Buck's 110 Folding Hunter and 112 Ranger trade their iconic lockback for a fully ambidextrous crossbar lock, MagnaCut blades and lightweight aluminum handles — the platform's biggest overhaul in six decades.
Few folding knives carry as much history as the Buck 110 Folding Hunter, a design that has been in continuous production since 1964, with the smaller 112 Ranger following close behind. For six decades the platform has leaned on that same lockback mechanism. That streak ends now. With the 110 Crossbar Elite and 112 Crossbar Elite, Buck has replaced the lockback for the first time in the platform's history.
The new mechanism is a crossbar lock, an axis-style design Buck first introduced on its Range Series last year. It makes both knives fully ambidextrous, allowing one-handed opening and closing from either side, and it brings the kind of fidget-friendly action that modern buyers tend to expect. Dual thumb studs sit on both sides of the blade, and a reversible deep-carry pocket clip — finished in black nitride on the 110 — keeps the knife accessible for left- and right-handed users alike.
The blade steel is CPM MagnaCut, the powder-metallurgy stainless developed by Dr. Larrin Thomas and widely respected for its balance of edge retention, toughness and corrosion resistance. Buck keeps the familiar clip-point profile, then runs the steel through its proprietary BOS heat treatment, the Paul Bos process long credited with pulling maximum performance out of premium alloys. Key specs:
110: 3.75-inch blade, 0.120 inches thick, with a sharpening choil
112: 3-inch blade
110 weight: 3.5 oz, roughly half the original's 7.2 oz, with a body about half an inch thick
112 weight: 3.1 oz
Handles: Cobalt Cerakote aluminum bolsters with DymaLux Macassar ebony inlays
Construction: screwed rather than pinned, so the knife can be field-stripped and serviced at home
The handle treatment deserves a closer look. Replacing the traditional brass bolsters with Cerakote aluminum preserves the classic two-tone appearance while stripping out meaningful weight. Buck also tucked a small heritage cue into the design: the crossbar's spacer occupies the same spot where the rocker rivet sits on the original lockback.
Both knives are made in Post Falls, Idaho, and covered by Buck's Forever Warranty. The 110 Crossbar Elite is priced at $254.99, the 112 Crossbar Elite at $245, and both are available now.
For anyone who has carried a 110 for decades, this is a genuine fork in the road rather than a cosmetic refresh. The Crossbar Elite models suit users who want modern one-hand operation and lighter pocket weight without abandoning the silhouette they know. Whether the crossbar can coexist with the lockback in Buck's lineup, or eventually supplants it, is the question worth watching.