what's wrong whit Buck Knives?

This is why I like BF, so many different opinions on the same question...opinions are like a..holes, everyone has one :D

All that I can add is if I was out of town and somehow ever lost the one or two ZT, Spydie, MT, etc. knives that I EDC the first thing that I would do is head to Wallyworld to pick up a $28 110 to ride it out. I feel each of these brands (Buck included) provides good value for what they produce and a "burner" 110 would be my way to go in a pinch since it is a knife that I can trust and would not just chunk when I got home since I have other knife's at home that are a better fit for my uses. :distress:

They are just all different in their own ways, my usual EDC is for last ditch self defense because I have to walk a few back streets on my way to my car after work and need something that opens quick and is intimidating so I carry an auto or flipper vs. nail nick for that reason and because the 110 is too heavy to disappear in my work slacks. I would probably lean further towards the Buck if I lived outside of the city and could carry a knife in a belt sheath. To me, they all have a specific design and I try to carry the knife designed for my needs that day.

BTW, I keep a CSAR-T in my car console + a Mora in the glove box and have a matching pair of CPM154 El Dorado's (folder and fixed) in their boxes as collectibles.
 
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This has been around since 1989, came from Kmart. Has been used hard by 4 different users. Chopped hardwood limbs, butchered many deer, all sorts of rough use. I put tape on the handle after having it fly out of my grip for the second time. It has never chipped, always comes back extremely sharp. It's held up great and has years of use left.

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This has been around since 1989, came from Kmart. Has been used hard by 4 different users. Chopped hardwood limbs, butchered many deer, all sorts of rough use. I put tape on the handle after having it fly out of my grip for the second time. It has never chipped, always comes back extremely sharp. It's held up great and has years of use left.

And that, to me, is what makes a good knife over any and all other factors. :thumbup:
 
This has been a fairly interesting, but predictable, thread that has gone the same direction most discussions of the 110 go. I think a lot of valid points have been made on all sides of the argument.

I work in an office these days so don't get to carry a larger folder much, but back in the late '70s and early '80s I worked for the Forest Service, did some logging, and did a lot of backpacking, along with some hunting. The only knife I owned was a Buck 110, so it got used as my kitchen knife as well. We see the one knife challenges fairly often, and I just can't get all that excited about them. Of course you can get by with only one knife. I did it for ten years, and that one knife was a Buck 110, which I still have and which is still solid and in perfect working condition.

Are there newer and better steels? Of course. We all know that. Are there knives with additional features that folks find attractive? Of course. I have a bunch of them, including a Sebenza that is clipped to my pocket right now, and I like them all. But this thread has been primarily about the 110, and all I can say is that it proved itself as my only knife for ten years and that is a pretty good track record, and my newer 110s are performing just as well.
 
The post was not about the Buck 110. I guess most people think of the pocket knife when they hear Buck. I think 119 fixed blade. :D

I had 2 110's, lost both of them, never bought another. I have 4 fixed blades though. Very good sheath knives. too much talk about Buck pocket knives imo
 
For me, when I think Buck, I think 110. But I have owned several 119's as well over the years.
 
The post was not about the Buck 110. I guess most people think of the pocket knife when they hear Buck. I think 119 fixed blade. :D

I had 2 110's, lost both of them, never bought another. I have 4 fixed blades though. Very good sheath knives. too much talk about Buck pocket knives imo

Fair enough, although it seems that most of the discussion has been about the 110. Perhaps I should expand my answer a bit. The Bucks I have, and my opinion of them, are:
110, 1974-1980 production. That's the one that I use for all cutting chores for ten years. I still have it and it is still solid and has plenty of life left in it.
110, custom shop version with S30V blade. Fit and finish on the scales were good, but on the spine not quite as good as the production 110, plus it has some blade wobble. I probably should contact Buck to see if I can get the blade wobble taken care of since I do find it rather annoying.
110, anniversary model. Good fit and finish, no blade play, very good knife.
55 folder that I purchase a couple of years ago for the office. Solid construction, does a great job. Finish could have been a bit better.
121 fixed blade that appears to be from the '67-'72 time frame. I never used it very much and it currently is with the kitchen stuff in our family camping gear.
Selkirk fixed blade purchased earlier this year. I don't have a lot of time with it yet, but so far I like it a lot. Fit and finish are excellent and it does the things it was designed to do very well.

As far as the steel is concerned, I haven't had any complaints. I don't expect 420HC to hold an edge like S30V. I don't find it mysterious that knives don't stay sharp forever and I don't find it difficult to touch up the edge on my knives when they need it, so it hasn't been an issue.
 
