Recently bought my first Buck, a 112 from 1988

[PringleTree]

Hello everyone. Happy to be here. I recently stopped at a pawn shop in a nearby town in search of any vintage pocket knives they might have. In addition to the regular lineup of coins, jewelry, and used dvds, it turned out to be very much a blue collar pawn shop with lots of used power tools and unsorted buckets filled with every sort of hand tool imaginable. In the bottom of one of the buckets, among some fishing reels and screwdrivers, was the 112 shown below. It's seen a lot of use, but I thought it worth rescuing. The dating chart shows it would have been made in 1988. I paid $12 for it.
Thanks for reading this.
Chris

[herbva]

Nice catch!

[Railsplitter]

Nice find. The 112 is a great model. Do you plan to do any cleanup on it?

Buck has a wonderful Spa service if you wanted to let someone else do it.

[Reverand]

Nice find. The 112 is a great model. Do you plan to do any cleanup on it?

Buck has a wonderful Spa service if you wanted to let someone else do it.

Buck has one of the best warranty services that I know of. I sent an older 110 to them earlier this year with a broken blade. They replaced the blade for only $10!!! The spa service and return shipping are FREE, and when I got it back it is perfect.
But those are fun to clean up yourself, as well.
You really can't go wrong either way.

[tallguy606]

That's the kind of pawnshops I always look for. Usually in older part of town. I found a finger-groove 112 with blade tip broken off, off to Buck, $10, now like new with new blade.

[Railsplitter]

Hello everyone. Happy to be here. I recently stopped at a pawn shop in a nearby town in search of any vintage pocket knives they might have. In addition to the regular lineup of coins, jewelry, and used dvds, it turned out to be very much a blue collar pawn shop with lots of used power tools and unsorted buckets filled with every sort of hand tool imaginable. In the bottom of one of the buckets, among some fishing reels and screwdrivers, was the 112 shown below. It's seen a lot of use, but I thought it worth rescuing. The dating chart shows it would have been made in 1988. I paid $12 for it.
Thanks for reading this.
Chris

Chris, you have gotten a lot of recommendations for Buck’s spa service but we don’t know if you plan to clean it up yourself, send it to Buck, or leave it as is for that well used look.

Any of those are good options but I wanted to comment that Buck will probably be able to get those scratches out in your fourth picture if you choose to send it in.

Just in case you haven’t seen any before and after pics yet, here are a 110 and a 112 that Buck cleaned up for me. Note that the dings on the 110 are all but gone and the bolster pins on the 112 blend in with the brass much better now.

Best of luck to you whatever your plan is and again, nice find!

[PringleTree]

Thanks everybody, for your interest and suggestions. I think I'm going to keep the blade, since it is the original. It is pretty well intact, although it has been shortened to 2 3/4". I was thinking of cleaning it myself, but I've never cleaned a knife with wooden scales. Based on what you guys have suggested, I think I will send to Buck and have them clean it and try to get the dings/scratches out, but retain the original blade. Rick, they sure did nice work on yours--thanks for the pics.
Chris