Is the Crabshack taking Busse Combat to another level?

It may instill 43% more fear in the heart of your enemy making the cutting/stabbing (it is a dagger after all) completely unnecessary. :p:D



Lmao....Exactly!!! Don’t get me wrong, they look great imho. But, to the OP, are custom handles on factory satin blades really taking CS work to the next level? Not in my humble opinion.

What I would consider “next level” when it comes to the crab shack would be: open it back up to commissioned work and allow me to pay through the nose for some real one of custom blades! Like a FFG no fuller TGLB, a longer FFG satin ASH2, and a one of Dragons Fang variant, just to name a few! :eek::D:thumbsup::thumbsup:

And yeh like UNRL Ghandi UNRL Ghandi said, let me choose the handle options! That way you don’t have to buy and sell a couple dozen to get the ones you want! ;)

Those are my opinions, not yours, ymmv! :)
 
Very nice my friend! But does it cut things $200 better lol? Or 43% better by the math? ;):thumbsup::thumbsup:

Trick question, neither of them cut anything, so they're both worthless as knives. ;)

There are a pile of people about to pay a 38.9% premium to get their Alpha Dog 6 in satin over the CG. Is the satin option overvalued? o_O

I do agree with you 100% that a satin ASH2 would be sick. Better yet, give me a Short Butaniku with three finger grooves at the top and some Crab Shack handles. Oh lordy I'd be in money wasting heaven spending money on that useless thing!
 
Wait, you gonna tell me this
View attachment 1123326

ain't worth $200 more than this? :eek:
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Quick someone call a doctor, our friend has the Swine Flu! :D

Base CF w/ micarta was $467.
Nuked V8 was $667.
Yeah I don't see the $200 difference....The Micarta base for the wood is free on base models and the wood and epoxy and solid pins don't add up to the extra cost. I figure if they charge $60-80 more for machined G-10 that should be the up charge plus a little for the hand finishing wood. If the Fuller and CBT were HAND satin polished to remove machining marks I could justify the added cost...Blade Grinding and Satin finish work is much more labor intensive handle shaping is a breeze.
 
Yeah I don't see the $200 difference....The Micarta base for the wood is free on base models and the wood and epoxy and solid pins don't add up to the extra cost. I figure if they charge $60-80 more for machined G-10 that should be the up charge plus a little for the hand finishing wood. If the Fuller and CBT were HAND satin polished to remove machining marks I could justify the added cost...Blade Grinding and Satin finish work is much more labor intensive handle shaping is a breeze.
Different strokes. I'm more of a micarta guy but I do see the beauty in those Crab Shack creations, I just can't justify spending that kind of coin on a blade that won't get used. I've got a couple of smaller ones - HOG Badger and Wiskey Warden but the Wiskey Warden will get EDC'd sometimes and the HOG Badger will be my "fancy" hunting knife for when my rich clients take me hunting. That is of course once @cpirtle gets around to making me some sheaths. :p:D
 
To the original question of this thread, in a word, I would have to say No.

I'm not saying that Busse does not have some very nice blades coming out of the crab shack today in their ganzas, but they have been producing knives like that for a great many years. Your question is if it's a new level of custom, artisan knife production, but I would, unfortunately, have to say it is the opposite. Years ago you could order an actual "custom" knife from Busse. That means having custom options done to the blade and having a custom handle of your choosing, with or without liners, etc. The crab shack handles of today are certainly nice, but you need to pick a combination of their choosing with blade modifications of their choosing.

I don't mean to be negative about this, I still love Busse knives. That being said, there is a great deal of truly custom makers on IG and FB now. Many of them now have their books closed or have very long wait times, but truly custom is possible. I am not a big fan of social media so I use fake names on IG and FB, but the good thing about those platforms is that quite a few of the custom makers are quite active and interactive with the community (including going to knife shows), much like this forum was years ago when it was very active.
 
Yeah I don't see the $200 difference....The Micarta base for the wood is free on base models and the wood and epoxy and solid pins don't add up to the extra cost. I figure if they charge $60-80 more for machined G-10 that should be the up charge plus a little for the hand finishing wood. If the Fuller and CBT were HAND satin polished to remove machining marks I could justify the added cost...Blade Grinding and Satin finish work is much more labor intensive handle shaping is a breeze.

