A good option (albeit not a Buck) and enjoyable story pinnah. Thank you. A 301-302 cap lifter style knife may not be for everyone. But it does seem to have traction among the growing micro brew, bottle popping, beverage drinking sub culture with one function in mind.
As mentioned, "I enjoy lifting caps, drinking beverage and in general, playing with knives. I would buy one."
As for the competition, there is always room at the table for a slice of the pie. I'll let them decide what flavor and how much.
Again "I would like to see a Buck Cap Lifter in a 300 series folder, preferably in a 301-302 knife. GEC has them and they are quite popular. I can't seem to find one anyway. Now Case has a cap lifter. I think there is plenty of room for Buck!"
'Tis true, neither Leatherman nor GEC are Buck and vice-versa, Buck isn't either Leatherman or GEC.
It's that latter point that knits my eyebrows when ruminating on this....
Question for collectors like 300....
Has Buck ever natively produced any slip joints other than the 300-series knives based on a serpentine-style frame (the stockman small pens)?
I don't collect or track Buck slip joints so I'm hoping that 300 will correct where I go wrong and clarify the reality...
My (probably wrong) understanding.... The first Buck 300s were somewhat rebranded Schrade Old Timers. IMO, I would consider the Schrade Old Timers as a form of a neo-traditional design; that is, they used traditional patterns but used modern automated production (hence the Swinden key) and materials (hence the sawcut Delrin and plastic Stagalon on the UH knives). IMO, this was a significant design break from the earlier Schrade, Schrade-Walden (and Imperial and Ulster and whoever all else the Baer brothers purchased up along the way) that were more classically traditional using traditional scale materials like jigged bone and wood and traditional hand made production techniques.
Automation eventually made the Swinden key unneeded and Buck moved their outsourcing to the other big New York consolidation winner Camillus and when that happened, Buck was able to a bunch of other Camillus produced patterns like their marlin-spike clasp knife, big trapper and a bunch of others.
Somewhere along the way Buck did a collaboration with Wegner to produce the Swiss-Buck knives.
And of course, more recently, Buck is getting a larger range of slip joint patterns (like the canoe and muskrat) as made by their off-shore supplier.
EDITED to ADD: I would characterize GEC as a retro-traditional company. They stick to hand production techniques and pretty much stick to traditional scale (no Stagalon or Dymondwood). Could Buck even dream of competing on that turf?
This leads me back to my question... Has Buck ever produced any slip joints in their own plants other than the serpentine stockman and pen knife patterns?
