Originally Posted by walkinghorse

The black part of the handle cracked and was starting to crumble.
I also received a nice letter from Mr. Buck, apologizing for the problem, a check for the postage to send the knife to them, and thanking me for using Buck products. If I remember right they said the problem was a bad batch of material in the phenolic used for the handle? They kept the original knife.
My wife was was a master falconer, and her favorite bird was a Harris Hawk. She used the 118 to dispatch Jack rabbits to minimize the chance of her bird being injured, and to cut up the rabbit for feeding the hawk at home after the season was over. This was long before captive breeding of birds for sale was allowed. All birds used then we're wild captured. At meets , others had both peregrine and prairie falcons, and one Gyr falcon was seen. Amazing to watch them dive on and strike flushed ducks.