Unlike the blog first test later crowd I’ve actually been USING this knife for two years, and it is fantastic. I’ll note that this is both proper and improper knife use (lots o’ needlessly bored whittling involved). It still holds it’s edge. This is my second Gerber, and I’ve had and used around 12-13 knives over the last 30 years that I would consider “professional grade” knives.

My carbon steel wanna-be commando knife is pitted all over, but this particular Gerber never has picked up a stain that I couldn’t just wash off. My camp knife Gerber was less than half the price when I bought my first one for $50 bucks, and now they are $20 bucks cheaper! Sure, if you want to blow $700 dollars buy a Bear Grylls knife, but if you are normal person looking for a good hunting, camping, fishing and even survival knife this particular one is great.

The metal side plates on each end seemed thinner as well, but most disappointingly, they began to tarnish with a brassy-yellowish color after only a couple of weeks of ownership. Certainly not held to the same manufacturing standards as my original 501.

All is not lost though, one redeeming feature of this model, and in my opinion, the most critical, is the blade itself. In contrast to the surrounding parts, the blade seemed surprisingly well made with a suburb edge and a good sharpening / hardness point. It has a nice smooth feel upon opening / closing and locks snugly into place without hesitation. The release or unlock function works similarly well.

It’s disappointing to see a company such as Buck lowering their manufacturing standards in order to remain in the showcases of retailers such as Wal-Mart. I understand that companies need to be cost competitive, especially now being faced with global competition and cheap labor. I reluctantly purchased the newer generation 501 mainly out of loyalty and fond memories attached to my original Squire. After living with the newer generation for awhile though, the high expectations I had of this new knife quickly lead to disappointment.

With a purchase such as this, I would be okay paying a premium for a standard that I’ve known and come to expect. In the future, my sentimental memories of that long lost companion would have been replaced by the reality of today’s cost competitive product. With that said, I would have hoped that Buck would have wanted to “lure” me back because they stand apart from the crowd, not alongside them. It’s a new marketplace today, and I’ll certainly shop around.

Again thanks for the informative post. I really like how you pointed out all of the great features of the fixed blade Buck knife.