Received my Vantage Pro Small today and immediately sent it back to Buck

Misanthropia

Misanthropia

Joined
Jul 10, 2011
Messages
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After watching a few videos (that did forewarn me of possible quality control issues), I pulled the trigger on a Vantage Pro because I loved the quality of materials used, and the design itself. I rather eagerly awaited its arrival, and when I received it today, it was all wrong. The blade was touching the liner, there was a small patch of scratches on the blade from contact with the liner, and it was so stiff that the flipper wouldn't budge the blade at all. I tried taking it apart and centering the blade, lubing, etc to no avail (although the screws appeared to all have Locktite on them which is a nice touch). The date on the UPC was 1-10-11, which I thought was late enough for the QC issues to all have been resolved :confused:

Anyway, I immediately mailed it to Buck for warranty repairs and once again eagerly await its return. I really love the knife, but these levels of issues on an American made product are pretty disconcerting. A $20 CRKT M16 I bought years ago, which is made in China, has impeccable fit and finish by comparison.
 
Yup. That $20 M16 with its AUS4 blade and plastic scales probably looked real purdy right up till the first time you actually used it. Because all blades get scratched when you actually use them. But that nasty old Vantage Pro with S30V blade and G10 handle will, just as it is, cut rings around that M16 all day long and twice on Sunday.

Blades don't have to be perfectly centered in the closed position in order to work just fine when they are open. For folks that are looking for everything to be pretty and just so, I recommend buying a Spyerco or Benchmade for $100+. For folks who want a practical, solid, high performance cutting instrument for everyday use, I recommend the Vantage Pro for about $50.
 
Pictures would be nice to back up the claims made by the OP. The OP has every right to be disappointed with a new out of the box knife that has rub scratches on the blade, from contacting the liners. Regardless of the dollar amount he spent on brand A, B or C... he in entitled to have a new knife free of defects.
I am sure Buck will address his concerns under warranty and make things right with a knife free of scratches. I agree knives are tools and get worn with use, but this appears to be a QC issue leaving the factory. Again, pics would be good to back up the OP claims.
 
knarfeng said:
Yup. That $20 M16 with its AUS4 blade and plastic scales probably looked real purdy right up till the first time you actually used it. Because all blades get scratched when you actually use them. But that nasty old Vantage Pro with S30V blade and G10 handle will, just as it is, cut rings around that M16 all day long and twice on Sunday.

Blades don't have to be perfectly centered in the closed position in order to work just fine when they are open. For folks that are looking for everything to be pretty and just so, I recommend buying a Spyerco or Benchmade for $100+. For folks who want a practical, solid, high performance cutting instrument for everyday use, I recommend the Vantage Pro for about $50.
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:thumbup: Nicely said
 
Might be disappointing, but Buck is going to make it right. My small Vantage Select is a little off center. It has an uneven grind towards the tip. It still cuts pretty well though. This is a user knife for me so I'm not to concerned. It's still one heck of a knife for the $20 bucks I paid for it. When you get your knife back it will be perfect. Buck's warranty service is why I continue to buy many of there knives. However, I've never had to send one back in.
 
I've read more threads on the issues with the vantage than any other knife, as of late. Im just curious why this particular knife has the same problems over and over. I love the Vantage and have several of the Avids and Pros, LARGE and small. So my intention in this post is not to bag on the Vantage but, this knife is wrong more times than right. I have walked into knife stores and asked to see a Vantage and was put off by the poor F and F, and asked to see a different one and they were all the same. Why cant Buck fix the deficiencies in this knife? It's not like you cant see the problems. If you have 100 knives and 85 of them are off in some way, there is an issue that needs to be addressed. Is it easier to address the issue when someone sends in the knife for warrenty work and hope that the other X number of people that are unhappy with the knife just suck it up and settle with a knife thats not up to standard.

Yes these knives are working knives and dont have to be perfact. Would you walk into a car dealership and buy a new car that has a dent or key scratch down the side. Would you except those flaws because you were going to use it as a working vehical. The flaws don't impair the performance of the car.

I wouldn't and I dont think many would.
 
