What would you do?

J

J. MacDonald

Joined
Jun 8, 2000
Messages
3,140
I have an old Buck 110. It was my first real "high end" knife. I bought it about 25 or 26 years ago when I was 15 or about that age (and a Buck 110 was something to talk about!). I had carried small multi blade slip joints for years and was finally ready for a real knife!

Years later I replaced the Buck 110 with a Puma 971 Game Warden. I still have the Puma.

I used the Buck a lot and beat the hell out of it.

About 15 years ago, I "loaned" this 110 to a budddy of mine. He was a painter at the time and was using a Boker folding bird knife as his EDC. As I no longer had any use for the 110 I traded him for the Boker mostly to see my friend get what I considered a more useful knife. The Boker had a delicate blade and was not well suited to opening paint cans.

I have since moved on in my knife habit. The guy I loaned the knife to is now my best friend of 20 years and a budding knife knut in his own right. I've bought many knives since then and not looked back to the Buck 110 very often, although i've tried to give away that old Boker a few times!

Recently, my friend replaced his old Spydie (recent EDC) with a Benchmade 940 and our conversation was on the knife topic. He asked as to whether I had any interest in getting that old 110 back? One thing lead to another and after all these years, we traded back the Buck 110 for the Boker. The buck was beat. He had actually used the 110 a lot whereas I had left the Boker in a drawer. The 110 was (is) so loose that the lock is no longer safe and the blade was beat.

A few days later (my 40th birthday party) my friend gives me a 100th Aniversary buck 110!

Here's my dilema: Do I send the old 110 in for refurbishing to return it to a serviceable condition, or do I leave it as is as a testamonial to our long friendship. It sort of seems that with the aniversary model 110 and the old, shared beater, that I sort of have a cool pair but it kills me to have a knive with an unsafe lock and a bad blade profile in my safe.

What would you do?

jmx
 
I can't see how sending in the Old Buck for refurbishing could hurt, But sometimes with warranty work they replace the item if it is too far gone. If this happens then you would have the problem of losing the Old Buck all together. I would explain to the company the amount of damage or wear the knife has, then they should be able to tell you if they can fix it or have too replace it. Hope they can get it fixed for you.
 
If you do send it in, be sure and tell them it has sentimental value and you want the same knife back.

Personally I would leave it as is if you are sure it will be displayed only.

I have a Schrade trapper that belonged to my wifes grandfather. The tip of the clip point blade is broken, and the spey blade has been sharpened pretty un-evenly...has kind of a re-curve profile now and lots of scratches. The handles have seperated enough that the blades have alot of side to side play...probably 3/4" motion. It is completely UN-usable. However, I keep it as is because that is how he left it, and I find its little history of how hard it was used far more interesting than having it put back in shape.
 
I think sending it back for repair is good. You then have two working knives (the 100 anniversary can be kept in the box though) while the history remains to be told (even if they replace the knife). You can say: "This knife's predecessor was beaten so badly so that when I sent it back to Buck they replace it .. the amount of use it got during this years was ..... etc.etc."

Thus you are letting Buck do some good service to you while by you telling the story they benefit from one more happy customer telling them good.

Have a nice long friendship. I do hope I can have one true like yours.
 
Sometimes, the value in something is the stories it tells.

Some friends of mine recently had their house of thirty years remodeled extensively. The last of their childeren left home eight or ten years ago, so they moved a couple of walls around, new carpets, repainted everything, new kitchen entirely, etc. But there is one piece of wood trim around one door that was left untouched. While the rest of the woodwork has been redone in a light color, this one piece stands out in the old dark stain. If you look, there are marks carved into this piece recording the height of each of their children at each birthday. They had a new piece of trim made for that spot with the new finish. It's stored in the garage. When they finally have to leave this house, the new owners will probably want to replace that old piece that doesn't match and has all of those marks carved into it with the nice new piece. But as long as my friends stay in that house, they want that old board there because, while it no longer matches, while it's all marred and dirty, it's much more valuable to them than the new one that's kept in the garage.

I think the old Buck has lead a long and hard life and now it's time to retire it. It's valuable and belongs in the safe not because it's in perfect condition, but because it testifies to 1) your own life-long interest in knives since you bought it at age 15, 2) a 20 year friendship which is a rare and valuable thing, and 3) your shared interest in knives.
 
Keep the old Buck the way it is. Knives like that have character.
 
put them side by side on a nice wooden placque...and everytime u fell depressd about one thing or another...just walk over to it and say hello to ur friend...;)
 
Leave it as is. My father has quite a collection of old hunting knives. He is definitely a knife user, not a collector. I intend to leave them "as is" to remember him after he's gone. BTW, he's still alive and well! Just my .02 Leo G.
 
bring back the glory...my father has a buck 110 that was his firefighting knife...hes a fire chief anyway hes had theis knife since he started and used it alot on the job, he broke the tip of but resharped. when i first got into knives i got myself a buck prince, it had a little cuponit it to get an old buck redone and given a new 200 blade, we used it and got it back good as new, exept for the sheath, the fire damage wasnot coverd by the warenty, :rolleyes: anyway im glade we had it done because now the knife shows a combination of new and old;) just my toghts on the matter.
 
I'd keep the old and the new Bucks together in a place of honor, and buy a "plain" Buck 110 to use, and maybe pass on to another old friend.
 
i've got a similar era 112 that i loaned to my dad. when he passed away last year, i found it and did send it in to Buck for cleaning,etc. it's retired now but it's ready to pass on to one of my kids.
guy
 
I could share a story very much the same as Chuck's, but I'll keep it in a nutshell and just suggest to you to retire the old friend (the knife, that is ;) ) How much more symbolic can that be?

My best friend of 44 years still has the Randall I gave him as a going away present, when he married and moved to France....
 
This is the axe my grandfather made --
my father replaced the handle,
and I replaced the blade.

Get the old Buck refurbished, and use it -- that's what it's done all its life. Put the new commemorative on display.

You got a good friend.
 
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