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Price is $300 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
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Buck hartsook???
- Thread starter liljon140
- Start date
I've had mine for a month or so now, wasn't quite what I expected, but it is a pretty good price for what you get (a tiny S30V neck knife). It is a little smaller than I'd like, and the supplied sheath is considerably larger than I'd like, and larger than necessary IMHO. I may be giving the Buck Mayo Kaala a try in the near future
I've been using one for almost two years now, and love it.
I posted about it before here, someplace, but I'll tell you about it. It was given to me by a friend who was gratefull for me driving him around to his cancer treatments. I told him I didn't want anything, but he knew I am a knifeaholic, so he gave me the hartsook.
At first, I thought it was some sort of a joke. A toy knife. The joke was on me.
Over the next several months of carrying it and using it for everything I carried a pen knife for, I came to totally embrase the idea of a tiny fixed blade. It did an exellent job of anything I would use my usual pocket knife on. Opening mail, UPS boxes, cutting jute twine for the tomato plant stakes, slicing a fast snack off something in the fridge, small steak knife in a resuruant, open heavy plastic 25 pound bag of wild bird seed, large bag of dog kibble, gut and clean some panfish, a zillion things.
What at first seemed too small to be usefull, now I'm so used to it, I don't want to carry a regular folding pocket knife. Its like having a sharp finger nail or tallon I can extend easy to cut open something. I would describe it as super convientient.
I carry it on a black paracord lanyard, with the end of the lanyard attached to the belt loop just in front of my right front jeans pocket, with the whole thing shoved down in the pocket. When I need a knife, I grab the handle in my pocket and pull out. The sheath reaches the end of the short lanyard as it comes clear of the pocket, and as I keep pulling, the knife comes clear of the sheath and I cut what needs cutting. To put back, I place the tip of the blade back into the top of the sheath and push in against my leg till it snaps in, and put it back down in pants pocket. Its way faster to get out than any assisted knife. Nothing to gather dirt. No blade lock to fail. Its made a pocket fixed blade edc believer out of me.
I love my Hartsook so much, that I bought a spare from Smoky Mountain knifeworks just in case of the unthinkable.
The only one thing I would change, is to make the handle just a weeeee bit longer, for a grip with one more finger. But thats a moot point, as when I go woods walking, my 102 woodsman in on my belt, or an old and well used special in the daypack. My Hartsook is my edc suburban/urban unfolding pocket knife.
Did I mention I love my Hartsook?
I posted about it before here, someplace, but I'll tell you about it. It was given to me by a friend who was gratefull for me driving him around to his cancer treatments. I told him I didn't want anything, but he knew I am a knifeaholic, so he gave me the hartsook.
At first, I thought it was some sort of a joke. A toy knife. The joke was on me.
Over the next several months of carrying it and using it for everything I carried a pen knife for, I came to totally embrase the idea of a tiny fixed blade. It did an exellent job of anything I would use my usual pocket knife on. Opening mail, UPS boxes, cutting jute twine for the tomato plant stakes, slicing a fast snack off something in the fridge, small steak knife in a resuruant, open heavy plastic 25 pound bag of wild bird seed, large bag of dog kibble, gut and clean some panfish, a zillion things.
What at first seemed too small to be usefull, now I'm so used to it, I don't want to carry a regular folding pocket knife. Its like having a sharp finger nail or tallon I can extend easy to cut open something. I would describe it as super convientient.
I carry it on a black paracord lanyard, with the end of the lanyard attached to the belt loop just in front of my right front jeans pocket, with the whole thing shoved down in the pocket. When I need a knife, I grab the handle in my pocket and pull out. The sheath reaches the end of the short lanyard as it comes clear of the pocket, and as I keep pulling, the knife comes clear of the sheath and I cut what needs cutting. To put back, I place the tip of the blade back into the top of the sheath and push in against my leg till it snaps in, and put it back down in pants pocket. Its way faster to get out than any assisted knife. Nothing to gather dirt. No blade lock to fail. Its made a pocket fixed blade edc believer out of me.
I love my Hartsook so much, that I bought a spare from Smoky Mountain knifeworks just in case of the unthinkable.
The only one thing I would change, is to make the handle just a weeeee bit longer, for a grip with one more finger. But thats a moot point, as when I go woods walking, my 102 woodsman in on my belt, or an old and well used special in the daypack. My Hartsook is my edc suburban/urban unfolding pocket knife.
Did I mention I love my Hartsook?
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2008
- Messages
- 62
I love Buck knives but when I looked at the Hartsook in person I couldn't believe what cheap little thing it was. Like a tiny paring knife with the handle knocked off. I'll stick with my 112.