Jeff S1 said:
Pictures would be nice to back up the claims made by the OP. The OP has every right to be disappointed with a new out of the box knife that has rub scratches on the blade, from contacting the liners. Regardless of the dollar amount he spent on brand A, B or C... he in entitled to have a new knife free of defects.
I am sure Buck will address his concerns under warranty and make things right with a knife free of scratches. I agree knives are tools and get worn with use, but this appears to be a QC issue leaving the factory. Again, pics would be good to back up the OP claims.
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Thank you, this was the point I was getting at. Buck still has rampant, unnecessary QC issues and the excuse "go buy a Benchmade or Spyderco for $100" is a total cop-out. A $30 Kershaw won't even so consistently have the issues that the Vantage Pro has. I wasn't comparing a cheap CRKT to the Vantage in terms of performance, obviously the Buck is superior but it makes little sense to me that Buck wouldn't have rectified these issues by now. I'm not saying I want a perfect knife; just one that works correctly.
 
When I buy a new knife I want a perfact knife. I work hard for the money I make and if choose to spend it on a Buck brand knife I want perfection, or I will buy a Spiderco. Where does it say in the rules that I have to buy a Buck. I love Buck knives and have chosen to collect them but, the knives I use every day and have to depend on need to live up to my standards, not me settle for there sub-standards...

It seems as though some get there loyalty in the way of common sense. Buck knives was founded on quality. If we allow the quality to tank than all we will have is our loyality. We will all be carrying GERBERS :(
 
Blind loyalty is a funny thing. Following that logic, you order and pay for a new Ford F150 which comes from the factory with scratches all over the hood. BUT if you want a truck free of scratches go and pay double for the Lincoln pick up truck and that should be free of scratches. Of course I am refering to the Buck/Spyderco comment....which is silly at best. OP...send it back to Buck. I am sure they want to see the ones making it past QC so they can improve their product. Don't be influenced by silly comments. (not that you were! :))
 
In the early days of Buck knives, Hoyt Buck produced hunting knives that were almost twice as much as the other brands of hunting knives. People bought them dispite the cost because the quality was above the standard and the warrenty was the best. Money isn't the issue, people want quality wheather you spend $1 or $100. If the quality isnt ther than why buy the knife.
 
The current Buck problems are not caused by the consumer's wishes or needs, but by the nature of the business.

Seems to me that everything now (due to tiny profit margins) hinges on mass production by employees working at top speed......maybe recklessly fast speed.

Things were FAR, FAR different in the days when Hoyt was making the knives and Bucks cost two or five times as much as the other knives on the market.

It's the crazed work atmosphere that results in the quality control problems......and I don't see a solution because that's the only way Buck can stay in business.

You don't see it as much in the established models, but some of the newer models have a lot of problems.
 
I am dissapointed to here about your problems. I have a buck vantage pro and it is darn near perfect and is a fantastic buy. Its the only one I have bought and the only one I looked at (got it when they first came out) and it is dissapointing to hear about all these problems. If a 30$ Zing from Kershaw is darn near perfect as far as F&F are concerned than the $50 Pro Vantage should be too.
 
knarfeng said:
For folks that are looking for everything to be pretty and just so, I recommend buying a Spyerco or Benchmade for $100+. For folks who want a practical, solid, high performance cutting instrument for everyday use, I recommend the Vantage Pro for about $50.
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I have a $53 spyderco that rocs, in s30v. Oh yeah, its made in America too. Not sayin, just sayin...
 
I absolutely love the Vantage series of knives. However, what I love is the design, not necessarily the F&F. It does indeed seem that there are still quality control issues with the Vantage line. I got a large Pro off Amazon, with the knife manufacture dated early 2011, and I sent it back for a replacement because it had a ground off tip.

Also, the Vantage Force Avid I currently carry is so far off center the blade practically a paper width's away from touching the liner. If I tighten the pivot further, the blade does move away, but I can't get it to move any further than about a quarter of the way over, nowhere near centered. Also, by that point, the pivot is so tight I can't open the knife at all. All four Vantage Force Avids that I handled in the store had blades that were that far off center. I loved the design so much I bought the knife anyway, and it didn't really matter to me because I intend this knife to be a beater.