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I sharpen S90V on ceramic sticks, very easily.

I think the difficulty of sharpening certain steels is overblown. I have D2, S30V, S35V, 154CM, CPM154, and ZDP189, 440C, 420HC, 8CR13MoV, VG10, 1095, 1075, A2, and AUS-8 that I can think of. I mostly use ceramic sticks as well when I am at home and I haven't had any difficulty with any of the steels. I don't claim to be any kind of knife sharpening genius, I'm just willing to take the time to put a good edge on and touch it up when I notice the performance falling off.

I'm delighted to see all of the advances that have been made in cutlery steels. There is some amazing stuff on the market these days if you are willing to pay for it. By stressing that my Bucks have done a good job for me, I did not intend to take anything away from the phenomenal work that is being done in the knife world.

It sounds like you have a great collection of knives and I am glad you can enjoy such a wonderful hobby.
 
I couldn't believe how easy a Spyderco South Fork was to get razor sharp. It was a little used and not very sharp, wasn't hard at all to bring it back to hair popping. Ankerson said S90V, is easy on ceramic so it's not just me. A lot has to do with the angle on those sticks though. If it matches fine, if not it can take forever.
 
Products are designed for different users with different use cases.

Ease of sharpening needs to be understood as "easy for who?"

Most steels are "easy" for enthusiasts who have the time and interest to learn to sharpen and who sleep in houses - houses that contain modern sharpening tools.

It's a different matter when you put the same enthusiast sleeps in the woods and only has access to a pocket stone and needs to fix a damaged edge. Which explains why fine grained steels are generally preferred for survival style knives. It's a simple matter of material science. Carbides are a blessing or a curse depending on what stones you have available.

More carbide rich steels don't make as much sense to me for general non-enthusiast users I know who struggle to sharpen even easy to sharpen knives.
 
Products are designed for different users with different use cases.

Ease of sharpening needs to be understood as "easy for who?"

Most steels are "easy" for enthusiasts who have the time and interest to learn to sharpen and who sleep in houses - houses that contain modern sharpening tools.

It's a different matter when you put the same enthusiast sleeps in the woods and only has access to a pocket stone and needs to fix a damaged edge. Which explains why fine grained steels are generally preferred for survival style knives. It's a simple matter of material science. Carbides are a blessing or a curse depending on what stones you have available.

More carbide rich steels don't make as much sense to me for general non-enthusiast users I know who struggle to sharpen even easy to sharpen knives.

Agreed, though I carry diamond cards in the woods, too. Now I can sharpen just about whatever steel very quickly, but when I was first learning S30V was incredibly frustrating.
 
Just as you were posting, I was touching up my 440C 2-dot 112 with my DMT card. Just a few swipes, raised a burr, and then cleaned it up.

Wouldn't want to reprofile that knife that way though.

I use 440C for hunting and 12C27 or 420HC for backpacking.
 
Agreed, though I carry diamond cards in the woods, too. Now I can sharpen just about whatever steel very quickly, but when I was first learning S30V was incredibly frustrating.

I'm sure we all agree once we know how to sharpen anything will be easy to bring back to a high level of sharpness in the field. Only thing that will differ is time it takes.

What he said was fix a damaged edge. A high carbide steel that starts micro chipping (which I consider damage) and loses performance because of micro damage because it can not handle high impact demands on the edge in materials harder than cardboard are not as easily or quickly fixed in the field. They might be in a situation where they don't have the option to fix an edge on a difficult to remove more material to fix it steel. The finer grain more simple steels that hold up to impacts over extended periods and will quickly go from slightly blunted to before the trip sharp in minutes may make a big difference in the level you enjoy the extended stay in the woods, it does for me.

Long story short. My brother my son and I went out to collect fat wood for fire starting just in case we need to make a warming fire for deer season opening next week. Things got out of hand and we put more than a few steels to the task. End result is a years worth of fat wood and some fresh experience to draw from. AUS8 rolls and chips fast in high impact work. D2 gets a toothy working edge fast and holds it, still works for high impact work but forget about finer detailed work. SK5 and 420HC did not get damage to the edge at all and while they dulled they took much longer to get to a working edge. When they did it was a matter of minutes to return them to where they started. Even the 4116 blade my son had took no damage, dulled quicker but came back even faster but no damage to fix. When you are out working you don't want to be spending as much time maintaining your tools as you are working them. The D2 had to wait until we got home. I gave it a shot at field sharpening but took too long so it got packed up. The "low end" steels worked longer damage free and and sharpened up faster.

