Let's share more favorite Buck stories

D

DocT

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Mar 25, 2012
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Let's all share some good stories about our Buck knives.

I was camping with a bunch of deer hunters. This was in the days before food in a pouch. We had all brought canned food but none of them brought a can opener. Now, I did not either, because I always considered by 110 as my can opener. I quietly zipped the lid off of my food (Ravioli, probably) and put it on the fire to heat up. Soon, the group quit grumbling, noticing my bubbling can of food. They asked to borrow my can opener and I told them I did not have one. They started to get agitated stating I obviously had one because I opened my can of food. I then pulled out my knife and told them that they all had the same can opener I had. I had to show those pilgrims how to open a can of food with a knife before they starved to death.
 
My first higher end knife was a Buck Strider 880 tanto that my father bought me when I got my EMT certification. Absolute brute of a knife that I carried everywhere. I'm still fairly sad that it was eventually lost, in part because I suspect my ex-wife actually threw it away.
 
I wish I had my Buck on me.....
Middle of the night our two of the little dogs needed to go outside for a bathroom break. I stumbled out of my bunk. Put them on the ground and I leaned against my camper closing my eyes. After a couple minutes I stood upright and something had crept up behind me and took off running through the trees when I moved. I shined my flash light after crapping my pants ( not Literally ) and all I saw was dust.
 
My story is about the same as docs. In the late 70's I was stationed in Bremerton, wa. I had a 1960 fwd F100 and explored those mountains on most of my time off. My 112 served as a skinner, fish cleaner, can opener, pry bar, hammer and carving knife. Every weekend we'd carve out spoons from a split of wood and live on trout and beans. Those were the days...
 
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About '92 me and a friend was coming back from hunting the Trinity Primitive area of the forest in N Calif. We just came out of the pass and was looking at Mt Shasta and we could see something across the road, it covered 1 lane of the road, it was a Rattlesnake. By the time we got stopped, we were 20 yards past it. We got out and was looking at it when my friend picked up a large tree limb and tried to hit the snake with it. The limb had a crook in it and that's where it hit the snake which just pis*ed it off. The snake proceeded to chase me down the road and all I could hear was my friend yelling "DON'T STOP" and I didn't until I jumped into the back of my truck and looked and the snake was right there coiled and ready to strike. My friend came running up with a board or stick that he had found in the ditch and with some quick maneuvering he pinned the snakes head down. I jumped out of the truck with my 110 and cut its head off and buried it. The rest went into the cooler. After home tanning the skin and trimming off the 10" of damage and the staple holes it's hanging on my wall. It measures 39 1/2 " long and 5 1/2" wide. The rattles would go off whenever you walked by it, from the draft, so my wife made me tack down the tail also...

I usually had my dog with me hunting, luckily he didn't make this trip. He would have killed the snake but would have gotten bitten I don't know how many times and we were at least an hour from a Vet...

P.S. Bar-B-Qued Rattlesnake tastes great...Just like chicken but different..Ha!Ha!:cool::D:thumbsup:;);)
 
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I'll contribute. Back in 1980 my brother purchased a 119 new in the box. It had the thick edge of the semi-hollow grind era.
I hunted off & on with him, me still in college. I would witness him after harvesting a deer or hog use that knife to field dress.
At the end of field dressing when the offal was raked out of the cavity and still attached at the vent. He would take that knife
and with a juniper club or rock, mallet it through the pelvis. Then cut loose the intestine at the vent. He did it in this manner
on everything he shot over the next 20 years. In TX. the deer season is long and with hogs on the menu he could take 3-4 animals every year. So, a lot of field dressing. I have examined this knife several times and I really didn't notice much damage. Still, I carried a saw. DM
 
David Martin said:
I'll contribute. Back in 1980 my brother purchased a 119 new in the box. It had the thick edge of the semi-hollow grind era.
I hunted off & on with him, me still in college. I would witness him after harvesting a deer or hog use that knife to field dress.
At the end of field dressing when the offal was raked out of the cavity and still attached at the vent. He would take that knife
and with a juniper club or rock, mallet it through the pelvis. Then cut loose the intestine at the vent. He did it in this manner
on everything he shot over the next 20 years. In TX. the deer season is long and with hogs on the menu he could take 3-4 animals every year. So, a lot of field dressing. I have examined this knife several times and I really didn't notice much damage. Still, I carried a saw. DM
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Sir, what steel was that back then 440c? I wonder if the high hardness on the 420hc to keep a good edge nowadays......... would fare as well as the 440c on that use with the rock or club? also the modern change in geometry vs. the geometry on that 1980 119? I'm thinking no.....
 
