The "Buck 110" of the 21st century?

ThePharce said:
So a SAK isn't a knife? I have much better blades on my Wave than on my Vic Camper....
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I've never considered an SAK as a multi-tool, just a pocket knife with a lot of gadgets. That said, sorry if my post bugged you, it was not my intention. :)
 
I still have difficulty believing that Spyderco would be a popular "people's knife" as many here believe. They are too ugly and too expensive to enjoy the popularity among general public and be an example others would like to follow. The century just starts, so any opinion is a pure guess anyway. But I can not really imagine Delica or Endura ever becoming a main stream...
 
cziv said:
I've never considered an SAK as a multi-tool, just a p
Code:
ocket knife with a lot of gadgets. That said, sorry if my post bugged you, it was not my intention. :)
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Didn't bug me at all. I will admit, though, (and I own and often edc a spyderco) that I get kind of sick of the constant spyderco love on here. They make great knives, but someone could start a thread on which model Boker to get and four posts in you would start seeing "para", " delica ", "manix "....lol it just gets a bit much.
 
Hahahaha probably not good that the op (that's me!) is a Spydie fan too :D looking back though I can perfectly understand how Spyderco might seem overhyped Pharce and for the new "110" it might not fit the bill...
 
i dont know, think this thread started with the premise that the buck 110 was the knife of the 20th century or something. i think its success was more due to it being inexpensive and available pretty much everywhere "see flooding the market" . which is still true today. so its really not popular because its the best folder you can buy for $35, its just the one thats there on the shelf at walmart when some non knife person happens by with intention of buying a quality knife and being otherwise unaware of whats really out there, or oblivious in other words. so then you might conclude the buck 110 is a knife for the oblivious buyer in the 21st century and then you would be more accurate in its description. that would only be because its the one folder on the shelf there with others that are either more obviously lower quality off brand or chinese, or the others there that are more expensive, see kershaw leek and blur. To be shure allot of non knife people think $35 is pricey for a pocket knife. These same people would need to be more informed about Spyderco, Benchmade and others to even consider one over the buck knives which they pass by every time they walk past the knife rack at "insert your favorite department store here" wrapping it up, imo, Buck 110 is a mass market old design thats been left in the dust for over 20 years by other designs. It only remains popular because the average guy buying a buck 110 doesnt know jack about knives or even think he needs to know more than he does and definatly thinks $35 is top end for a knife.. its a familiar knife to most but its a dinosaur in its design. very nostalgic id love to have one of there custom shop versions. I dont think id want a endura or a griptillian that was 420 steel with a nail nick and no hole or stud or clip, even at half price and in every walmart in the country.
 
bada61265 said:
i dont know, think this thread started with the premise that the buck 110 was the knife of the 20th century or something. i think its success was more due to it being inexpensive and available pretty much everywhere "see flooding the market" . which is still true today. so its really not popular because its the best folder you can buy for $35, its just the one thats there on the shelf at walmart when some non knife person happens by with intention of buying a quality knife and being otherwise unaware of whats really out there, or oblivious in other words. so then you might conclude the buck 110 is a knife for the oblivious buyer in the 21st century and then you would be more accurate in its description. that would only be because its the one folder on the shelf there with others that are either more obviously lower quality off brand or chinese, or the others there that are more expensive, see kershaw leek and blur. To be shure allot of non knife people think $35 is pricey for a pocket knife. These same people would need to be more informed about Spyderco, Benchmade and others to even consider one over the buck knives which they pass by every time they walk past the knife rack at "insert your favorite department store here" wrapping it up, imo, Buck 110 is a mass market old design thats been left in the dust for over 20 years by other designs. It only remains popular because the average guy buying a buck 110 doesnt know jack about knives or even think he needs to know more than he does and definatly thinks $35 is top end for a knife.. its a familiar knife to most but its a dinosaur in its design. very nostalgic id love to have one of there custom shop versions. I dont think id want a endura or a griptillian that was 420 steel with a nail nick and no hole or stud or clip, even at half price and in every walmart in the country.
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You would be very, very wrong to make that assumption.
 
