diff --git a/lib/buffer.js b/lib/buffer.js
index d398859748..4f7699e638 100644
--- a/lib/buffer.js
+++ b/lib/buffer.js
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ function toHex (n) {
   return n.toString(16);
 }
 
-Buffer.prototype.toString = function () {
+Buffer.prototype.inspect = function () {
   var s = "<Buffer ";
   for (var i = 0; i < this.length; i++) {
     s += toHex(this[i]);
@@ -17,8 +17,20 @@ Buffer.prototype.toString = function () {
   return s;
 };
 
-Buffer.prototype.toJSON = function () {
-  return this.utf8Slice(0, this.length);
+Buffer.prototype.toString = function (encoding, start, stop) {
+  encoding = encoding || 'utf8';
+  if (!start) start = 0;
+  if (!stop) stop = this.length;
+
+  if (encoding == 'utf8') {
+    return this.utf8Slice(start, stop);
+  } else if (encoding == 'ascii') {
+    return this.asciiSlice(start, stop);
+  } else if (encoding == 'binary') {
+    return this.binarySlice(start, stop);
+  } else {
+    throw new Error('Unknown encoding');
+  }
 };