Who Wants Buck to Release the 914 Woodcraft Knife Again?

I went to my local hardware store that has a little shop in the back. Older fella there let me commandeer their grinding wheel at my leisure. I'm glad I did because it took me minutes to do what would have taken hours of hand-filing.

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It looks a little more uneven than it actually is, just a trick of the lighting. I stopped short of fully apexing the swedge because I didn't want to burn away the temper. Despite constantly dipping the blade in cool water after each pass, I started to see some discoloration and chose to stop.
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I'll finish the rest by hand with progressively finer diamond grits, maybe final polishing with a dremel.
 
oldmanwilly said:
I went to my local hardware store that has a little shop in the back. Older fella there let me commandeer their grinding wheel at my leisure. I'm glad I did because it took me minutes to do what would have taken hours of hand-filing.

Xt56LGs.jpeg

RyZX0Eh.jpeg

a5m1yxM.jpeg


It looks a little more uneven than it actually is, just a trick of the lighting. I stopped short of fully apexing the swedge because I didn't want to burn away the temper. Despite constantly dipping the blade in cool water after each pass, I started to see some discoloration and chose to stop.
IMBnJm6.jpeg

Sivb9Gl.jpeg

vrLBw4E.jpeg


I'll finish the rest by hand with progressively finer diamond grits, maybe final polishing with a dremel.
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still lookin good. pretty soon we'll have to give it a model number. I'm thinkin 103OMW.....
 
I have one of the Cabelas Buck versions. Cool little knife, I’ve always been fond of them. I never really knew anyone else liked them, it’s neat to see they’re still at least a little desirable. I think a fresh run with stacked leather and carbon steel would be sweet.
 
jbmonkey said:
yep. his is the 103DM. we named that years ago. every version is a bit different which is why they each get their own number.......
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Gotcha, makes sense as mine is a bit different. I'm still on the fence about whether I will attempt to re-handle mine. I'll finish the blade first and use it for a while before making a decision.
 
I am glad you decided to do this and report back. Buck's heat treat is no joke. If you really want to have some fun, try to drill through it. Even with a drill press and Cobalt drill bit, I was unable to expand the hole in the tang of my 118 when I put a stacked leather handle on it. Replacing the handle is rather easy. The hardest part is finding the pommel pin and removing it without damaging the pommel. If you think you may do this again, I encourage you to look into a $50-$75 1x30" belt sander. It will help tremendously with steel removal and also shaping the stacked leather. Keep reporting back.
 
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eveled said:
Do you still have those pictures?

The earliest reference I found from DM about his modified knife was in 2011

This thread from 2012 mentions a modified 103 found in an old collection. So after DM did his, but DM wasn’t the first.

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don't think David ever claimed to be the first or the originator of modifying 103s. Ive just given him that rep, as his was the first one I had seen done and he was the first who explained how he did it to me. his picture is dated from 2005, but ya can tell it's a much older knife than 2005 from the wear on it.

I'm sure he was inspired by someone else work in the past. i have that pic of his as I used to help him by posting his pictures here on the forum until he figured out how to post them using bf as the photo host.
 
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I know he didn’t claim to be the first. He was pretty humble. I was just looking at the historical references.

I’ve learned not to trust date stamps. I had a digital camera and could never figure out how to set the date or stop it from printing. Lots of people were the same back then. Lol.

That’s cool how you helped him with his pictures. I’m sure he really appreciated it. One of his posts he mentioned thinning the blade quite a bit too. He lengthened the handle and made his own pommel out of stainless. He put a lot into that knife
 
eveled said:
I know he didn’t claim to be the first. He was pretty humble. I was just looking at the historical references.

I’ve learned not to trust date stamps. I had a digital camera and could never figure out how to set the date or stop it from printing. Lots of people were the same back then. Lol.

That’s cool how you helped him with his pictures. I’m sure he really appreciated it. One of his posts he mentioned thinning the blade quite a bit too. He lengthened the handle and made his own pommel out of stainless. He put a lot into that knife
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it was a special knife. one of a kind. hope one of his relatives has it in their collection and/or are using it......
 
After seeing the photos posted this weekend and JB's photo of his modified 103 in the Sunday Picture Show, someone needs to start a new thread with all of the modified 103 information in it. I am fine with everyone continuing to post here, but I think we might gather more views and help future searches if the information was in its own thread. I also appreciate you enablers contributing to my knife problems. The modified 103 was going to be a future project somewhere down the line, but these photos and discussions are making me want to place an order for a Buck 103 this week.
 
TheFishman said:
After seeing the photos posted this weekend and JB's photo of his modified 103 in the Sunday Picture Show, someone needs to start a new thread with all of the modified 103 information in it. I am fine with everyone continuing to post here, but I think we might gather more views and help future searches if the information was in its own thread. I also appreciate you enablers contributing to my knife problems. The modified 103 was going to be a future project somewhere down the line, but these photos and discussions are making me want to place an order for a Buck 103 this week.
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A dedicated thread is a good idea.

I also included modified 103’s in this 212 thread.


 
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Little update: more progress after some hand-filing with diamond files. Not perfect, obviously, but much more even and nearly flat swedges.

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The swedge isn't fully apexed along its full length, but I think I'll let that happen gradually as I sharpen the blade. The point got a little rounded out by a few careless passes with a file but I can fix that through sharpening.

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It definitely looks like a mini Woodcraft to my eyes, a completely different knife. Much more to my liking.
 
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