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TAH said:
Last Sunday, I took a 2-hour horseback ride with my nearly 90 year old father. The girth on his saddle needed a hole enlarged to accept the buckle post. Whipped out my 112 and drilled the hole a little larger. Problem solved! :)
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TAH, you need to explain what would have happened to your father if you hadn't fixed the girth strap. I'm sure there are people here that don't have a clue to what you're talking about...Good Story, good thing you had your 112 with you. Saddle leather isn't the easiest thing to cut...
 
jb, yes, the blade was 440C. As for your other points. The geometry of those knives and because of the steel would fair better at that abuse. But I still wouldn't do it. I'd go at it with a different method or get a saw or hatchet. DM
 
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sassafrassdogs3 said:
TAH, you need to explain what would have happened to your father if you hadn't fixed the girth strap. I'm sure there are people here that don't have a clue to what you're talking about...
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I suppose you're right, sass. The girth tightens the saddle to the horse. The leather strap (or cinch) is made of thick Latigo leather. When new, the holes can be too small and need to be enlarged. Here's an internet photo.

saddlehorse07-jpg.561519
 
I'd been buying knives off and on since I was a kid, my favorite knife was a Buck 110 that was an excellent hunting knife. At some point I decided I wanted to collect knives. Well, Buck of course. I figured, neat little company, I'd collect one of eveything, then move on to the next knife maker. Near as I can remember, it's been something like 27 years, and there are still more Buck knives out there that I didn't even dream existed.

These days I do collect more than strictly Buck, but that's how it got started.
 
When I got my Buck 425 as a kid i was so proud of it.
At some point I told my friends stepdad about my new Buck knife ,
When he asked to see it I showed it to him and he laughed insisting that it was not a Buck Knife.

He told me " this is what a buck knife looks like " and proceeded to show me his cheap Pakistan type lockback.
 
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David Martin said:
TAH, arrow in photo is in wrong location. DM
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You're right, David. I just grabbed the first internet photo of a girth and made a quick post. That photo came from a "How to saddle a horse" website and the arrow is showing where to place the unused part of the cinch after the saddle is tight. I didn't want to go into too much detail and derail the thread. :thumbsup:
 
Good to hear your dads still riding at 90. Ive wondered when the time will come for me. I'm guessing I'll stop when this horse does. That'll hopefully be another 20 years.
 
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My story is about my very first Buck..In the early 80's I had one knife a 500 series Micarta, old English script, I think was a Prince. My new wife KathyJo couldn't find a can opener and picked up my knife off the kitchen counter by my keys and tried to open a can of peas. The blade snaped and apologies offered and taken. I can't quite remember what I did with the handle but I have a vague memory of it in a junk box..It wasn't until the early 2000's Buck came on my radar as a Brand when my brother David brought me into the collecting community and I found out about Bucks famous warranty..
 
This is not that great of a Buck story compared to others, but it shows how universally recognizable the 110 is.

One day my mom asked me what I wanted for my highschool graduation gift, and I told her I wanted a Buck 110.
She asked me what it was so I started to describe it to her and before I was finished she knew exactly what I was talking about.
Needless to say that's exactly what I received for my graduation gift.
Then I so proudly showed it to my grandmother and I'll never forget what she said " i had one of those and they were the shit back in the day ", " boy if you had a Buck knife you were the cock of the walk ".
I had wanted one for a long time, but right then I knew for sure that I had made the right choice.
 
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Summer 1975. Bow hunting chipmunks in the woods behind our house. Chipmunk spotted on log, straight ahead, 15 yards away, taunting me. Quietly, I drew a wooden arrow from my quiver and as soon as I began to nock the arrow in the bow, the plastic nock on the end of the arrow fell off! o_O

Now, I know you're all concerned and at the edge of your seats, but don't worry, I had a plan! To whittled a new nock into the end of wooden shaft with my trusted Buck 105 Pathfinder. :thumbsup: Pinching the arrow with my thumb and index finger, I slowly began to cut the shaft and as soon as I applied a little more downward pressure, the razor sharp 440C blade with a beautiful satin finish sliced through the arrow and into the top of my index finger all the way to the bone. Ouch! No, double ouch! :eek: So, I did what every 14 year-old would do. I resheathed my knife, dropped my bow, and ran home to tell my mom.

Next thing I know, I'm at the emergency room (knife still on my belt) about to receive three stitches and thinking, "This is going to hurt. I should probably bite the handle of my knife to help manage the pain." For all you youngsters, this brilliant technique was used by every cowboy who needed to have an Indian arrow removed from a body part. Well, before I could suggest the "knife-in-the-teeth" idea, the doctor was already addressing the wound and my mother was distracting me with an offer to buy ice cream after the doctor was finished. I like ice cream. :D

Today, I still have a half-inch scar on my finger, my old Pathfinder, bow, arrows, and a wonderful childhood memory. :)

aYggXdJ.jpg
 
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