Flatlander1963
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2008
- Messages
- 4,646
+1 :thumbup: Jackknife, good reveiw. I was in the "its to small camp" but your descriptions of how you use it were very enlightning. Thanks.
Another, it wasn't what I expected. It is small. If they could have added an 1/4" of blade and 1/4" to the handle it would be perfect. I do like it and often wear it around the house and yard but I have so many other knives. I do think it makes a good PSK backup. When you wear it you forget you've got it on.
Drop my a PM if you want to buy mine. I'll make you a deal.
tjg
Drop my a PM if you want to buy mine. I'll make you a deal.
tjg
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2006
- Messages
- 4,352
Yeah, I have never seen one IRL so can't speak to it being a "cheap little thing", but it seems too small for me.
Different strokes for different folks. Some guys dream about ladies midget Jell-o wrestling.
Having never "known" a lady midget wrestler, maybe I'm missing something, but I doubt it.
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I've carried one everyday for about a year and a half. Wouldn't leave home without it. It rides in my shirt pocket while on duty. I have the older sheath that I modified a bit. It's ultra concealable. I use it as a fixed blade SAK. S30v treated by Paul Bos for $20. Can't go wrong IMO. It is small, but it has it's purpose.
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2006
- Messages
- 4,352
Just like those midget wrestlers.
I was given a tiny Buck Whittaker that is shaped like an egg. Has a little blade on it, but I really like the bottle opener aspect of it. :thumbup:
Just got it Friday, but I'm thinking that tiny 1 1/8th inch lock back blade may just come in handy.
So maybe my not getting the "Hook" is an oversight on my part. Did they fix the sheath gig or are peeps still wrapping rubber bands around the sheath to keep the knife in it?
I think you have to have a certain type of mentality to appreciate a Hartsook.
Being an old backpacker, motorcylist touring/camper, kayaker, mitiature gear was important. How small/light can something be made, and still function at it's intended task? Not much room in a backpack or saddle bags on an old BMW R80 for excess or large gear.
Also I had a few role models growing up, who seemed to be able to get it done with the most minimum of equiptment. One man carried a little Case peanut as his only pocket knife. It worked for him. Had a friend who did the same with a little Buck companion. Of course they were not knife knuts like us, so they never knew they were woefully under equipted when they cleaned those fish, skinned those squirrels, or cut some rope/twine/string, or opened that UPS box with a 1 7/8ths blade. I watched my friend Wayne zip open fat yellow perch, cut bait for crab fishing, and was impressed. It made me think, how much blade do we really need vs macho posturing to fufill some inner ego thing?
It started in my 40's, and came to full boil in my 50's. Of course it could be age catching up with me, not wanting to carry any weight that was not totally unnessesary. Smaller knife, high quality compact binoculars instead of full size, sometimes even a good monocular, a little single AAA pocket flashlight instead of a AA minimag. A P-38 for a can opener. A mini Bic lighter instead of a full size one. That sort of thing. I was told once by a mentor, that the smaller something is, the more likely it is to be with you, and the easier it is to carry two of them in case something happens to one of them. Or a back up item.
I noticed that alot of time I was only using the first 1 inch of my blade in alot of things. Even game. One thing that really made me think about the size was a demo out at Mesa Verde. The better half and I tossed some camping gear in the Toyota pickup several years ago and did a counter clockwise tour of all the National Parks out west. Took about a month on the road. Being retired, we had the time. We spent about 3 days at Mesa Verde Colorado, and saw a demo put on by a park ranger on the primitive skills they would have used back then
One demo was, he dressed out a road killed deer with a single obsidian flake. He had a chunk of it, and he hit it a glancing blow, and took the flake and cut right into the deer hide. That little obsidian flake worked like a much bigger knife. I asked him if I could try it, and I was amazed at how well it worked. He also had a little obsidian knife, with maybe a 1 1/2 to 2 inch flaked blade. Man, that thing cut through some deer meat.
I think we suffer from two problems that keep us from understanding and appreciating a knife like the Hartsook. One, we are spoiled by our technology, and think we need all sorts of special items to get something done. Two, we're crippled by being knife knuts. We believe we need much more knife than we really do, because we look for an exuse to carry a "real" knife. My friend Wayne was not a knife knut, and did not really care much about knives, exept that he knew he needed some kind of knife. So he bought a simple little Buck Companion because people told him Buck was a good quality knife, and the companion was not too expensive, and was small enough he could drop it in his pocket and forget it was even there. Going about his life opening mail, boxes, plastic blister packages, fish and small game, he never dreamed he was so ill equipted.
I think the little Hartsook may well be the modern equivelent of the single obsidian flake. May not look like much, but it works.
