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At the turn of the century, a teenage apprentice blacksmith named Hoyt Buck believed he could hone sharpened steel better then any product he had seen in any store. As a matter of fact, he actually was looking for a good steel to extend the life of worn-out grub-hoes, or mattoxes. From his experiments with castoff rasps, he developed innovative tempering techniques which transformed the high-carbon steel into tough, durable blades that were not brittle.
The grub-hoes he made with this new tempering process amazed the farmers: the edges stayed sharp! Not surprisingly, he was asked to make knifes with this same special temper. Those first handmade Buck knives were equally amazing in their edge-holding ability. That same basic tempering process - now refined to a precise, scientifically-controlled system - still is the secret to Buck knives.
When the Buck family moved to the state of Washington, Hoyt Buck went into the insurance business, became a lumberman and raised a family, but he never forgot his love of making a good knife.
Early in World War II, he was a millwright supervisor in Mountain Home, Idaho, where he was also a preacher. He responded to a request to donate knives for the men at Mountain Home Army Airbase.
"I didn't have any knives, but I knew how to make them," he recalled years later. So he set up his forge and grinder in the basement of the church and began making knives as his contribution to the war effort that engulfed America in those threatening years. "Buck's knives" became a prized possession of anyone lucky enough to get one.
The fame of the Buck knife was spread throughout the world by men in the Armed Forces. After the war, Hoyt Buck moved to San Diego, California, USA, where he and his son, Al, joined forces in 1947 to create H.H. Buck & Son.
Today, at the heart of it all, the blades still are hand-crafted of the finest high-carbon, high-chrome, rust-resistant modified stainless steel, with the tough temper that is justifiably "famous for holding an edge."
When Hoyt Buck developed his first masterfully tempered blade, he had no way of knowing he was establishing a quality standard that no one would match. He just knew he wanted a better edge - one that would last. Today, millions of knife owners appreciate his genius.
