Why were the Buck 119 and 117 Brahma leather handle discontinued?

zippo123

zippo123

Joined
Dec 11, 2020
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735
Curious, why did Buck stop making the leather handle Brahmas?

lack of sales? at under $100 bucks…..sounds strange…
 
I know they made this as a LE back in 08 and right before Houser retired there was a LE release that had a couple leather stacked models if I recall.
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This is a good subject. Not sure if it has already been covered in another thread or not.
I just managed to get my hands on a 117 version. Didn’t even know they did a Brahma 119?
 
with much much much effort…….and a lot of internet fishing lines….I landed a nice 119 and 117….in the mail to me…..will buy more if another (fish) hits the line…ha……..( 2 new in the box escaped me, dang, someone else had a better baited hook)
 
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I Bought a 119 and a 117 at the same time because I like stacked leather. I didn't know that they were put on the discontinued list.
 
jbmonkey said:
no idear......weirdly they didn't seem very popular until they got discontinued.......like a lot of Bucks......
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This is it. I bought the last 4 117 Brahmas on clearance from Bucks web special page, nobody seemed to want them.

For me personally when I realized the matching hatchet was so difficult to get, I lost interest in the Brahmas. I even joined BCCI thinking I could get one.

The Brahmas have a military vibe, Buck doesn’t seem to appeal to those who want a military look. Plus the sheath is a little odd, not hunting, not military.
 
eveled said:
This is it. I bought the last 4 117 Brahmas on clearance from Bucks web special page, nobody seemed to want them.

For me personally when I realized the matching hatchet was so difficult to get, I lost interest in the Brahmas. I even joined BCCI thinking I could get one.

The Brahmas have a military vibe, Buck doesn’t seem to appeal to those who want a military look. Plus the sheath is a little odd, not hunting, not military.
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yep. the sheath i didn't like at all and my leather handle was far too thick to use a 119 sheath as I tried and tried. I gave my leather handled 119 to a friend in England. he loves it. kinda wish unhsdbt but I did hate the factory sheath. and that was before I knew Mike and custom sheaths.....

Buck should bring them back in 5160 and proper leather sheath.....id buy a handful of them.
 
I don’t know why or what Bucks reason was for discontinuing them but probably slow sales. And I don’t know if this has anything to do with it but leather will take up whatever it is around kinda like a sponge and leather is not a stable material and will shrink or swell depending on the environment it occupies.

Forty some years ago our family had a leather / saddle shop and shoe repair business. My brother tried his hand at making knives from files and rasps and putting stacked leather handles on them. For a while they worked great but eventually they started to rot and he would have to replace them. He tried using different sealers and oils and some did help slow down the rot but they still would eventually rot. Cleaning them often didn’t seem to make much difference as the leather is very porous and bacteria can harbor deeply in it and impossible to get rid of it.

I read about a process a few years ago that would stabilize leather with resins but I haven’t come across anybody that does it. I don’t know how it compares with regular leather but would probably be similar to micarta.
 
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