ArfinGreebly
Moderator Emeritus
So, there I wuz . . .
Not far from where I live, there's a cutlery shoppe. Bitterroot Cutlery. The owner, Barney, is a nice guy, his selection is broad and varied, and his prices are fair. I recently picked up a couple of Böker ceramic blades from him for Mother's Day gifts. (I will report on these separately.)
He doesn't carry Buck knives any more. He puts it this way: "I won't sell a knife I can't sharpen." Evidently, he has found the Buck steel hard to work with.
However.
Right next door to Barney's place is a "gun and loan" pawn shop. It's actually a gun shop that happens to carry a pawn license. The usual layout of a pawn shop is 85% or more "stuff" with the remainder serving as the token gun counter. Not so with this store. This one is 85% guns, with the remainder as "stuff." There are cases of ammo, milsurp and so on, stacked around the place. This would not be a place you'd go, shopping for a used guitar.
It is among this "stuff" that a fifteen-foot length of display case has been reserved for knives.
And not just any knives. This is a collection of some 800 or so knives from an estate auction, all having belonged to the same man.
Holy crap.
There are OTF autos, a selection of Spydercos, Benchmades, and older (often out of production) pieces from a wide range of manufacturers. There's a real nice Chris Reeve fixed blade in there. Also a reasonable selection of "trinket" and inexpensive knives.
I spent more than my budgeted time browsing this collection. The guy had good taste. He's gonna hurt my wallet, even from beyond the grave.
One of the pieces, one that was actually carried, was an old '70s Buck 313 Muskrat. This is not to be confused with the latter day 723 Muskrat, which is an import-only copy.
I've pulled a few pictures of this model from the Web (these are not my actual knife, but they look exactly like it.)
. . .
. . .
. . .
This knife is exactly the same length as the '70s Buck 301 Stockman. The "clip" blade is more a "toothpick" style and, unlike some other Muskrats, the other blade is a full-length spey blade rather than a twin toothpick blade.
The Case XX knife pattern that's closest to this Buck is their xx75 series "Moose" (5275, 6275, 10275, 62075, etc.), except that the Moose has a true clip point blade opposite the spey blade, whereas the Case Muskrat has twin toothpick blades.
This knife is in remarkably good shape for its age. No rust that I can see on the springs, good snap, good edge, no wiggle. The fit and finish is outstanding, something I also noticed on my older ('70s) Stockman.
One of the things that distinguishes this Buck (and my '70s #301) from current production knives, is that all their newer "traditional" type folder patterns have hollow ground blades. The older ones have full flat ground blades. I don't know when or why they made the change from flat to hollow ground for their classic/traditional patterns, but I'm seriously liking their flat ground stuff.
A classic Buck. For $20, including tax.
It's in the EDC rotation starting this afternoon.
Not far from where I live, there's a cutlery shoppe. Bitterroot Cutlery. The owner, Barney, is a nice guy, his selection is broad and varied, and his prices are fair. I recently picked up a couple of Böker ceramic blades from him for Mother's Day gifts. (I will report on these separately.)
He doesn't carry Buck knives any more. He puts it this way: "I won't sell a knife I can't sharpen." Evidently, he has found the Buck steel hard to work with.
However.
Right next door to Barney's place is a "gun and loan" pawn shop. It's actually a gun shop that happens to carry a pawn license. The usual layout of a pawn shop is 85% or more "stuff" with the remainder serving as the token gun counter. Not so with this store. This one is 85% guns, with the remainder as "stuff." There are cases of ammo, milsurp and so on, stacked around the place. This would not be a place you'd go, shopping for a used guitar.
It is among this "stuff" that a fifteen-foot length of display case has been reserved for knives.
And not just any knives. This is a collection of some 800 or so knives from an estate auction, all having belonged to the same man.
Holy crap.
There are OTF autos, a selection of Spydercos, Benchmades, and older (often out of production) pieces from a wide range of manufacturers. There's a real nice Chris Reeve fixed blade in there. Also a reasonable selection of "trinket" and inexpensive knives.
I spent more than my budgeted time browsing this collection. The guy had good taste. He's gonna hurt my wallet, even from beyond the grave.
One of the pieces, one that was actually carried, was an old '70s Buck 313 Muskrat. This is not to be confused with the latter day 723 Muskrat, which is an import-only copy.
I've pulled a few pictures of this model from the Web (these are not my actual knife, but they look exactly like it.)
. . .
. . .
. . .
This knife is exactly the same length as the '70s Buck 301 Stockman. The "clip" blade is more a "toothpick" style and, unlike some other Muskrats, the other blade is a full-length spey blade rather than a twin toothpick blade.
The Case XX knife pattern that's closest to this Buck is their xx75 series "Moose" (5275, 6275, 10275, 62075, etc.), except that the Moose has a true clip point blade opposite the spey blade, whereas the Case Muskrat has twin toothpick blades.
This knife is in remarkably good shape for its age. No rust that I can see on the springs, good snap, good edge, no wiggle. The fit and finish is outstanding, something I also noticed on my older ('70s) Stockman.
One of the things that distinguishes this Buck (and my '70s #301) from current production knives, is that all their newer "traditional" type folder patterns have hollow ground blades. The older ones have full flat ground blades. I don't know when or why they made the change from flat to hollow ground for their classic/traditional patterns, but I'm seriously liking their flat ground stuff.
A classic Buck. For $20, including tax.
It's in the EDC rotation starting this afternoon.
