[Russ Ellis]

Some of you may recall that a month or so ago, I had managed to lose my pocket knife. That pocket knife was a Buck Crosslock Solitaire. I've always like that knife it had pretty much everything I was looking for. Nice easy to hold on to handle, good stout blade that held an edge well, was easy to open one handed and had a pocket clip. Plus at a little over 30 dollars if I lost it then I wasn't out a whole lot of money. This was the second solitaire that I had lost this way. So I started hunting around for new crosslocks and to my surprise rather then finding the trusty knife I was used to I kept pulling up examples of Bucks latest crosslock creation which didn't look a whole lot like my old knife. I was totally bummed and in a bit of a quandary because I didn't really know if I wanted to buy this new knife or not.

Now to the good part. I posted about my dilemma and angst here in the bladeforums general section and to my surprise a Mr. Jeff Hubbard a quality supervisor at Buck Knives posted and told me to email him my address. I did that and didn't hear anything back from him. I didn't think much about it and just went on. About a week and a half ago (or was it two weeks?) I got a small box in the mail. I didn't think much about it, a customer of mine was supposed to mail me a handle that he wanted wire wrapped so I just assumed that is what it was. I had several other projects in line so I didn't even bother to open the small box. Saturday I finally got to it and figured I'd better go ahead and do the wire wrap. I opened the box and to my surprise there was a Buck Knives box inside. I opened that one up and there was one of the brand new crosslocks in it along with a nice note from Mr. Hubbard.

Can you beat that?!!!! Out of the blue Mr. Hubbard sent me a knife to replace the one I foolishly lost just because. He didn't have to do that, I didn't expect it and certainly in no way earned it. I'll be posting a full review of the knife of course later today (just don't have the time this instant) but I really wanted to say a public thanks to Mr. Hubbard and Buck Knives! Anyone want to guess what I'm going to get for all of my brothers for Christmas?

[Steve Fabert]

I second your endorsement of Buck as a great company with irreplaceable products. My own folding lockback Buck has put in more than thirty years of service. Since I have never lost it, I don't have a similar tale to tell about replacement service.