This embargo would go on until , when the Nixon administration began laying the groundwork to lift the ban on US-China trade. In the following years, the two countries signed agreements to improve trade. While, yes, workers in China have historically been paid a lot less and work a lot more, China has an infrastructure that allows for the manufacturing of more goods at large quantities. Prior to the s, pretty much all knives marketed in the United States were made in the United States or Europe. But the shift toward knives manufactured in China and other countries in Asia was slow but steady.

TWO metallurgists at Stanford University, seeking to produce a ''superplastic'' metal, appear to have stumbled on the secret of Damascus steel, the legendary material used by numerous warriors of the past, including the Crusaders. Its formula had been lost for generations. Analyses of steel by Jeffrey Wadsworth and Oleg D. Sherby, in their search for a highly plastic form, revealed properties almost identical to those they then found in Damascus steel, though their own plastic steel had been produced through contemporary methods. The remarkable characteristics of Damascus steel became known to Europe when the Crusaders reached the Middle East, beginning in the 11th century. They discovered that swords of this metal could split a feather in midair, yet retain their edge through many a battle with the Saracens. The swords were easily recognized by a characteristic watery or ''damask'' pattern on their blades.

The company has a long history through five generations of the Buck family from to the present day. Buck Knives primarily manufactures sport and field knives and is credited with inventing the "folding hunting knife " and popularizing it to such a degree that the term "buck knife" has become synonymous with folding lockback knives, including those made by other manufacturers. Hoyt H. Buck became a blacksmith 's apprentice in Kansas in at the age of

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