Photo Review: Fasttech Buck Knives

EDC Gear for Flashlight Carriers
1

I’ve been on this mission to buy all the fixed blades I like at Fasttech, and these three finish off the list for me. Unlike the Strider copies, I’m not so sure that some are all of these are fakes.

Both the 480 and 009 at the top have passable sheaths except for the fact that they have loose straps, rendering the sheaths almost completely useless. The good news is that the straps can be fixed with some needlework, though they wouldn’t look good afterward. I still plan on someday making my own Kydex sheaths, and when that day comes, I’ll have a box full of knives to practice on!

The 860 on the bottom has a plastic sheath with a whistle on the end. The sheath fits well except for being a little loose. It rattles a little when I carry in my pocket, which is a deal breaker for carrying stuff in my pocket.

The 009 on the top is beautiful but poorly constructed. I would only use it for light duty, such as food prep for camping. The 480 below it is the gem of the bunch. And the 860 on the bottom is a neat little knife.

When you hand this 480 to someone, they will see it’s a quality knife. Well, if it doesn’t fall out of the sheath and stick into their foot. But seriously, all things considered, this is about the most knife you can get for 9 dollars.

Taking it out of the sheath, it looks beautiful. Did I mention this was the gem of my FT purchase?

Not much to criticize as far as fit and finish goes. Here you can see a small flaw in the wood where the screw holes were drilled. But I didn’t notice it until I saw it in the pictures. Other than that, it looks and feels like a much more expensive knife.

I really like the shape of the drop point blade, and it appears to be well constructed.

Here you can see the full tang construction. Again, very impressive for the price point.

Here is last flaw I could find: Some flaws in the way the jimping is cut. It looks like they did a poor job of it with a rotary tool by hand— who knows.

The handle is beautiful polished wood-looking substance which fooled me into thinking it was real wood.

This shot shows a good example of the level of fit and finish on this knife. Again, and at the risk of repeating myself, very impressive.

I really like the big belly on this drop point blade.

Blade thickness is close to ideal for a camp knife I plan on abusing.

Certain aspects of the fit and finish are just fantastic.

The fit and finish on the sheath is very good too, except for being useless with the loose strap.

The 009 is a good looking knife. I didn’t realize how poorly constructed it was until somebody here at BLF pointed it out to me, but oh well, it looks nice. And I still say it would make a fine light duty camp knife. It has what I can only call a “no tang construction” where there’s a metal hook between the blade and butt of the knife.

The handle is awesome on this knife. It has almost perfect ergonomics, which makes it a shame that that the design is so flawed.

The blade is also an ideal shape for a camp knife.

Here’s the problem. As you can see, the blade does not go contiguously into the handle.

This knife has a great look and feel. If someone wouldn’t have pointed out how much it sucks, I might have continued to believe that this was a nice knife. I guess I should just stick to knives which are obviously full tang, like the 480.

Below is the 860. Notice that it says “USA” on it. Yeah, doubt it. It’s got a decent sheath, too, other than the little bit of rattle. It comes with a split ring and mini-carabiner, which I took off.

Overall it’s not a bad little knife, if you can get past some of what I doubt are truthful words on it like “USA” and “S30V”. What’s funny is that Buck does make a cheaper version of this knife, which is also stamped “USA” even though most of their cheaper knives are stamped with “China”. I don’t know where it’s made, but just some food for thought.

It’s a decently constructed little neck knife. If it didn’t rattle in my pocket, I’d try to EDC it for a week. So it’ll probably go in my glove box.


Well that’s it for the FT Bucks! I’m glad I found the 480 which is the gem of the bunch. I will probably give a few away as gifts for the holidays. Hope you enjoy the photos, and sorry, I forgot to crop the last two.

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Thanks for the review Racer. Has anybody actually used these Chinese knives, do they hold and edge, soft, brittle? I have a nice collection of American and German knives and know that in the past the Chinese blades were complete junk, you couldn’t sharpen them and the metal was very soft. I did buy a 99 cent wb knife the other day that seems pretty good. So have the Chinese stepped up the quality of their blades?

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I have used lots of Chinese knives. They definitely use softer steel. The edge retention isn’t as good as high end American steels, but it makes up for it by being very easy to sharpen. Completely acceptable. I have a couple knives like the Spyderco Tenacious and the SanRenMu GB-763 that build-quality-wise are on par with knives costing 5-10 times as much. For example, I would say my Tenacious and Delica 4 are very comparable. The Tenacious even compares favorably to it’s cousin the Native, from Golden Colorado.

The Chinese have really stepped up their game in the last couple years.

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When Buck was making the Stryder knives it had Bos do the flame tempering. His signature on that blade shows the indention where it was tested at a hardness of 60. Makes me think that one’s the real deal. Nice find, especially first and last. :wink:

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Sorry guys, I really have a problem with this one.

I have a problem with flat out Chinese counterfeits of western goods. The Buck people worked hard to build their business over many years - and really DO support organizations like the Rocky Mtn. Elk Foundation.

