The 121 Fisherman/Guide Story?

Believe me, I can relate to the double disclaimer......I'll have to remember to use that one (if I could only remember).

Do you think the change you mention could have happened earlier? I have a Group 4 knife (81-86) with a much thicker blade and bigger handle than the earlier 121s.

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Gosh, now that I look at that old picture......the preceding Group 3 knife is almost as big in blade and handle as the Group 4. Idunno what to think......Did they get even bigger after that? I don't have anything later at hand.
 
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I got here in 87 and I remember the parts consolidation happened after that. I'm am not good at fixed blade history...

The 121 was my 1st Buck ever. My Dad gave it to me when I was in the service and running around with all the country boy hunters. I still have it, I believe I got it in 81. Best damn can-opener I ever owned. Never chewed up the edge even though it opened many cans. 'sigh', now I have to go dig it out to see the true condition. I knew nothing about knives in those days.
 
Measuring the knives in my collection yields the following dimensions:

The BUCK knives having been hand ground vary from knife to knife but the thinnest one I have is .051" and the thickest is .061.

The BUCK 121 USA knives seem to be fairly uniform having been made at the Magnolia Plant with far more refined manufacturing techniques seem to be close to .078"

Cant speak for the date stamped knives since I don't collect them.

The last 121 made as a custom in 2005 measures a massive .118" That is more than twice the thickness of the first 121s.

Now you folks with the date stamped knives fill in the blanks.

Telechronos:):):)
 
You'd think that last rogue 2005 121 with the scaler would have been made with leftover blades.

Maybe all the date-stamped knives were .118 then.

:eek:

Guess I gotta buy a date-stamped 121. Any old excuse is good enough.

:D
 
Nor do I have any date stamped 121's. But the one custom I have is as you say, about double the thickness of the older ones.

Another interesting point, couple of the sheath snaps don't have BUCK on them. And not all 121's will fit in all 121 sheaths.
 
In and around 1967-68 Atchison Leather was making sheaths for Buck and they had nothing on the silver snap.

And I've come to the conclusion that most 121s will not fit into 121 sheaths.

:D

Pity the man that buys an e-Bay 121 sheath and thinks it's just that easy.
 
I have several 121s with original sheaths. The very first sheaths, (e.g. for the Spine Stamp 121) and the double keeper sheaths vary. Some have buck on the snap (the double keeper does) some don't. I have 1967s which have Buck on the snap and some don't.

I am not sure that one can date when the snaps had Buck on them. Interestingly, some think that the double keeper is the first 121 sheath. That too is inaccurate. My Spine stamp 121 has a single keeper. A whole group of the next year manufature have either a double keeper sheath or single keeper sheaths. I suspect that the big box with the sheaths had both in it (fewer double keepers by far). The guy that hand made the knife probably just grabbed a sheath out of the big box and may have gotten a single or double keeper. He may also have gotten a sheath with BUCK on the snap or it may not have.

Telechronos:):):)
 
I dont have any answers for this thread but will say that when I was doing the 119 history, I noticed there were several things that seemed odd about the 121. I think bg pointed out some of them. It warrants a thorough investigation for sure. I also remember thinking that I didnt have enough 121's to answer the questions I had. Usually when this happens I start stealing pictures from ebay auctions and adding them to the data pile.
Tele...Oh my gosh thats a nice group of older 121's!!:eek:
YOu dont see too many with the horizontal BUCK stamp anymore, nice one!
 
Joe, do you remember any of the background about the discussions and decision to discontinue it?

From looking at catalog records it looks like it vanished in 2000.

Had it just become too similar to the 105 to survive on it's own?
 
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