Valox compared to delrin

J

jec88

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Mar 6, 2012
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I picked up an old pre 1986 311 trapper and the delrin is worn smooth as butter. Thinking of picking up a new 301. Will the new name material wear as smooth as the old stuff? I didn't realize the delrin would age so nicely. Thanks in advance. Sorry for any typos, posting from phone.
 
I know the current black handled 300's are Valox. I do not know the history of what the handles were thru the years. Often the catalog just says 'black plastic'. When I think of Valox I mostly think of the BuckLites. The materials used on them seems stiffer. You appear to like that the old handles wore smooth. Personally I would think that indicated a poor performing handle material. I would be upset if the handle sawcuts wore off my pocket knife easily. There was a limited trial run a few years ago using smooth black Delrin. Never made it to full production and the collectors sucked them up.
The smooth yellow handles were Delrin also but discontinued in 2014.
 
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DeSoto,

Have you seen mention in any of the early catalogs of the term "Delrin" for the 300 series?

Bert
 
bertl said:
DeSoto, Have you seen mention in any of the early catalogs of the term "Delrin" for the 300 series? Bert
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Ya made me look, but I suspect you already knew the answer. The first actual mention of handle material that I could find was in the 2010 catalog. "Delrin" is listed as the handle material for the new smooth yellow Comfort Craft 300's and the traditional black handled 300's are listed as "Valox". I could find no catalog mention of handle material prior to 2010, just vague terms like "non slip grips", "black handle", and "black plastic". /Roger
 
DeSoto, I'm glad you concur. I kept thinking I had missed something. We all talk about Delrin but I just haven't seen it in the catalog.

Bert
 
I was thinking that I had read somewhere that in the past, it was Delrin and then changed over to valox? I'm probably wrong on that because I tried searching that and can't find it anywhere.
 
Here is an idea. I just took a look at some of the Camillus catalogs from the 1970s. Delrin is listed as one of the handle materials that Camillus used. Of course the Buck contract knives aren't listed in the Camillus catalog. Probably, we can assume that the Camillus contract knives used Delrin, but we can't be sure what was used when Buck took over production of the 300 series. Maybe it was Delrin, maybe it was Valox, or maybe something else. I have wondered about this for a while, especially the year when the change was made to Valox;but I have never had a good answer.

Bert
 
I found an old thread on here that said they changed from Delrin to Valox sometime in the late 1990s. I like the way the old delrin wore smooth on the knife I picked up. It matches good with the handle on my 102. Has anyone had a late 90s on up that is valox that has shown wear like that? Trying to decide to get a new 301, or just pick up an older in-house 301.
 
I found an old thread on here that said they changed from Delrin to Valox sometime in the late 1990s
Click to expand...

Can you post a link to that thread, please?

Bert
 
I think I Bert is researching it and I may have just been repeating a rumor so often it became a alternate fact. One thing to store in your head is that black or yellow the scales that Buck used were never molded in house. They came in a box from
McHandles, joke. they were contracted from someone and assembled by Buck. They are heated and pressed onto liners and given sawcuts during pressing. I think the liners were also contracted and then stamped with logo on NS shield pillar by Buck. As much as possible Buck 300s have always been machine made as much as possible. Hand 'assembled' and final finished for sure, but just about everything that could be was parted out as a cost savings method. They have worked in units and teams doing certain functions for a long time. For 300s no one person completely builds one knife. Which is industry standard. And keeps production up and costs low. 300
 
Hey 300, I guess the main thing I want to know is if I buy a brand new 301, would the scales have the potential to age and smooth the same as the old 311 I picked up, or would I need to buy an older 301 for that effect? Does anyone have a newer 300 series knife that they carry all the time that has really smoothed out?
The 311 I picked up looks about like a river rock that has worn smooth, I like it. I read in another thread looking up valox and delrin where Joe Houser said it can be buffed/ polished to look about like buffalo horn(but I'm not sure if he meant the older delrin or newer valox). Thinking of buying a new 301 and put the miles on it myself.
 
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jec88,

I have a Camillus Buck that I had in my pocket every day for about 30 years and it smoothed with age. Check with me in another 30 years and I'll let you know how the replacement fared.

Bert
 
Bertl, I hope we are both around then and I'll hold you to it. How about a picture of your two side by side? This thread could use a picture.
 
Nice! What year is the top one? I think I might just pick up a 301 from 1987-1988, since I already have a 1987, 309. I kind of like the "Buck" shield that spells out Buck because when I was in high school and lusting after Buck knives, those were the ones I remember looking at in the display case. I probably bought the 309 because it would have been the cheapest. I also like the brass on those.
 
The top is a 1974-1985 Camillus Buck. I probably bought it sometime around 1980.

Bert
 
If you really want to dig into the Delrin vs. Valox questions you may need to get a chemical engineer degree. Google them both a see if you can find anything that will tell you "Yes, it can be buffed to high sheen". There is considerable amount of tech information on both. Both are thermo plastics that can be injected into forms. The easiest answer for the OP is watch for a cheap one and give it a polish. I am not a expert in the field, but I would think you wouldn't want to get it too hot.

If you look in the blade wells of Black scaled Buck made 300s , older and newer, you will see what looks like black circles on the well wall. These are actually a sort of rivet like form that Buck creates by melting down prongs on the back of the supplied scales. These fit into a sort of tapered circle that makes the rivet head that holds on the scale. The smooth yellow Delrin scales were riveted on. But, that doesn't mean that scales can't be melted also. The other versions were all riveted on and they may have just wanted to fit the smooth yellow scales into the same production line. If you look I think you will still see the tapered circles in the liner, they just are not drilled out as in the black material.

300






Here is a cut scale where you can see the hole in the liner a plastic prong goes thru and then is hot smashed into a flat rivet like head in the blade well. I won't swear if this is a pre or post Valox scale. By the closed end of the hammer I will say a mid 90's date.


Smooth yellow riveted on


Here is a Dymondwood scale with rivets, note the tapered circles that would be drilled and plastic attached to the black scale would stick thru and be hot smashes into a rivet like head to hold on scale.
 
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