When I was a kid in the early 70s my Dad had a Buck 110 & I wanted one badly. Up until then I'd been carrying slipjoints by Case or Schrade. Honestly I can't recall much else in the same league as the Buck 110. If you wanted a beefy well built lockback the Buck 110 was it. Everything else similar was a copy (though well made too) of it like the Schrade & Puma lockbacks (which became my new knife grail). I remember the advertising showing a Buck 110 cutting a nail. Great marketing campaign by Buck back then.

Nowadays with the internet it is hard not to find the definitive next big thing in knives - every week. Last knife I remember a big hoopla about is the Emerson CQC-7 due in part to the book Rogue Warrior & Benchmade taking it to production. Honestly we are about the worst crowd to ask this question because I'd say most of us own multiple different knives, participate in multiple different online knife forums, & read multiple different knife publications. It's like giving a Mountain Dew & a candy bar to a kid with ADD and telling him to Focus.

Actually an enviable situation for us knife nuts now really.
 
bada61265 said:
i dont know, think this thread started with the premise that the buck 110 was the knife of the 20th century or something. i think its success was more due to it being inexpensive and available pretty much everywhere "see flooding the market" . which is still true today. so its really not popular because its the best folder you can buy for $35, its just the one thats there on the shelf at walmart when some non knife person happens by with intention of buying a quality knife and being otherwise unaware of whats really out there, or oblivious in other words. so then you might conclude the buck 110 is a knife for the oblivious buyer in the 21st century and then you would be more accurate in its description. that would only be because its the one folder on the shelf there with others that are either more obviously lower quality off brand or chinese, or the others there that are more expensive, see kershaw leek and blur. To be shure allot of non knife people think $35 is pricey for a pocket knife. These same people would need to be more informed about Spyderco, Benchmade and others to even consider one over the buck knives which they pass by every time they walk past the knife rack at "insert your favorite department store here" wrapping it up, imo, Buck 110 is a mass market old design thats been left in the dust for over 20 years by other designs. It only remains popular because the average guy buying a buck 110 doesnt know jack about knives or even think he needs to know more than he does and definatly thinks $35 is top end for a knife.. its a familiar knife to most but its a dinosaur in its design. very nostalgic id love to have one of there custom shop versions. I dont think id want a endura or a griptillian that was 420 steel with a nail nick and no hole or stud or clip, even at half price and in every walmart in the country.
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Ahhhhh....

The Buck 110 was a landmark in the knife industry, way ahead of it's time.
 
In my mind the buck 110 was a gamechanger for the knife industry as a whole. No, as many have stated it wasn't the first locking blade and maybe it didn't break new ground, it just put all the peices together in a well built knife that became extremely popular. So much so that it is the picture that still comes to many peoples minds when they think: knife, buck knife, or hunting knife.

The buck 110 of the next century would have to become what non-knife people would think about when they thought of "pocketknife". I'm not real sure that there will be one. As technology advances, things are brought to the marketplace in astonishingly short times. Things as advanced as the I-phone are replaced as obsolete within a two year cycle. Pick a knife design and you can have knock-offs flooding the market in months, maybe even before all the pre order's are filled. We have become addicted to change. and manufacturers like this. I don't think there will be a new buck 110 unless there is a major breakthroug in technology when it comes to knives. (think pocket light-saber) The way business works is different. most old businesses worked on an extremely long life cycle for designs. (Case has been doing the same designs for decades or longer.) The model T ford was made for nineteen years, how many cars now go even three years before some type of remodel.

Sharp pointy metal things have been around a long time, and while we still see advancement, they are incremental. Better steel, better locks, more ergonomic, etc. The Buck 110 brought several advancements together and redefined what many people thought a pocketknife was and was capable of.

Some have suggested the leatherman as the buck 110, I can see that point, as it is a new thing that is recognizable and does have a knife blade. but it doesn't really redefine pocket knife, it's just a new invention that incorporates a knife. and as I'm sure many people are aware, using a leatherman primarily for the blade is probably never done.
 
I see a LOT of Gerber Paraframes on cops in my area.

