Buck problems in the General forum

I don't think that thread was about bashing Buck, rather it was just a group of people giving informed and not so informed opinions. Having been in sales for 25 years, I found that a disgruntled customer was just another opportunity to make a satisfied customer. I am confident that Buck can handle it.
 
when I was a kid buck was it. if you didnt have a buck you didnt have any think. now I think buck went to the dogs in a big way. when I was selling at the flemarket I was selling every thing but buck knifes. do you know why?? because nobody wants a junk knife. bikers week. I had the buck 110 out for $29.95 and I didnt sell one of them. They told me they didn’t want that crap. I have never used one since I was a kid. I am just going by want the people have told me why they didn’t want it. I returned all of the 110 bucks back to my supplier and have never dealt with a buck knife since. But I was selling all of my high price daggers like Muela and cold steel but not one buck. Can you please explain this to me please??
 
richard thurman said:
when I was a kid buck was it. if you didnt have a buck you didnt have any think. now I think buck went to the dogs in a big way. when I was selling at the flemarket I was selling every thing but buck knifes. do you know why?? because nobody wants a junk knife. bikers week. I had the buck 110 out for $29.95 and I didnt sell one of them. They told me they didn’t want that crap. I have never used one since I was a kid. I am just going by want the people have told me why they didn’t want it. I returned all of the 110 bucks back to my supplier and have never dealt with a buck knife since. But I was selling all of my high price daggers like Muela and cold steel but not one buck. Can you please explain this to me please??
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The best answer would be from the folks who weren't buying them. Decades ago a Buck 110 was pretty common for hunters, outdoorsmen and bikers. Today a lot of folks probably look on it as a passe design, past it's prime, lacking a coolness factor or maybe even look at the price and assume it's crap. Really can't say. Seems like a lot of folks are buying those 100 knife package deals off the late night TV show and those truly are "crap". Go figure.
 
Perhaps one reason is that many, many of the buying public are under the impression that all Buck knives are made in China. I've attended and displayed at shows where many of the visitors believed that.

I've only been collecting Bucks for about five years and have many new ones. I've NEVER run into any of the newer ones with issues like loose blades, lousy fit and finish, etc. that I read about here. Maybe I'm just lucky, but if I did find those issues, I'd have no problem posting about them here.

I do have, however, a few older (pre-86) models with a bit of blade play.
 
dogstar said:
Here is the thread:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1057047-Are-you-serious-Buck

Jump in, if you feel like giving a minority opinion.

Personally, I'm tired of hearing people bash Buck knives.
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I get tired of people complaining about non-functional fit and finish issues on mid priced (IMO, less than $70) knives. Perfect blade centering, absence of any scale gaps, perfectly flush springs.... these are reasons to spend up in the $100 range for, imo. In this aspect, I think the OP's fit and finish complaints were off base. It's a $40 knife for heaven's sake.

I also don't have too much sympathy regarding his broken tip. There's a good reason why the Ray Mears/Bushcrafter set prefers drop point blades for wood working. It's a much stronger point. Buck shares some of blame here though too though. While it's great that they offer many drop point knives, it would be awesome if people could buy standard Buck 110s and 112s with drop points as a regular part of their offering. IMO it would help increase the appeal of Buck's flag ship product.

The blade play issue on the other hand is a real problem. IMO, solid lock up is at the very center of the Buck 110 mystique and reputation. IMO, Buck has got to get that right reliably.

FortyTwoBlades is a forum sponsor and well respected retailer and I think he nailed it on this issue when he said:
The 110 should NOT be that sloppy and I consider that unacceptable.
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I'm very sympathetic to the OP's problems on this score since I've had several Buck lock backs develop significant play using them in the same way he was (cutting limbs and wood). Jeff Hubbard, the head of QC, has a couple of my old knives that loosened up and has promised to report on what they find. But, he's also cautioned that they have more pressing QC issues to investigate and that it might take some time to look into it further. Perhaps this thread will help move this up the priority queue.

Until then, for hard users, I'm limiting my Buck purchases to fixed blades and I advise my friends to do the same. There are too many other knives that cost less and hold up better (Opinel is one).
 
A.P.F. said:
I don't think that thread was about bashing Buck, rather it was just a group of people giving informed and not so informed opinions. Having been in sales for 25 years, I found that a disgruntled customer was just another opportunity to make a satisfied customer. I am confident that Buck can handle it.
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That's an awesome post, and I agree 100%.
 
