Buck 110 Folding Hunter

The Buck 110 Folding Hunter is a large lockback pocket knife. A clip-point blade of polished stainless steel, three and three-quarter inches long, folds into a handle of dark ebony scales held between heavy brass bolsters, which are shaped to the hand at both ends. When the blade is opened a spring-loaded bar locks it rigidly in place; pressing a notch at the back of the handle releases it. Closed, it is about five inches long and weighs more than most pocket knives, and it is usually carried in a leather belt sheath.

It was developed at Buck Knives in San Diego, a family firm whose founder, Hoyt Buck, had made his first blades in Kansas at the turn of the century. In 1963 his son Al Buck and the board resolved to make a folding knife strong enough for hunters who did not want to carry a fixed blade. Rival lock knives were bought, used and taken apart, and after a summer of prototypes and difficulties with tooling the first Folding Hunter came off the line in June 1964.

It was an immediate success, and its outline was soon copied so widely that 'buck knife' became a common name for any folding lockback. Popular Mechanics counted more than eleven million sold by 1990. Over the years the blade steel, rivets, pins and logo stamp have all changed, and collectors date old examples by these details, but the knife has kept the shape, the brass and wood, and the lock that it had in 1964.

Buck left California for Post Falls, Idaho, in 2004, and the 110 is still made in the United States and sold today. It remains a working tool rather than a collector's piece, bought by hunters for dressing game and by others simply as a heavy, dependable knife.