The Buck Stopped Here

Some time ago I wrote about ordering a custom Buck folding knife.  I’m not a knife guy (many of my friends are).  The hook for me was an ad that floated into my inbox.  I have a regular Buck 110 (an anniversary edition I bought on sale; it’s the other knife you see in the photo above), but I am the guy that marketing types dream about:  Offer a custom feature or two, hit me with an email, and I’m in.

As promised, the lead time was a few weeks.  When it arrived, all was not well.  All priced out, I was into the custom Buck (complete with elk horn grips) for a little under $200.  I liked the look of the elk horn grips, but on my knife the interface between the elk horn natural bark and the bolsters was not good.  Some of the undulations in the horn butted up against the bolsters and it looked cheap.  I realize the grips are a natural material, but I still didn’t like the fit.

I wrote to Buck, expecting to hear the above as an explanation (i.e., that the grips are natural material), but that wasn’t the case at all.  Buck responded the next day.  Send the knife back, they said, and we’ll make it right.  I did, I had a new knife in about two weeks, and it was perfect.  Buck selected a set of grips that had no bark interfacing with the bolsters, and the intersection was line-to-line everywhere on the knife.  It is a thing of great beauty.

My custom Buck features included a mirror-polished blade, nickel (instead of brass) bolsters, and the elk horn grips I mentioned.  And that blade…wow, it is razor sharp.  The first time I closed it, when the blade completed its arc into the handle the tip caught my finger.  It was so sharp I didn’t even realize it had cut me.  The cut was so clean it healed in only a few days.

There’s more good news to the story.  When you get a custom knife like this from Buck, you also get an official-looking certificate of authenticity, a knife case, and a holster.  Somehow when I returned the knife for the new grips, I accidentally put all that stuff into the trash (which I only realized after Buck returned my knife).  I called Buck and told them what I had done.  I wanted the complete Buck custom knife experience, I told the nice lady on the phone, and she told me “no problem.”  She shipped another set and it arrived a couple of days later, all at no charge.

All the above notwithstanding, like I said above, I’m not really a knife guy.  Even though I have the two Bucks shown in the photos above, I don’t carry either one of them.  I have a cheap Chinese copy (and its little brother) I bought at Lowe’s that is the same size and looks almost exactly like the standard Buck 110 folder.  Sacrilege, I know.

The Sheffield name is laser engraved on the Chinese copies, but trust me, they are not from England.  I think I paid $20 for both of them in a bubble-wrap package a few years ago.  Once in a great while I’ll put the smaller one it in my pocket and carry it (even though the package included leather holsters for both), but I can’t remember a single time when I needed it and it was in my pocket.  The big one?  Its primary duty is opening letters.

If you’re thinking of getting a Buck knife, Amazon is a good place to go.  If you’re thinking of an inexpensive Chinese copy, check out Lowe’s.

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