All About Pocket Knives

Sorry in advance. I am new to knife collecting and tried to find some info on a knife that I recently purchased. I was unaware that Chinese counterfeit was so widespread in the higher/mid grade knives. Is there a way to tell real from fake? The letters are capitalized, but there is no model #, anvil, date stamp, etc. It seems to be high quality. Is it real? If so, which model and time period? If someone can just point me in the right direction, I don't mind doing some research. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

I don't see a knife like yours on here but there are a lot of knock offs.


https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/fak ... m.1249369/

It's not a fake. What you have is an early model 119. These came with the flap over leather sheath and had reddish-brown colored spacers on the guard and pommel. Buck did not stamp with model numbers or date codes back then. The material used in those spacers is what will help date your knife. If they are a hard fiber your 119 dates from 1963-69. If they are micarta with 2 spacers on both pommel and guard then it will be 1970s. One micarta spacer on pommel and guard dates to 1980s.

There's also another way to date by what is on the tang stamp.
An early Buck with only "BUCK" on it is pre-1968.
Two lines (BUCK, USA) were from 1968-1972.
Three lines (BUCK, model #, USA) were from 1973-1981.
Date codes were added after 1981.

Not sure what material it is but from pictures it looks like hard fiber. And you have a two line model, so could be 1968-69.

Buck has a rich history and you can search more online and find out what steel your knife is made of.

Thank you very much for your insight. That give me a lot more to go off of. I will do a bit more research.

Nice vintage knife. Looks unused. Definitely not fake.

Looks real to me.

__________
Mike

Dirty5thirty wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2020 6:46 am Thank you very much for your insight. That give me a lot more to go off of. I will do a bit more research.

Here you go...https://www.buckknives.com/about-knives/how-old/
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Mike