When I was a young boy (a long long time ago) my first fixed blade knife was a Buck 119 Special. I LOVED that knife ...

BUT ... I never was able to get a good cutting edge on that knife.

Years later I started buying Gerber knives and those seemed to get much sharper edges. So I became a Gerber fan.

Even more years later I was taking a botany class and had a need to buy a cheap knife for cutting and digging out plants in the field. I went to a local Pamida (seemed like a hybrid between a Walgreens/CVS and a Walmart/Kmart) and bought an odd little black handled knife with a plastic sheath (low cost!) and a funny looking large bladed kitchen knife (even lower cost!) with no sheath (figured I could makes something using cardboard & tape for the duration. Those two knifes took edges like NOTHING I'd ever seen!!! I beat them up and they kept working great!

Many many years later I came to find out that odd little black handled knife with the plastic sheath was a Mora knife with a stainless steel blade. That funny looking kitchen knife was an Old Hickory carbon blade.

I never really went back to feeling confidence for Buck knives, Gerber seems to head in an odd direction, but I became a HEEUUGE fan of Mora and Old Hickory knives.

Was it just my imagination? my incompetence at sharpening? or was there really something about that Buck knife? Are they better now? To this day I have a sweet spot in my heart for Buck ... but still won't buy one.