I have a bunch of Bucks. Their blade steel was 440C up until 1986. Then they switched to 425M and stayed with it through 1993. In 94 they switched to 420HC. Any of them are darn good factory knives that are hard to beat for the price. I like the 420HC blades of todays knives just fine. Extremely easy to put a scary sharp razor edge on them and they'll hold it reasonably long. The old 440C blades are harder to sharpen but hold an edge maybe 20% longer IME. The 425M blades are so close to the 420HC that it's hard to tell much difference but I'd say the 420HC holds an edge a hair better. There are many special edition Bucks out there now with better quality steel. The 105 is available now with S30V blade steel and red micarta handle for about 115.00 if you do a google search you should find it.