Every brand new Vantage that I've handled in stores or received online has had some sort of issue right out of the box, with a handful having uneven blade grinds, ground off tips, delaminated Dymondwood or deep gouges in G10. Much more common (and thankfully, much easier to fix) are off-center blades; just factor in an extra couple of dollars to the price for a T6 Torx driver (which is helpful anyway for taking apart the knife for maintenance). And every Vantage I've handled out of the box has had a gritty pivot (which is the most forgivable issue to me because that gets naturally resolved when the knife is broken in). I tinker with my knives alot, so I can overlook many of these issues to a certain extent, as long as they're issues I can fix; therefore, I still consider the Vantage series to be high value for the design and materials used. The general public may not be as forgiving though. I'd love to see the QC issues squared away with the Vantage series because a knife with a design as nice as this deserves a better reputation. Very rarely do I hear critiques on the knife's design. I cringe every time I read about someone being disappointed and turned off to the Vantage line because they bought one with an offcenter blade or a blade rubbing against the liner.
 
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mbjannusch said:
It seems as though some get there loyalty in the way of common sense. Buck knives was founded on quality. If we allow the quality to tank than all we will have is our loyality. We will all be carrying GERBERS :(
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Nonsense.
Young man I am not a fool. I am an engineer who appreciates a working design. I have a Vantage Pro that is not centered. Big whoop. It's an S30V blade in a solid handle consisting of G10 scales with metal liners. The blade design is excellent. It cuts and holds an edge like a dream.

I've been carrying and using knives for some 50 years. For me, they are tools and not toys to collect. I grew up with knives that wouldn't hold a candle to the Vantage Pro. Never bothered me because they still got the job done of cutting what I needed to be cut.

You are perfectly welcome to go buy a custom 110 with S30V blades and get perfect fit and finish. I'm perfectly happy with my Vantage Pro because what I want it to do is cut. And it cuts just fine, thank you very much. But to say that the knife is flawed because the blade is not perfectly centered in the CLOSED position? Nonsense.
 
Nobody said you're a fool.

I think you misunderstood or misread what was said.

There are a lot of people who want both form and function in a knife.

It's a legitimate expectation.
 
The argument that "it doesn't cost x so you can't complain" is a cop out. I could just as easily say to everyone on the forum who complains about any defect in a production knife that "it didn't cost $1000 so you can't complain about imperfections". That's nonsense. Anything bought new should be free of defects. Especially defects that cause a knife to arrive damaged. Obviously, in many cases one gets what he pays for and there are certain standards of quality that one can expect when purchasing a $5 knife vs a $50 knife vs a $400 knife.

If it's damaged the company should repair or replace it under warranty. I think sending that knife back to Buck is the right thing to do. That's the whole point of buying a higher priced knife with a warranty: you can expect a higher level of quality and actually utilize the warranty if it's needed.
 
knarfeng said:
Nonsense.
Young man I am not a fool. I am an engineer who appreciates a working design. I have a Vantage Pro that is not centered. Big whoop. It's an S30V blade in a solid handle consisting of G10 scales with metal liners. The blade design is excellent. It cuts and holds an edge like a dream.

I've been carrying and using knives for some 50 years. For me, they are tools and not toys to collect. I grew up with knives that wouldn't hold a candle to the Vantage Pro. Never bothered me because they still got the job done of cutting what I needed to be cut

You are perfectly welcome to go buy a custom 110 with S30V blades and get perfect fit and finish. I'm perfectly happy with my Vantage Pro because what I want it to do is cut. And it cuts just fine, thank you very much. But to say that the knife is flawed because the blade is not perfectly centered in the CLOSED position? Nonsense.
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I don't say this very often, but this is the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard. So, I have to buy a custom shop 110 with S30v steel to expect to get a knife that comes to me in proper form. Just because you have lowered your standards enough to except sub-standard merchandise because it doesn't effect the usability is absurd. If an off centered knife is no "BIG WHOOP" I hope you're not an engineer for anything important, where lives are at stake. If your willing to compromise on something as small as your knife what else are you willing to let slide.

There is a problem with the design of this knife, PERIOD. Buck needs to fix the issues, whether there are some that will let it slide or the others that send them back.
 
I think it's more of a problem with the manufacturing processes or equipment or perhaps even the tolerances. From what I understand, the Vantage pivots are adjusted more for ease of opening than for centering (though I see issues with ease of opening right out of the box). For the knives vary so widely out of the box from one sample to another, from perfectly centered to touching or almost touching the liner, I think that means the people doing final assembly may have different standards for ease of opening vs centering or perhaps the tolerances are not very tight in manufacturing.
 
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