Buck 480 Fixed Blade Drop Point Knife
QUICK & DIRTY:
Just $8.95 USD for this??? Heck yeah! I’d do it again and, in fact, I have bought more to gift to family members. Some Googling revealed the closest price I found for the exact same knife elsewhere is $28. FastTech does it again with their amazing pricing. Get it while you can!
YAYS:
- Incredible knife for the money
- Extremely stout and well made
- Thick, comfortable, real wood handle
- Arrived fairly sharp
- Full tang, thick blade with very practical blade profile for hunting, camping, or working in the back yard.
- Decent sheath with protective insert to protect the stitching from the blade edge.
NAYS:
- A couple small scratches in the blade and handle but nothing that can’t be buffed and/or sanded out.
- Gimping is a little rough but definitely looks like it was done by hand and not cut out in a laser CNC cutter. Adds character though. 😉
| Aesthetic | |
| COLOR | Silver |
| Classification | |
| FORM FACTOR | Fixed |
| Knives | |
| BLADE EDGE TYPE | Fine |
| BLADE TYPE | Drop Point |
| Manufacturer | |
| BRAND | BUCK |
| Package | |
| PACKAGE TYPE | Retail |
| Accessories included | Sheath and bottle of oil |
| Dimensionsus | metric | |
| DEPTH | 21 mm |
| HEIGHT | 195 mm |
| WIDTH | 38 mm |
| BLADE LENGTH | 85 mm |
| PRODUCT WEIGHT | 191 g |
| Product Numbers | |
| FASTTECH SKU | 1208201 |
| Purchased from | FastTech.com |
| Price Paid | $8.95 USD |
DETAILS AND OPINIONS
I bought this knife along with a Ganzo 712 on 4/15 and it was in my hands on 5/2. Easily one of the most anticipated packages I’ve received from Fasttech, it didn’t disappoint with either knife. The Buck 480 arrived in a thin, yellow and black cardboard box that was just a little crushed on one side from the trip to the States inside a padded envelope.
Packed along with the knife and sheath was a small bottle of light machine oil. A nice little surprise not mentioned in the product description on FastTech’s webpage.
The working end of the knife is a very stout drop point blade. The Elk hoove prints in the blade are laser cut and clean and crisp. There are a few very fine scratches that can be seen in the pic below especially if you click the pic and go to the original photo. The blade arrived sharp but not shaving sharp. Not a lot of knives do in my experience.
Along with the hoove prints is a deeply etched “BUCK” logo and a laser etched logo for the “Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation”. Stamped near the handle is “480” signifying the model number of the knife. The blade is made of 8Cr13Mov steel with a 59HRC.
The opposite side of the blade we can see another stamping informing us this knife was made in China.
Aside from a few tiny rough spots, this is a damned hansome blade!
The handle is made from real wood (I don’t know the type) and is contoured very nicely for a comfortable, secure grip. It also looks pretty good, too. My example had a few little scratches on the same side of the knife that had a few scratches on the blade. Most likely mine was scuffed during manufacturing after it was assembled anddetailed. It really doesn’t bother me for what little price I paid. It’ll have worse in short order after I use it a few times I’m sure. 😉
The scales are contoured and shaped to the blade after being mounted on the blade. it gives a nice feeling that the handle is just one piece of material.
The gimping is the only real rough area of the knife. it looks like it was hand filed into the blade. It’s not horrible or a deal breaker but you can definitely tell it is not completely laser cut from the steel blank. It is actually nice in a way to know that it is really hand finished and not entirely machine made like some knives. It would be nicer if the craftsmanship on such little details was better but what can you really expect for less than $9 shipped. I would expect better from a $100 or even a $50 knife but really…how the heck can they even sell this for $9 and make money?
The rest of the knife is very nice and clean. The wood scales are nicely polished. I did have to clean out some very fine sawdust from inside the screw holes in the handle.
Nice grain and a real good color IMO.
The sheath is not the worse I’ve seen but not the best either. It is simply ok and that’s enough for it to be. Aside from a few stray threads poking out here and there it’s really pretty good. Another logo, this time embroidered, for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation can be seen on the front of the sheath.
On the back you can see the simple belt loop. This loop is the only really cheap looking part of the sheath. It will work just fine and the stitching is solid, it just feels like it could be a bit thicker.
Stitched into the sheath is a plastic blade guard to protect the nylon material and stitching from getting cut when inserting/removing the blade. It provides a very nice secure grip on the blade while letting it slide in and out smoothly.
CONCLUSION
Mac Approved and recommended! A real great price for a real great knife and it’s a steel steal at $8.95. Is it a genuine Buck? Not really sure. Do I care? No. I am sure that it’s a pretty nice knife at twice the asking price. It makes a great, compact hunting and camping knife that could be used for skinning or any cutting task you might throw at it.
Johnny Mac Reviews 
Very good review. Thanks.