When is it reasonable to be cranky over SPA treatment?

dsutton24

dsutton24

Gold Member
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Apr 9, 2018
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First, and foremost, I've got a lot of Buck knives, and I've used Buck's SPA service many times. They have always done a very good job on my knives, and I've always been impressed with Buck's customer service.

Oh, well...

I sent off a two dot 112 for SPA service. The blade was nearly full, but it had some marks from a poor sharpening attempt. It had been stored it its sheath, so the bolsters were pretty cruddy. All in all, the knife was mostly unharmed, but I thought that it would benefit from some freshening-up. It went off to Buck, and I made it a point to ask that the bolster radius not be rounded over.

It came back today, and I've got to say I'm disappointed. The worst part of it is this: Hold the closed knife with the pivot up, and looking at the blade. The frame end is no longer square with respect to the sides of the frame, it has a definite right to left downward slope, and each frame edge is rounded instead of flat. The pile side bolster has a marked taper to it. Sorry, but my photography skills don't really show the problem very well, but here it is:

112 Spa.png

The opposite end of the knife is even worse. It slopes from one side to another, and it's also arched.

It doesn't take long for a Buck collector to learn what the square frame 110s and 112s should look like. You can see the problems with this knife at arm's length.

It feels silly to complain about something that costs six bucks. A two dot 112 isn't a particularly valuable knife, and removing material from something collectable is always an iffy situation. I know all this, but it seems like Buck should have done a better job of preserving the shape of this knife, especially when they were asked to not round things over. Fixing the problems now would result in a knife that would be even more obviously wrong.

I know what these guys are capable of doing, and this isn't what I'm used to seeing. Mostly just whining... What's done is done.
 
That really is too bad about the rounded edges. For $6 Buck fixed a problem and caused other problems. I've sent knives in for Warranty work (new, limited edition, BOTM, Stealth Run). It has been 50/50 if the knife that comes back is in better or worse condition. I've only been collecting Buck for a little while but my experience is - "I hope this time I don't have to send the knife back, again, to have it fixed". Buck has made it right in the end, but having to send in a $200 plus knife, two times to fix a minor/major problem can be annoying. There, now two people are whining today : ) Solidarity in numbers.
 
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The thing is, the $6 also includes the return shipping. So really how much time can they spend on the knife? They obviously use power tools and they can cause a lot of damage really fast. I’m honestly surprised they don’t ruin more knives.

The work they do in 30 seconds would have taken you an hour and some elbow grease.
 
Funny you posted this. I just got back 4 110’s and a 1st version 112 that I sent in for spa treatment.
All the 110’s were good. But the 112 not so much.
The top of the frame and where the part of the frame where the rocker spring is were untouched. Still tarnished from probably almost 40 years ago. And the blade is still scratched and who ever sharpened it was in a hurry. There’s marks up from the actual edge where the sharpening got sloppy.
I finished the cleaning myself and I’ll just live with the blade.
Unless a knife is in need of repair I’ll just clean them myself. May not have that factory polish look but I guess I’ll have the satisfaction of doing it myself.
And the more I think about it to much blade was removed in the sharpening.
When I got this knife it looked like it was never used and sat in the sheath its whole life, heavily tarnished
 
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People are buffing these knives on a powered bench buffer which is going to round the edges. Same with sharpening on power equipment, and removing more blade, then a person may like. If you have a knife you want treated as a collector item versus a tool, I wouldn’t send it to someone to clean up for free or even at a loss after shipping. Find someone charging $100 per hour plus shipping.
 
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I understand that it’s basically free. But the miss almost half a knife of cleaning.? I would think someone sharpening knives for Buck should have some experience. But I guess it’s just like any other business, workers retire and good help is hard to find.
And if somebody’s getting $100 an hour to sharpen and clean knives, I guess I’m in the wrong business.
 
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That's too bad - next time you could just polish it yourself with a Cape Cod Cloth, and sharpen it on a Spyderco Sharpmaker and keep it looking new.

