The first Bucklite model was the 422 (112 size). The idea came from a "112" I made for a friend of mine for a Christmas gift. I made a set of handles from Micarta and put it together with a 112 blade, rocker, spring holder and spring. I used rocker rivets (the rocker pin) for all of the rivets, becasue we did not have any other "headed" rivets. I was an Industrial Engineer at the time (setting up p[roduction standards, method analysis, etc) and I was just "fooling around" so to speak. A couple of my co-workers saw the Micarta version I made and wanted one, so I made a couple of them. This was around Dec '82 early '83 I believe. A couple of these got modified with the addition of finger grooves (my original one didn't have FG's). Some of the management and executive group saw them and liked the idea of a strong, light weight knife that could be priced a bit more competively (as you remember we were in a fairly tough recession in the early '80's). So the Enginering group began work on a new knife with light weight handles.
Machining handles from Micarta would not have been as cost effective as molding was and is. On the recommendation of the molder we were working with, we decided to use Valox which is a polyster material. It had a very high glass content which provided a great deal of strength. Polyster, in my opinion is actually a beter material than Nylon as Polyester is more chemically inert and less hydroscopic when molded than Nylon. Anyway, we went into production with two piece handles that we riveted together and using 112 blades stamped with 422. The sheath was a simple nylon sheath. The 426 (110) and 424 (501) sizes followed very quickly. The largest seller of these three has always been the 422.
I have the second production knife made, engraved as such, with my name on it. It was presented to me by the VP of Manufacturing at the time (Everett Giles). I also have a plaque of thank you presented to me by Chuck at a company dinner. The plaque is dated 1983, that is why I believe it was Christmas of '82 that I made the first one- I can't recall dates from a month ago at this point much less 20 years ago.
The 1 piece Bucklites came about from a suggestion the then Engineering Manager (Bob Vachata) made to me. I was a Manufacturing Engineering then working primarily on New Products (in fact I did many of the new products at that time as we did not have a New Product Dept). I do not remember the exact date of the change from 1 pc to 2 pc, but it would have been mid/late '80's ('85 - '87?). Somewhere in here is when we introduced the 425 also which was also my project. Ultimately, the 425 became the largest selling Bucklite ever. There were a few years when we produced and sold over 1/4 million 425's alone; total sales for the series excedded 500,000 units annually.
In my humble opinion, the absolute best Bucklite series we produced was the 1 pc version (second would be the original 2pc). To my knowledge, we have never received a return for a handle defect; that is not to say a few didn't exist, but this version was in essence bullet proof. The returns were primarily for broken blades (some things never change)
A sort of brief history of the Bucklite. Two of the things I prize most are the original 422 and the plaque I was given. It was truly a "rush" being able to help bring about one of the most successful products lines we had.
Bill Keys
Director of Manufacturing and Engineering
Buck Knives, Inc.
:thumbup: