Posted: April 30, 2020 10:47 AM
by Derek Deis
COPYRIGHT 2020 BY KXLY
POST FALLS, Idaho – It may be the biggest name in knives. But even with a near 120 year history in manufacturing, Buck Knives still had to ask the federal government for help during the coronavirus shutdown from the Paycheck Protection Program.
“We’ve already received money that we will now use for our payroll for the next two or two and a half months,” said CEO C.J. Buck. “So that’s just a godsend.”
A lot of jobs require knives, so Buck Knives is considered an essential provider. And it’s doing everything it can to keep its more than 300 employees safe.“Everybody’s wearing face masks in the shop. We’ve done a lot of split shifts, where we’ve allowed like day and night shift, where we’ve taken the day shift and split it in half,” said Buck.
But despite business being way down, Buck Knives is still doing what it can to help the community. It decided to use its 3D printer to make plastic face shields for workers on the front lines of the pandemic. “It’s meant to be used with the face mask and then you have the plastic, kind of the splash guard over the top of that,” Buck explained. “So the combination of the two would keep our front line folks safer.”
And it’s already made deliveries to local healthcare workers.
“We did Kootenai Medical Center and we did the Life Care Center in Post Falls is where we have been donating.” Buck Knives is proud to have a small role in helping out and it can’t wait until the whole community is back on its feet.
“We’re building inventory, we’re preparing. So I’m ready,” laughed Buck. “I’m ready for this country to get back up and running.”