Buckmaster

[TeresaS]

Not really a pocket knife but knew someone here could tell me something about it.

[New_Windsor_NY]

Try posting your question(s) and pictures here. You might get more traffic.
viewforum.php?f=53
or here: viewforum.php?f=34

[kennedy knives]

Very Nice Buck hard to find brings good money

[orvet]

The Buckmaster came out when I was managing a cutlery store in the 1980s. I believe it came out somewhere around 1986 or 1987. As I recall, they were issued to the Navy Seals.
You have the grappling pegs installed, which makes it very difficult to use the knife effectively as a knife, but with the grappling pegs installed and the knife in the sheath it was designed so you can snap a d-ring through the loop at the end of the knife and throw knife and sheath over a Cyclone Fence or constantina wire to help the Navy SEAL climb over said obstacle.

They are an impressive knife! MSRP in the late 80s I think they were around a $150 to $175, it may have been even more. I have no idea what they sell for now. I would expect they're fairly rare and expensive because they were not made in large numbers.

[just bob]

1995

[orvet]

Thanks Bob. I didn't know they made it in a parkerized version also. It's definitely less expensive parkerized!

[WillyCamaro]

Holy moly that is one mean looking knife!!
I can see that it is pretty much useless as a fighting knife. The spikes will dig into your hand. But like Dale said, super handy for scaling fences. Guess it's kind of a trade-off. Still mean looking though!

[orvet]

The spikes screw in and screw out. If you want to use it as a knife, unscrew the spikes.

[Greenman]

The Buckmaster came out when I was managing a cutlery store in the 1980s. I believe it came out somewhere around 1986 or 1987. As I recall, they were issued to the Navy Seals.
You have the grappling pegs installed, which makes it very difficult to use the knife effectively as a knife, but with the grappling pegs installed and the knife in the sheath it was designed so you can snap a d-ring through the loop at the end of the knife and throw knife and sheath over a Cyclone Fence or constantina wire to help the Navy SEAL climb over said obstacle.

They are an impressive knife! MSRP in the late 80s I think they were around a $150 to $175, it may have been even more. I have no idea what they sell for now. I would expect they're fairly rare and expensive because they were not made in large numbers.

The BuckMaster was reputedly developed at the request of the Navy SEALs, but as far as I know it was never officially adopted by the SEALs and Buck was never granted a United States military contract for the knife. A relatively small number of BuckMasters were issued to individual SEALs for field testing purposes, but the knife did not live up to its rugged appearance. It was considered to be overly complex and was much too heavy and unwieldy for real-world military applications. The knurled metal handle was rather unpleasant to grip under hard usage and the metal used did not perform well in salt water tests. Buck continued to produce the BuckMaster for the consumer market for some ten or fifteen years. It might be considered the ultimate “Rambo” knife.

[Greenman]

Thanks Bob. I didn't know they made it in a parkerized version also. It's definitely less expensive parkerized!

The 1995 advert that Bob posted clearly shows that both the original and the parkerised versions of the BuckMaster sold for the same price ($210.00 supposed retail price, $124.95 “sale” price). For a period during the 1990s, I worked for a wholesale cutlery distributor in the midwestern United States. At that time, it was practically impossible to sell a BuckMaster at any price. A few years later—I believe it was in the early-to-mid 2000s—collectors began to take an interest in the BuckMaster and the knives began to increase in value.

[orvet]

Thanks Josh, I missed the sale on the Parkerized version. Thats what I get for reading it on my phone w/o my reading glasses.!

I was managing a retail cutlery store when the Buckmaster came out. We sold a few but the price point was too high for most folks. They were not something that interested me so I didn't keep up with them after I left the store in '91.