I purchased several Buck 110’s when I was younger, 1974. I understand now that I never learned how to sharpen them properly as my sharpening skill was with carbon steel blades. In my ignorance I considered them junk and bought Case knives to date. Now that I understand my lack of knowledge I have decided to try them again. I first purchased a 113 for skinning and now I have custom ordered a 110. Both are bone handle as I am partial to that. The custom has an S30VDrop Point blade. The Buck 113 has the normal 420HC, I assume. My Case XXchanger has both bone & brass. It too is a drop point. Not sure what the steel is.

Anyway, are there any tricks to working with the S30V steel? And, how do the two, S30V & 420HC, differ?

Nice!!! I really like that with the bone scales!
Always carried my Buck 110 when I was in HS.
As did every other Redneck I ran around with back then. Those old Buck were hard to sharpen, IMO.
I would think an SV30 blade would be much easier to put a blade on.
I use my Spyderco V-stick sharpener on my custom Dozier & Ingram hunting knives with SV30 blades.

Of course, that’s back when you could carry a knife in HS, and nobody gave a crap. Also had my 870 and Winchester 94 Carbine on the gun rack of my pickup in our HS’s parking lot.
Funny how there was no “Mass School Shootings”, back then. 🤪

Same methods as the softer steels but diamond stones make it a lot easier and faster.

CHL,
Same here. Shotgun in the truck gun rack, windows down for heat dissipation, wore the Buck 110 like jewelry on the belt.

Brothers from another Mother! 🤠

We couldn't belt carry them, but always had something in our pockets and the teachers ignored them. Still have my old 112 Buck and the Mossberg 500 that stayed in my truck rack.

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

What area of TX did you grow up in?
My hometown was only 80K back in the late 70’s, but Abilene was still very small “townish” back then, when the major economic drive was farming, ranching, and oilfield related.

It once was a little collection of farm and ranch towns south of Houston called Alta Loma, Arcadia, and Algoa. It's all been incorporated now into the city of Santa Fe, Tx and is being swallowed up by urban sprawl and illegal immigration. Houston is forever creeping toward us.

The Buck Custom Shop builds a very nice knife. I have had several built by the custom shop and they have all been exceptional 110's. There aren't any tricks to sharpening S30V. Several YouTubers do cutting tests comparing various steels against each other and the same steel from different manufacturers and pretty consistently Buck's S30V outcuts the same steel from other makers such as Spyderco and Benchmade. You can expect good performance from the S30 Buck blade.

About '74ish, bouncers made us take our belt carried 110s back to
our trucks to gain entry to a tiddy bar. I dropped off the sheath and
put the knife in my pocket. Problem solved.

I have a box full of Buck, Case, Old Timer and Parker lock back folders. Can't recall the last time I actually took one out and used it. I think I'll dig out my custom shop S30V and wear it today.

I have a drawer full of lock back folders. My favorite and most used hunting knives are a Buck 500 Duke, a Cold Steel Air Lite and an old Puma 970 Game Warden. All just get carried in a pocket. I have several other large lock backs from Buck, Case, Parker, Schrade/Uncle Henry/Old Timer but they're all much thicker and heavier and not as comfortable for pocket carry so they generally stay home. I don't like a knife on my belt.

I have a Spyderco Native and a Bench Made Griptilian and have not been terribly impressed with their S3OV blades.

Had a cousin that did that. He was like Ronny Van Zandt, always looking for a fist fight. I told him that one day he would meet the man he couldn’t beat just before he met his maker & he better be prayed up. About a month later, turns out I was right.

420 hc is an average knife steel . Bucks secret with it was the heat treat , 420 hc from Buck seems very hard .BUCK knives with broken tips are quite common and is why I moved away from Buck years ago . S 30v is a better steel. Older Buck knives seem to have an" apple seed " edge which was hard to reproduce on a flat stone without considerable reprofiling of the edge .Diamond stones are your friend with either one.

I'm pretty fond of this Custom 110 in S30V.

Nice !!!

I’ll carry one of the 110 Lite or slim or whatever it’s called.

The plastic handle version.

A lot thinner than the wood / metal bolster version.

Handy for a beat-around knife.

That's pretty skookum !

Reloader, I have the exact knife from Buck's custom shop. You will love it.

To borrow a quote I heard here from someone else. If you get a Buck with 420 HC you'll spend a lot of time honing your honing skills. NORMALLY 420 steel is considered a poor steel and is often used in ornamental knives not intended for real work. But Buck's 420 HC is tempered a bit different. It is a decent steel, but it doesn't hold an edge nearly as long as better steels.

S30V is my favorite all around steel. It is a LITTLE harder to get an edge on, but it can be razor sharp and stay that way a long time with just a light touch up occasionally. It is well worth the added cost to me

I have this one. A blend or old school and new tech. It has a pocket clip instead of a sheath.

https://smkw.com/buck-110-hunter-sport-bu13294

I feel 440c is superior to 420 HC