Buck Knives
 |
|
| Corporation | |
| Industry | Manufacturing |
| Founded |
San Diego, California 1902 |
| Headquarters | Post Falls, Idaho |
|
Key people
|
Hoyt Buck, Founder; Al Buck, former CEO; Chuck Buck, Chairman; CJ Buck, current CEO; Paul Bos |
| Products | Knives |
| Revenue | US$80 million |
|
Number of employees
|
320 |
| Website | buckknives |
Buck Knives is an American knife manufacturer founded in San Diego, California and now located in Post Falls, Idaho. The company has a long history through five generations of the Buck family from 1902 to the present day. Buck Knives primarily manufactures sport and field knives and is credited with inventing the "folding hunting knife" and popularizing it to such a degree that the term "buck knife" has become synonymous with folding lockback knives, including those made by other manufacturers.
Buck Knives Inc. dates it history back over 100 years to the first knives made by Hoyt H. Buck. Hoyt H. Buck became a blacksmith's apprentice in Kansas in 1899 at the age of 10. During his tenure Hoyt learned to make knives and in 1902 when he was 13, he developed a method of heat-treating the steel in hoes and other tools so they would hold an edge longer. Hoyt left Kansas in 1907 for the American northwest and eventually enlisted in the United States Navy. He is not known to have made knives until 1941 in Mountain Home, Idaho after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Hoyt made each knife by hand, using worn-out file blades as raw material. These early knives are called "four strikes" by collectors, because each of the letters in BUCK was struck with an individual letter stamp, which in 1961, was replaced by a one-piece stamp.
With the entry of the USA into WW2 the government asked the public for donations of fixed blade knives to arm the troops. Upon learning there were not enough knives for soldiers who needed them, Hoyt Buck bought an anvil, forge and grinder to set up a blacksmith shop in the basement of his church and started making knives for US troops. Hoyt later explained, “I didn’t have any knives, (to offer) but I sure knew how to make them”.
After World War II, Hoyt and his son Al moved to San Diego and set up shop as "H.H. Buck & Son" in 1947. These early knives were handmade and more expensive than a typical mass-produced knife. Hoyt Buck made 25 knives a week until his death in 1949. In the 1950s, the company began making knives on a much larger scale and marketed through dealers as opposed to direct mail.
On April 18, 1963, just two years after their incorporation, the Buck board of directors voted to authorize development of a new folding utility and hunting knife. The new design featured a sturdy locking mechanism and a substantial clip point blade suitable for butchering and skinning large game. This would become the world-famous Buck Model 110 Folding Hunter.
...
Wikipedia