My father carried a folding lock back Buck or Buckalike for as long as I can remember. When he got Parkinson's the nail nick was too difficult. I got him a Delica. He loves it. I give Delicas as gifts to friends and family. They are a 'game changer' as some have said.

On that note, I've probably seen 3 or 4 paraframes to ALL Spydercos I've seen.
 
its only innovation over any other slipjoint folders of bygone days was the lockback design. and truthfully buck didnt invent the locking folder, the basic lockback itstelf had been around for some time. yes buck refined the lock, so what. some have just been drinking too much buck coolaide. This seems to have been a clever marketing tactic by buck and over time to get the name Buck stuck in the mindset as a tough heavy duty tool for hunters. If anything this might of held back other more refined designs over the years due to a misplaced almost mystical reverance for qualities that the actual knife doesnt have. So we also have a name thats generic to any locking folder of similar design, which there are many, no matter the brand name its a folding hunting knife, its a buck small b. I would agree the name recognition is there, probubly wont have another almost household word describing a folding knife catagory any time soon. so real question in my mind is a buck knife, small b, referring to the Buck 110 big B. or is it just a watered down term at this point? are we trying to canonize a particular buck knife because the brand name itself leads some to think that buck knife must obviously refer to the 110. i think it could at least to quite a few, but then again theres a number of people who could never tell the difference and would call any similar knife a buck knife regardless. ive asked a few non knife people the question " what comes to mind when you hear the words buck knife?" and i think non knife people based on my small sample of answers think its a generally old fashioned wood or bone handled knife. theres no thought of buck even being a knife company. I would imagine you could find people who would think it was clever of Buck USA to name the company after a popular knife style. thats a pretty big disconnect. would be akin to naming your spoon company Spoon USA. ok maybe not, lol. anyway, i dont think of the 110 as a particularly big innovation. but i do think the name of the company really is a word thats gone from a proper noun to a adjective, horray buck.
 
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bada61265 said:
its only innovation over any other slipjoint folders of bygone days was the lockback design. and truthfully buck didnt invent the locking folder, the basic lockback itstelf had been around for some time. yes buck refined the lock, so what. some have just been drinking too much buck coolaide. This seems to have been a clever marketing tactic by buck and over time to get the name Buck stuck in the mindset as a tough heavy duty tool for hunters. If anything this might of held back other more refined designs over the years due to a misplaced almost mystical reverance for qualities that the actual knife doesnt have. So we also have a name thats generic to any locking folder of similar design, which there are many, no matter the brand name its a folding hunting knife, its a buck small b. I would agree the name recognition is there, probubly wont have another almost household word describing a folding knife catagory any time soon. so real question in my mind is a buck knife, small b, referring to the Buck 110 big B. or is it just a watered down term at this point? are we trying to canonize a particular buck knife because the brand name itself leads some to think that buck knife must obviously refer to the 110. i think it could at least to quite a few, but then again theres a number of people who could never tell the difference and would call any similar knife a buck knife regardless. ive asked a few non knife people the question " what comes to mind when you hear the words buck knife?" and i think non knife people based on my small sample of answers think its a generally old fashioned wood or bone handled knife. theres no thought of buck even being a knife company. I would imagine you could find people who would think it was clever of Buck USA to name the company after a popular knife style. thats a pretty big disconnect. would be akin to naming your spoon company Spoon USA. ok maybe not, lol. anyway, i dont think of the 110 as a particularly big innovation. but i do think the name of the company really is a word thats gone from a proper noun to a adjective, horray buck.
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Paragraphs are your friend.

Frankly, I've read your rambling, bordering upon incoherent posts and I am not impressed. I'm sure you don't care and that is fine.
 
My original Buck 110 is shelved and isn't a user, but this plum red Paperstone is. It is still an excellent knife for the 21st century.

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The Delica is the new "110" with regard to affordability and standard-setting design (ie pocket clip, one-hand opening, lightweight, quality construction and materials). The Sebenza Titanium frame-lock is a worthy choice if affordability is secondary.
 
Of all the non knife nuts that don't carry SAKs, they either still carry a 110, or the Endura 3 or 4. Usually SE or CE.
 
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