Being an old backpacker, motorcylist touring/camper, kayaker, mitiature gear was important. How small/light can something be made, and still function at it's intended task? Not much room in a backpack or saddle bags on an old BMW R80 for excess or large gear.
Also I had a few role models growing up, who seemed to be able to get it done with the most minimum of equiptment. One man carried a little Case peanut as his only pocket knife. It worked for him. Had a friend who did the same with a little Buck companion. Of course they were not knife knuts like us, so they never knew they were woefully under equipted when they cleaned those fish, skinned those squirrels, or cut some rope/twine/string, or opened that UPS box with a 1 7/8ths blade. I watched my friend Wayne zip open fat yellow perch, cut bait for crab fishing, and was impressed. It made me think, how much blade do we really need vs macho posturing to fufill some inner ego thing?
It started in my 40's, and came to full boil in my 50's. Of course it could be age catching up with me, not wanting to carry any weight that was not totally unnessesary. Smaller knife, high quality compact binoculars instead of full size, sometimes even a good monocular, a little single AAA pocket flashlight instead of a AA minimag. A P-38 for a can opener. A mini Bic lighter instead of a full size one. That sort of thing. I was told once by a mentor, that the smaller something is, the more likely it is to be with you, and the easier it is to carry two of them in case something happens to one of them. Or a back up item.
I noticed that alot of time I was only using the first 1 inch of my blade in alot of things. Even game. One thing that really made me think about the size was a demo out at Mesa Verde. The better half and I tossed some camping gear in the Toyota pickup several years ago and did a counter clockwise tour of all the National Parks out west. Took about a month on the road. Being retired, we had the time. We spent about 3 days at Mesa Verde Colorado, and saw a demo put on by a park ranger on the primitive skills they would have used back then
One demo was, he dressed out a road killed deer with a single obsidian flake. He had a chunk of it, and he hit it a glancing blow, and took the flake and cut right into the deer hide. That little obsidian flake worked like a much bigger knife. I asked him if I could try it, and I was amazed at how well it worked. He also had a little obsidian knife, with maybe a 1 1/2 to 2 inch flaked blade. Man, that thing cut through some deer meat.
I think we suffer from two problems that keep us from understanding and appreciating a knife like the Hartsook. One, we are spoiled by our technology, and think we need all sorts of special items to get something done. Two, we're crippled by being knife knuts. We believe we need much more knife than we really do, because we look for an exuse to carry a "real" knife. My friend Wayne was not a knife knut, and did not really care much about knives, exept that he knew he needed some kind of knife. So he bought a simple little Buck Companion because people told him Buck was a good quality knife, and the companion was not too expensive, and was small enough he could drop it in his pocket and forget it was even there. Going about his life opening mail, boxes, plastic blister packages, fish and small game, he never dreamed he was so ill equipted.
I think the little Hartsook may well be the modern equivelent of the single obsidian flake. May not look like much, but it works.
Have never tried the Hartsook but I do have a Simonich Bitteroot in S30V that is about the same size. I really like the Bitteroot but it is just a little too small. I picked up a Mayo/Kaala and love it. It is one of my favorite EDC tools.
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2007
- Messages
- 866
The new style is called Smidgen I have found some online.It also has a carabiner/bottle opener on the sheath.
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- Joined
- Feb 17, 2007
- Messages
- 866
Specs on Smidgen
Blade: 1 7/8" (4.8 cm) talon, 420HC stainless steel
Overall Length: 4 1/8" (10.5 cm)
Weight: 1.5 oz (42.5 g), including sheath
Handle: 420HC stainless steel with lanyard cord
Clip: Rigid, injection molded Nylon inclduing a carabiner carrying attachment with integrated bottle opener
Specs on Hartshook
Blade Length: 1 7/8" (4.8 cm) 4 1/4" overall
Blade Material: Black oxide S30V
Fixed Blade: Yes
Handle Material: S30V skeleton with black oxide coating and lanyard hole
Quantity: Yes
Upgraded Steel: Yes
Weight: 0.5 oz. (14.2 g)
I spend way to much time on the internet
Blade: 1 7/8" (4.8 cm) talon, 420HC stainless steel
Overall Length: 4 1/8" (10.5 cm)
Weight: 1.5 oz (42.5 g), including sheath
Handle: 420HC stainless steel with lanyard cord
Clip: Rigid, injection molded Nylon inclduing a carabiner carrying attachment with integrated bottle opener
Specs on Hartshook
Blade Length: 1 7/8" (4.8 cm) 4 1/4" overall
Blade Material: Black oxide S30V
Fixed Blade: Yes
Handle Material: S30V skeleton with black oxide coating and lanyard hole
Quantity: Yes
Upgraded Steel: Yes
Weight: 0.5 oz. (14.2 g)
I spend way to much time on the internet
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