The Puma Buffalo Hunter - Rugged, Reliable, Formidable
Sometimes you go through life and you suddenly come across something and know instinctivly, this is mine!
Ones choice in cold steel is highly personal and the blade chosen says a lot about the owner.
The most important piece of equipment for a hunter is, apart from a good rifle and field glasses, the hunting knife.
In 1956 The Puma White Hunter was developed by the german company Puma in conjunction with the East African Professional Hunter’s Association, (founded 1934 in Nairobi, Motto: Nec timor nec temeritas - Neither fear nor foolhardiness.)
The Puma White Hunter design is an all-time classic while being a fancier version of the time-proven English pattern butcher knife being both a skinning tool and a butchering tool in one. It quickly became one of the more popular private purchase field knives with troops in the 1960s. Sadly, the White Hunter removed itself over the decades from any everyday usefulness by its exorbitant price, degrading itself to a pure collectors knife better not used and is nothing more than a bought memory of the days when one did take out an affordable proper knife to the woods, plains, savannah or jungles the other side of the world and no one thought twice about it.
The survival movement since the Rambo movies has done its own, to norm the proper knife for survival from 16 inches back down to a current 4 inch blade length in now relatively standard but costly designs.
But what about us torn souls out there, captured in globalization and yearning to be a Scout, Plainsman, Buffalo Hunter, Trapper or Adventurer, while reminiscing on the good old days when a decent size usable knife was socially acceptable!?
Puma Knife Company USA has thrown in the imagination lacking in the German Puma motherhouse founded in 1769, for us real life consumers of today and has given us back frontiers to roam with an affordable everyday use knife.
For us the Puma SGB Buffalo Hunter was introduced in 2014.
Pumas 1956 East African Hunter Association "White Hunter" design is undeniably the basis for the new Buffalo Hunter model inspired by Bob Carpenter of Puma Knives USA. A clear heritage line is apparent, if you compare the two knifes side by side. So with the Buffalo Hunter, you're still getting a knife with a history going back to the 1950s East Africa and the good old British butchers knife. Can’t get more colonial than that.
The fixed 5.7in / 145mm blade with 0.15in / 3.8mm thickness has a total length of 10in / 254mm and comes in at 7.7oz / 219g.
The grip scales come in either expensive stag (Item No. 6817200S), white smooth bone (Item No. 6817200T), brown jigged bone (Item No. 6817200B), medium price but very attractive micarta (Item No. 6817200M), standard but elegant wood (Item No. 6817200W), POM Commando Stag (Item No. 6817200CS) or classic Stacked Leather Wrapped (Item No. 6817200LTR).
The Buffalo Hunter really looks as tough as it is and if you are looking for a knife that delivers legendary German blade performance, look no further.
PUMA SGB knives are made with Solingen, German sourced steel blades which are assembled into knives in Asia. Each blade is Rockwell tested to ensure hardness between 55 and 57 and bears the dot of a Rockwell proof mark.
The satin finished full tang blade is made of 4mm 440A / DIN 1.4116 German Cutlery Stainless Steel that is easy to maintain in the field and will retain an edge between sharpens with Rockwell Hardness: 55-57.
DIN 1.4116 : Approximate Composition – 15% Cr, 0.7% Mo, 0.15% V, 0.50% C (EN composition range. No ASTM equivalent). X50CrMoV15 uses the moderately high carbon content of 0.50% to develop a high hardness martensitic microstructure. The higher chromium plus small molybdenum addition gives a greater corrosion resistance than standard martensitic grades. Vanadium allows higher tempering temperatures to be used and gives greater toughness. (Swiss Army Knifes use DIN 1.4110)
All Puma SGB Stag and Bone handled knives come with top grain leather sheaths that are 100 percent vegetable tanned and feature a rich, durable brown aniline finish that lets the full beauty of the leather show through. The micarta and wood handled knives come with a ballistic nylon sheath, that is functional but not really popular.
The noble Puma Germany White Hunter sheath (Item Number: 996375, EUR 34.- on the German Puma site) fit's the Buffalo Hunter perfectly and makes for the propper set up, choose that over the standard Puma USA Buffalo Hunter leather sheath (Item No. 6991396 at $19.99) if you can.
Buffalo Hunter versions and introduction prices so far are:
The Buffalo Hunter Stag US$ 99.99
The Buffalo Hunter White Smooth Bone 79.99
The Buffalo Hunter Brown Jigged Bone 69.95
The Buffalo Hunter Micarta US$ 39.99
The Buffalo Hunter Wood US$ 34.99
Puma SGB Buffalo Hunter POM Commando Stag US$ 79.99
Puma SGB Buffalo Hunter Stacked Leather Wrapped US$ 74.99
There’s nothing about it, you get a great knife for your money here.