61kCxbg4huL._AC_SL1200_.jpg
 
Bill Chamberlin said:
I understand that it’s basically free. But the miss almost half a knife of cleaning.? I would think someone sharpening knives for Buck should have some experience. But I guess it’s just like any other business, workers retire and good help is hard to find.
And if somebody’s getting $100 an hour to sharpen and clean knives, I guess I’m in the wrong business.
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I apologize we missed polishing some areas on your 112. If you would like to send me a message with your repair order number I can get you a call tag to finish what we missed. The SPA treatment was never intended to refurbish back to like new but only as a lite polish and sharpening. Yes, Danny retired but his apprentice has been with BUCK for 13 years and after working under Danny for the last 2 years he repairs each the knife the best and most efficient way possible.
 
Buck Knives Inc. said:
I apologize we missed polishing some areas on your 112. If you would like to send me a message with your repair order number I can get you a call tag to finish what we missed. The SPA treatment was never intended to refurbish back to like new but only as a lite polish and sharpening. Yes, Danny retired but his apprentice has been with BUCK for 13 years and after working under Danny for the last 2 years he repairs each the knife the best and most efficient way possible.
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Thank you for the offer. But I already finished cleaning it up.
My order #01419007 Cat#3787 barcode # 033753113109
Thank you again for responding
 
Buck Knives Inc. said:
I apologize we missed polishing some areas on your 112. If you would like to send me a message with your repair order number I can get you a call tag to finish what we missed. The SPA treatment was never intended to refurbish back to like new but only as a lite polish and sharpening. Yes, Danny retired but his apprentice has been with BUCK for 13 years and after working under Danny for the last 2 years he repairs each the knife the best and most efficient way possible.
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I know that this wasn't a response to my post, but how does a 'lite polish' result in rounded and tapered frame ends? I've sent many knives in for SPA service, and what I got back isn't typical of the usual service.
 
dsutton24 said:
I know that this wasn't a response to my post, but how does a 'lite polish' result in rounded and tapered frame ends? I've sent many knives in for SPA service, and what I got back isn't typical of the usual service.
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Power tools and a heavy hand.
 
It really isn't that hard to "spiffy up" a 110, that is in good working order, yourself. (Maybe I'll do a tutorial one of these days). It can be done for a few bucks in supplies and even without power tools.
 
Buck Knives Inc. said:
I apologize we missed polishing some areas on your 112. If you would like to send me a message with your repair order number I can get you a call tag to finish what we missed. The SPA treatment was never intended to refurbish back to like new but only as a lite polish and sharpening. Yes, Danny retired but his apprentice has been with BUCK for 13 years and after working under Danny for the last 2 years he repairs each the knife the best and most efficient way possible.
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I think he was more concerned about the "over polishing and rounding edges" in some areas, more than under polishing in other areas. I know with my vintage watches I wont let a polishing wheel anywhere near them. I hadn't really thought about the same issue with old knives. Overall, I know that Buck is trying, and we appreciate your presence here.

Off topic, I'm so glad that I got one of the 88 Danny Vantage LE in Damasteel and deep blue paper micarta before he retired!
 
I've had the same issues with warranty repairs for my last two custom shop knives....getting knives back with worse problems than they went in for. Pretty bad since CS knives shouldn't need to be sent back immediately. Live and learn I reckon....
 
I'm hoping this is a small percentage of problems. I recommend this service to people when they dont know. I havent done it myself but my brother in law sent one in and it came back like it was brand new!
 
BuckShack said:
I'm hoping this is a small percentage of problems. I recommend this service to people when they dont know. I havent done it myself but my brother in law sent one in and it came back like it was brand new!
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My experience has been that Buck almost always does a remarkable job on knives sent for SPA service. The 112 noted in the OP was the only bad one I've had.
 
I hate to post this but I am done with Buck’s spa treatment. I just received another 6 knives back today and two of the 110 4 dot finger grooves look like they were sharpened on a grinder wheel. Way too much blade taken off. I don’t know who’s doing the sharpening but they need supervision and retraining IMO.
And another that I noted about the spring being weak and wouldn’t stay closed all the way, well it’s still in the same condition. And I believe these went to the repair shop because that is what I was told a couple weeks ago when I called. One of the 112’s had a bolster pin sticking out, this one was fixed.
 
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