It's not always about being able to sharpen in the fired. It's about time and not needing to repair damage.
 
I'm sure we all agree once we know how to sharpen anything will be easy to bring back to a high level of sharpness in the field. Only thing that will differ is time it takes.

What he said was fix a damaged edge. A high carbide steel that starts micro chipping (which I consider damage) and loses performance because of micro damage because it can not handle high impact demands on the edge in materials harder than cardboard are not as easily or quickly fixed in the field. They might be in a situation where they don't have the option to fix an edge on a difficult to remove more material to fix it steel. The finer grain more simple steels that hold up to impacts over extended periods and will quickly go from slightly blunted to before the trip sharp in minutes may make a big difference in the level you enjoy the extended stay in the woods, it does for me.

Long story short. My brother my son and I went out to collect fat wood for fire starting just in case we need to make a warming fire for deer season opening next week. Things got out of hand and we put more than a few steels to the task. End result is a years worth of fat wood and some fresh experience to draw from. AUS8 rolls and chips fast in high impact work. D2 gets a toothy working edge fast and holds it, still works for high impact work but forget about finer detailed work. SK5 and 420HC did not get damage to the edge at all and while they dulled they took much longer to get to a working edge. When they did it was a matter of minutes to return them to where they started. Even the 4116 blade my son had took no damage, dulled quicker but came back even faster but no damage to fix. When you are out working you don't want to be spending as much time maintaining your tools as you are working them. The D2 had to wait until we got home. I gave it a shot at field sharpening but took too long so it got packed up. The "low end" steels worked longer damage free and and sharpened up faster.

It's not always about being able to sharpen in the fired. It's about time and not needing to repair damage.

Can you list the charpy values of 420HC at 58 RC? Are they anywhere close to 3V at the same hardness? You're talking about edge damage via fracture but advocating steels that aren't that great. You don't really know what you're talking about. No offense intended.
 
What Duane has been repeatedly told about 3v at 58+ hardness ability to resist deformation including chipping has been outright ignored, he doesn't care and he's has zero experience with 3v.

His opinion or assumption that every other Steel than 420 and 5160 gets damaged is ridiculous but that's his story and he's sticking to it.

Steels that maintain high toughness at higher rc's resist deformation AND damage along the cutting edge BETTER than softer less tough steels, requiring LESS maintenance, really quite simple but it eludes him completely.
Can you list the charpy values of 420HC at 58 RC? Are they anywhere close to 3V at the same hardness? You're talking about edge damage via fracture but advocating steels that aren't that great. You don't really know what you're talking about. No offense intended.
 
I'm sure we all agree once we know how to sharpen anything will be easy to bring back to a high level of sharpness in the field. Only thing that will differ is time it takes.

What he said was fix a damaged edge. A high carbide steel that starts micro chipping (which I consider damage) and loses performance because of micro damage because it can not handle high impact demands on the edge in materials harder than cardboard are not as easily or quickly fixed in the field. They might be in a situation where they don't have the option to fix an edge on a difficult to remove more material to fix it steel. The finer grain more simple steels that hold up to impacts over extended periods and will quickly go from slightly blunted to before the trip sharp in minutes may make a big difference in the level you enjoy the extended stay in the woods, it does for me.

Long story short. My brother my son and I went out to collect fat wood for fire starting just in case we need to make a warming fire for deer season opening next week. Things got out of hand and we put more than a few steels to the task. End result is a years worth of fat wood and some fresh experience to draw from. AUS8 rolls and chips fast in high impact work. D2 gets a toothy working edge fast and holds it, still works for high impact work but forget about finer detailed work. SK5 and 420HC did not get damage to the edge at all and while they dulled they took much longer to get to a working edge. When they did it was a matter of minutes to return them to where they started. Even the 4116 blade my son had took no damage, dulled quicker but came back even faster but no damage to fix. When you are out working you don't want to be spending as much time maintaining your tools as you are working them. The D2 had to wait until we got home. I gave it a shot at field sharpening but took too long so it got packed up. The "low end" steels worked longer damage free and and sharpened up faster.

It's not always about being able to sharpen in the fired. It's about time and not needing to repair damage.

Aaaand that's not at all the portion of his post I was discussing. Which should be kind of clear from the fact that I agreed with him.
 
Which will be easier to reprofile with a pocket stone? A 5" blade of 3V at 58 Rc or the same blade made out of a fine carbide steel (1095, 420HC, 12C27) at 58 Rc
 
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