don´t care but most do. So in fact the Buck version comes nearer to the intended use than the original.

Buy two. One for going to its frontiers and the second for "know how far it can go".

All in all i found the Buck vesion fits better to the concept of a hard use folder, unless somebody reports a serious lock failure. But the original looks better.

BTW, the pivot wont be as thick as the original but how thick is it? 4mm or 6mm?
 
Great post and great pics too.

I really dig the stripes.
It's hard to believe that it was your first time doing something like that--imagine what a little practice might lead to?

Allen.
 
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