Heat Treat for China Bucks?

B

berzerker

Joined
Jan 27, 2002
Messages
801
I've some chinese Buck knives with very suitable 440-series blades, but garden-variety 420 gives me pause.

After buying an Xtract, I began wondering what steel is really in the blade. In their catalogs Buck emphasizes that Paul Bos supervises the heat treatment to get the most out of 420HC. That's the steel listed for the Xtract.

Are the blades treated in the US (Bos-optimized) and shipped to China for assembly, or are these chinese 420 blades subjected to run-of-the-mill heat treatment (ie. pretty random)? Or, are they other than 420?

Thanks for any info.
 
Buck Knives made in China are heat treated in China. They are thoroughly tested right here in the Quality Assurance Department at the Buck Factory in Idaho. They undergo edge retention testing, Rockwell testing to ensure proper heat treat, etc. They are inspected by Buck quality control inspectors in the US. If the factories in China aren't building to our Buck stadards, the knives are not accepted, or put on the shelf for customers. Quality of the product is controlled all the way in the beginning when a new product is created- Buck engineers work closely with the factories in China to make sure the knives are up to our standards. This continues with in-house quality inspection as the product becomes a regular catalog item.

It should be noted that Buck is an American company, and we want to produce as many products as we can in the United States. We work to utilize our factory capacity and resources as efficiently as we can specifically so we can make as many products as we can here in America. About 70% of Buck Knives are made right here in Idaho, but we do build some knives in China so we can bring the customer a quality knife a very low price.

The thing to keep in mind is that any knife with the Buck name on it has our lifetime warranty on it, regardless of contry of origin. It is in our best interest to make sure that the knives produced in China are built right, or we're going to have to fix it. Anyhow, sorry for the long winded post, but I wanted to give a little background on the process that a Buck knife from overseas is subjected to. Let me know if I haven't answered your questions. :)
 
Here's an old thread showing some of the 2007 processes:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4522974#post4522974


Missed in Trax's photo essay was the heat treating:
jiuhuatofu.jpg


Been nice knowing ya guys...
 
I started another thread about going to Post Falls. Dave asked what I found most interesting. One of the things I'll meantion here is that all Chinese made knives go to Idaho for quality control inspection. That's impressive. If I remember right they send them through the doors 1000 at a time. 300 are closley looked at. If one has a flaw, all 1000 are inspected. In Idaho, 10 to 12 thousand are made a day. Plus the knives from overseas, that's alot of inspecting! If you read this Dave, it probably answers your question from the other thread.
 
Well Goose, you DID say it was a WOK in progress! HA! I am rolling on the floor! Gonna pee my pants if I dont stop laughing!
 
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