By flogging $10 counterfeits, the Chinese undermine all of that. Buying those counterfeits is just shooting yourself in the foot, in the long run.

If Buck actually made those knives, and you got them for that price, then congratulations. If you bought counterfeits, then you’ve done the entire western business community - and your own economy - a disservice.

Just for the fun of it, why not send Buck those pictures and ask them? If they’re real, I’ll buy some too. Hell, I’ll buy crates of them!

6

What is the problem with the black one? What does contiguosly mean?
Is the blade loose and rattling?

Can someone post the link to the 480
Edit found it http://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10002795/1208201-camping-hunting-knife

They are not real that’s sure, but I see no problem as I never would even think of buying a knife with fixed blade if this would not be super cheap and a very good deal…

Could someone of the knife guys give his opinion which sort of steel it is and which characteristic I could expect.

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those buck 480's were made in china originally, so would not surprise me if they found a crate of extras/seconds and thats what they are selling.

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Or a crate of fakes. From an old thread on the 480:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/774063-is-this-a-fake

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lol @

The problem is, since the originals were made in China and they do such a good job copying, the counterfeit ones look exactly like the legitimate ones and both are made in China.

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You know, on second thought, to hell with it.

Any western company that outsources their production to China deserves to get ripped off. People complain about a bad economy, unemployment, cities going broke - and then willingly give the jobs and the revenue to China.

I don’t know how you say “Down the drain” in Chinese, but I think it’s a phrase Americans should start practicing….along with “Do you have a job for me?”

I’m so glad I’m old.

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Well, i think that speaking of the improved quality of chinese blades only have sense if we talk about real chinese knives and not fakes. Enlan, ganzo, srm have good steels? This has sense, but the question has the chinese fakes good steel?. It is impossible to say, some better than others but… they sell the looking of a popular knife, only that.
If you read the reviews of the buck 480 on fasttech a guy says that the edge goes dull very fast. Normal in a cheap, bad steel or heat threatment fake knife.
I read a lot of times people that tested a fake knife in the field and it broke in minutes.
One thing is the good looking of a knife and other very different thing is test the knife in real conditions…
I remember the chinese fake of the “oso blanco”, a knife of my country from aitor and abit of smack on wood and it broke. And the real oso was used a lot of years for the army forces perfectly. The disambled fake oso shows a very weak tang inside and a breakable handle etc. Good looking but useless.

I think prefer waste my money in enlans, ganzos, navies, srm, inrons or y-start than on unknows fake knives. I start my collection buying fakes but not more.

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The rubber handle Buck has a stick tang. There is nothing wrong with stick tang knives. Randall which was considered the best custom knife in the world during WW2 used and still use stick tang construction. It’s just a different way of making knives. Real buck fixed blades used stick tangs so that alone is not a problem.

Out of the three, the rubber handle one would be the one I chose if I were into fixed blades, which I’m not.

13

Heh, nice! Well, it sure looks and feels nice. I wonder how durable it is compared to real wood. Still worth 9 bucks!

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That’s how I look at it in my old age. Most of these companies take half their product line overseas in the hopes that you the consumer will just assume all their products are made in the USA like they always have been and pay a premium for their outsourced product. They make this Faustian deal with overseas factories who then screw them by making and selling extra products behind their backs. So, you have a USA company that’s been around for a hundred years or whatever, trading their good reputation for short term gain and then getting bent out of shape when the whole plan unravels. Who’s the bad guy in all this? Certainly not the smart consumers looking for a good deal. No, I have very little sympathy for a company like this.

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Thanks a lot for the review! Sticky’d.

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Like Spyderco say with their Budget and Byrd ranges, no American jobs were lost getting their knives made in China because they weren’t being made in the USA originally, and couldn’t have been made for the price. Rather they act as an entry level range introducing customers to the brand, and bring money into the company that helps keep the American company afloat in these financially difficult times.

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I don’t know what you mean by “lower social standards”. There are lots of reasons car companies make products in the USA now. One of the big reasons is the US dollar is weaker than it has been so right now, it pays to buy American. You get more for your money in an American product than a German product.

The same is true considering China, it’s relatively cheap for Americans to buy Chinese products and relatively expensive for Chinese to buy American. It’s insanely expensive for Chinese to buy German.

Having a strong dollar is not all good. America is still a major player in the manufacturing world so a weak dollar helps us export more goods. Keeps manufacturing jobs in the US.

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i dunno, you germans are having your vdubs made in mexico... only reasoning i can think of was that decision was made at Oktoberfest

"das auto" is now "el coche"

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yeah i know, was just goofing. though, i am disappointed with my cabrio after owning a passat glx though. although i think i figured out what i should get for a vanity plate.... "el coche" has a nice ring to it haha

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Thanks for the review Racer! :slight_smile:

Stick tang construction can be used to make a solid knife… But it’s hard to know until you use it. Many just have a cheap tack weld holding the stick to the blade. OTOH it’s easier to have confidence in an unknown knife when you can see a continuous piece of steel forming the blade and tang.