Buck Lite Max folding knife review

[ez bake]

Do not buy this piece of crap.

That is all.

 

[Coded-Dude]

This one? BU486BKS

Interesting......it's getting good reviews on amazon and knifecenter(lol). Of course, one thing I have discovered is that not all Bucks are made equal(they have some crappy blades out there).

 

[Biggsly]

How about........the rest of the story.

 

[ez bake]

This one? BU486BKS

Interesting......it's getting good reviews on amazon and knifecenter(lol). Of course, one thing I have discovered is that not all Bucks are made equal(they have some crappy blades out there).

The medium model actually - 0486ORSBC-B

There's actually quite a bit of stink over Buck's new QC issues in a thread over at Bladeforums. Since the move to Idaho - all Bucks are now made in the US but they moved from the old factory in San Diego and several folks believe the quality/skills of the folks hired in Idaho were not on par with what they had in CA. I'm not sure about any of that info as a lot of it appears to be speculation, but there are some things that one cannot ignore (like the number of complaints on BF vs. the old days prior to the move).

I thought I would give their lower-end line a chance, but this thing is absolutely sub-par. All riveted construction (even the pocket-clip and pivot), blade play (obviously - riveting is not a precision means of holding a pivot), the blade touches one of the scales (or the other - it's that loose) when closed, the orange is faded on the model I got (looks almost pink - like it wasn't molded under the greatest conditions).

I also bought a Kershaw G10 Hawk ($1 cheaper, but made in china, so obviously cheaper labor and probably cheaper cost on materials). It uses G10, 8cr13MOV steel, screwed construction full steel liners, and very clean machining (blade is rock-solid, centered between the scales perfectly when closed, etc.).

This Buck Lite is probably not as bad as I'm making it out to be. It does lock up well - the lock doesn't fail under what I would consider normal stress. It has a sharp - very clean edge. It is well-designed (if it were screwed-together, it would actually be a decent knife and not a rip-off at $20).

It's rough (scratches and handling marks during the machining process). I bought it for a dirty Santa gift, and I'll probably still use it, but I'm just honestly a little disappointed (~$20 price-tag). I've cleaned it up, oiled it (pivot was not very smooth at first), and oiled the scales to get the white/pink color out of it (oiled/darkened, it does look more Orange).

It's not a terrible knife, but the ~$20 knife market is way saturated with decent-quality knives, so for Buck to produce something like this and charge $20... I'll stick with my Kershaws, Byrds, Spyderco value-lines, and even CRKTs at this price-point.

I typically buy Kershaw/Benchmade/Spyderco knives without a need to review them. I'm careful around Sog, Schrade, S&W, Gerber, Boker's value-lines, etc. as I've had a bad experience or two with specific models (although, never this disappointed to be honest) so I'll always look at reviews before recommending one to a friend or buying one as a gift.

Now I have to add Buck to that list (which is ironic as I now feel as if I can buy almost any CRKT without worry - they've really come a long way over the years).

 

[ez bake]

So - I contacted BladeHQ (where I bought it) and am returning it. I can't even bring myself to give this away as a gift since it's just sub-par all around.

I'm giving away my Kershaw G10 Hawk in the dirty-santa exchange in lieu of this one (and I just ordered another Hawk to replace this one).