The true working shape of the blade, reminiscent of the White Hunter, is the eye catcher that sells the Buffalo Hunter. The German quality blade the added bonus you decide on.
The price is what makes this light to medium duty utility knife a modern classic, you won’t be afraid to use it on the nasty stuff. Are there better more expensive knives? Yes. You gonna use them or look at them?
People going on about assembly in China, blade not being polished or brass rivets not being flush with the grip... Reality check! The same knife would have been top of the range only some decades back, before we all got spoilt with sterile perfect laser cut and measured products. Here you’re getting a traditional hand assembled product with personal character. If it wants some personalization touches, all the better.
The Buffalo Hunter is a chunky knife for all kinds of chores where a heavy knife is needed. The factory edge as delivered is a little weak, but with a few passes on the diamond stick it attains a razor sharp edge. The hardness of the steel allows it to maintain that edge with occasional steeling. The Buffalo Hunter makes a wicked combat knife if the need should present itself. The extra mass toward the tip makes it a formidable slashing weapon.
The blade is not polished to Puma Germany White Hunter standard, but that has no functional implications,
just esthetics.
Getting a proletarian everyday use Buffalo Hunter after all here, not a showcase dust catcher.
So far the more expensive stag handles have had a less glowing buyer feedback, compared to the micarta and wood versions, most stag grip buyers stating they should have got the wood handle at halve price for everyday work with the knife.
The heirloom quality Buffalo Hunter is definitely catching many peoples imagination with its quality for price factor. So much so that its listing was removed from the German Puma Website, as it’s effecting "White Hunter' sales.
The globalized money crazed establishment has tricked itself with a German-Chinese cooperation that has suddenly created a manufacturing time-machine taking us back to affordable quality big knifes of everyday use design with prices long gone bye.
Make use of this miscalculation as long as you can. Once they notice they have a winner at outstanding value, prices will go up…maybe to money grabbing white hunter levels.
Follow your instincts on this one.
Summing the Buffalo Hunter up is easy: Solid, Rugged, Formidable – A great knife for your Money.
Even if there’s no North American, Water-, River- or Swamp Buffalo near you, this is still a great knife to call your own and have as a backup in your house.
There we are, you’re grown up and your dream buffalo hunter knife from your childhood cowboy days on a stick horse has been produced…try not to cut yourself!!
The Buffalo Hunter Appreciation Society
When I saw the Buffalo Hunter it was clear immediately my hand was going to my pocket for one. It’s one of those rare items these days that speaks to you with its shape, quality and affordability, begging you to pick it up.
In my historic-romantic imagination, this is the type of knife you would have gotten in a frontier drugstore on one of those rare times you re-entered expanding civilization from your scout out in the endless plains with the giant million head buffalo herd shaking the ground with its hooves, or the knife you would nonchalantly throw in your suitcase before getting on a Lockheed Super Constellation with Sophia Loren in the next seat, slurping cocktails on the way to Ongo-Bongo for a 1950s African adventure…no doubt the Buffalo Hunter would come to Sophia’s aid a few times during any adventure…chopping snakes, Lions…her bra in a quiet moment in the white expedition tent…
If you have a Buffalo Hunter everything’s possible, no matter how miserly globalization gets around you.
It catches the imagination!
Misquoting Simon Templar, the Saints, subtitle
Buffalo Hunter – international knife of mystery
To celebrate the birth of this affordable out of the box iconic knife for us everyday users, the
“The Buffalo Hunter Association" for the Puma SGB Buffalo Hunter Knife has been established under the Globe & Knife™ logo for owners, enthusiasts and free thinkers that appreciate the retro spirit of adventure, international mystery and suspense of the Puma SGB Buffalo Hunter .
It would be fun to post over time stories that star the Buffalo Hunter.
Anyone becoming a member or contributing can choose from either
- a honorary/titular Colonelcy in the Buffalo Hunter Society (also covering the lewd Confederate Bikini Society)
or
- the official society sanctioned usage of the word “Buffalo” in his name (as in “Buffalo Bill”)
or
-the official society sanctioned usage of the word “Congo” in his name (as in “Congo Mike”)
Celebrate the pragmatic Puma Buffalo Hunter Knife and its rugged universal cult with us.
The ideal companions: The Ruger GSR Scout Rifle and the Puma Buffalo Hunter