I think buck quality went to shoot. I think china knock off are put together better than USA made buck knifes. there is a whole bunch of people that are saying the same thing.
 
richard thurman said:
I think buck quality went to shoot. I think china knock off are put together better than USA made buck knifes. there is a whole bunch of people that are saying the same thing.
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I have purchased 3 new Buck USA knives. I think their quality is well under control.
 
richard thurman said:
I think buck quality went to shoot. I think china knock off are put together better than USA made buck knifes. there is a whole bunch of people that are saying the same thing.
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What some say and what's true is not always the same. Opinions are just that, opinions, and should never be taken as fact. I've bought literally hundreds ( a fact) of Buck knives since 2008, at least half of them new (another fact) and have found nothing to complain about and you can bet that I would if I found problems. I'd not have continued to buy them had I found a mulitude of problems (one more fact).

Those buyers with problems, perceived or real are way more likely to publicly bitch about a product than those buyers with no problems are likely to publicly praise the product.
 
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Plumberdv said:
What some say and what's true is not always the same. Opinions are just that, opinions, and should never be taken as fact. I've bought literally hundreds ( a fact) of Buck knives since 2008, at least half of them new (another fact) and have found nothing to complain about and you can bet that I would if I found problems. I'd not have continued to buy them had I found a mulitude of problems (one more fact).

Those buyers with problems, perceived or real are way more likely to publicly bitch about a product than those buyers with no problems are likely to publicly praise the product.
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:thumbup: Nicely put plumber
 
left my two centiveos worth in the other thread
but
hitting the back side of the blade is not a correct use
it will bend the notch on the lock bar which will get worse
tip broken ... happens to all of us ..
IMHO the best blade for hard use is to get a two dot with its thick edge
ya it be harder to sharpen for those what don't know how but
much better hard use blade that 440C was..
 
Plumberdv said:
Those buyers with problems, perceived or real are way more likely to publicly bitch about a product than those buyers with no problems are likely to publicly praise the product.
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Amen to that....to be kept in mind when reading any reviews regarding any product.
 
I just decided that the next time I go into town, I'm going to my local "mart" and pick up a new 110. I want to see if they have really gone to crap in the last year or so since I bought one. The place I go to sells them in boxes, not clam packs, so I won't even open the box until I have it home. I think the newest I have is from 2011 so perhaps I've not seen the problems described because of that. Hmmmm. We will see.
 
Plumberdv said:
I've bought literally hundreds ( a fact) of Buck knives since 2008, at least half of them new (another fact) and have found nothing to complain about and you can bet that I would if I found problems.
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What percentage of them have you put to hard use?

If I recall correctly, when we've talked about this in the past, you've described your self as being more of collector than a hard user.

Most of the Bucks I've had that have vertical play developed the play over time. They were functionally perfect out of the box but only showed problems after significantly hard use (some may say, abuse).

Would be great if Jeff got around to following up on what (if anything) they found when they inspected the knives I sent in.
 
The guy that started the bashing wasn't talking about extended use, he was talking new in the box knives.

"Ok, so I bought my first Buck 110 in Decemeber, it arrived with plenty of blade play and a generally poor fit and finish. I googled to see if this was normal and some said it was and some claimed their Buck's were perfect and tight."

Only after some abuse (spinewhacking bones) did he have any problems with lock failure.

"I soon realised my knife wasn't great, I tried to break rabbit bones with the back of the blade and the blade closed.. i.e failed! the lock failed with just a little pressure.. I phoned my seller and they asked for the knife back to look at. They sent it to the Buck people and it was replaced entirely within a week. The new one arrived with blade play out of the box but less than the first and the locked seemed tough enough and the overal finish was a little better than the first"
 
why have I just seen another thread about how crappy buck 110 knife is?? the guy has had it replace and then they gave him a free one because the one that they set him had the same problem.
 
Plumberdv said:
The guy that started the bashing wasn't talking about extended use, he was talking new in the box knives.
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Dave, not looking for a fight.

The OP also noted that his 110 loosened up cutting wood. Others (besides me) who posted follow ups mentioned the same thing. Jill was one name I recall.

Regardless, I was more asking about your "facts" of not seeing blade play issues and was and still am wondering if that may be related to how frequently and how hard your 100s of knives get used.
 
I'm not looking for a fight either. I'm just noting what he first said, Re: "it arrived with plenty of blade play and a generally poor fit and finish", which is something that I've NEVER found with any new Buck that I've ever bought.

So what was it? Did it come with blade play or did that develop later? It doesn't matter whether I use my knives hard or not use them at all. The question is whether or not they come with a lot of blade play when new.
 
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