Oh no, the Swine Flu must be transmitted digitally. Quick if you're reading this hand sanitize your eyes immediately! :)

Obviously value is personal with a lot of different variables so no matter how right I am to me I will be wrong to you and vice versa. :D

I will say that the Nuke V8 blade is MUCH nicer than the CF (just like the difference between the V14s). Hands down a much, much nicer finish. Not satin by any means but certainly more time and energy went into the finishes on the Nukes. I did some research on Texas Knifemaker's Supply in regards to the handles because I had no clue how much handle material actually cost and found that a 5 x 1 5/8 x 3/8" pair of stabilized maple burl bookend slabs are about $30. The fossilized mammoth teeth are $97 for a smaller slab. Red/blk G10 pair of slabs 4 x 1.5 x 1/4 were $5.95. When buying the Nuke V8 the price was set for a nicer blade finish, hand worked flats, and a custom handle Busse valued between $245-$510. The $200 upcharge for the nuke option seems fair to me in comparison to the upcharge for G10 on a standard CF blade finish.

While I've never had an issue with the price of CS blades, I do agree with zmbhntr zmbhntr that the real downside to the Crab Shack offerings today are that they aren't true customs built specific for the end customer. Both Nuked V8s I received in my order direct from Busse got sold to fund other Nuked V8s that hit the exchange (one was zmbhntr's actually) because the two I received weren't my cup of tea. Would have loved to have gotten to pick my handles and two years ago I didn't buy one of the $20k Black Friday shop credits because I couldn't pick the handle materials on the Gladius that came with the credits so that aspect is important to me.
 
Busse has occasionally offered knives with exotic handle materials for a long time. I have some Game Wardens that I bought over 10 years ago with sheep's horn and buffalo horn handles. Those were about as exotic as I was willing to go back then, but there were lots of Ganzaaa knives with stabilized wood and mammoth tooth and giraffe bone and stuff like that. I think the really unusual stuff like pine cones and milkweed pods in resin are a more recent development, though.
 
Oh no, the Swine Flu must be transmitted digitally. Quick if you're reading this hand sanitize your eyes immediately! :)

Obviously value is personal with a lot of different variables so no matter how right I am to me I will be wrong to you and vice versa. :D

I will say that the Nuke V8 blade is MUCH nicer than the CF (just like the difference between the V14s). Hands down a much, much nicer finish. Not satin by any means but certainly more time and energy went into the finishes on the Nukes. I did some research on Texas Knifemaker's Supply in regards to the handles because I had no clue how much handle material actually cost and found that a 5 x 1 5/8 x 3/8" pair of stabilized maple burl bookend slabs are about $30. The fossilized mammoth teeth are $97 for a smaller slab. Red/blk G10 pair of slabs 4 x 1.5 x 1/4 were $5.95. When buying the Nuke V8 the price was set for a nicer blade finish, hand worked flats, and a custom handle Busse valued between $245-$510. The $200 upcharge for the nuke option seems fair to me in comparison to the upcharge for G10 on a standard CF blade finish.

While I've never had an issue with the price of CS blades, I do agree with zmbhntr zmbhntr that the real downside to the Crab Shack offerings today are that they aren't true customs built specific for the end customer. Both Nuked V8s I received in my order direct from Busse got sold to fund other Nuked V8s that hit the exchange (one was zmbhntr's actually) because the two I received weren't my cup of tea. Would have loved to have gotten to pick my handles and two years ago I didn't buy one of the $20k Black Friday shop credits because I couldn't pick the handle materials on the Gladius that came with the credits so that aspect is important to me.
As a Knifemaker I have to make every effort to purchase quality materials where there is still room for profit. Knowing where to purchase to get best bang for the buck is imperative...I purchase full sheets of Micarta not precut scales I also purchase bundle lots of exotic woods...There is a catch on some woods that require stabilization so extra cost is involved...Exotics Like Mammoth Tusk can be sourced at reasonable, prices again in quantity and not from knife making supply houses. Cutting out as many middle men as you can will help the bottom line....Check out the exotic wood prices compared to Knife Supply outfit.

https://www.bellforestproducts.com/knife-handle-blanks/
 
Plenty of wild and beautiful creations out there prior to the recent "crab shack" creations. As far as the "worth" of them goes, like anything else, it is a subjective term. They are worth whatever someone is willing to pay for them. A Combat Grade SOB will do everything that my LE SOB will do....EXCEPT....match my Freedom Arms 83 pistol, so in that instance the extra cost was worth it to me. In fact when all is said and done it probably would have been cheaper to have bought a Custom Shop SOB direct that already had smoothed and polished black paper handles than buying a LE blade on the second hand market and prettying it up myself.
 
In my unsolicited opinion...

Is a Busse technically worth 4-5x an Esee? 2-3x falkniven? Mont Blanc worth 300x more than a Papermate?

All of these things are inherently dependent on what the market will bear and how much dummies like us are willing to pay.

Grand scheme we all pay, every day, WAY too much for most things, anyone here pay more than $.50 for a cup of coffee? I go to Disney and if I get thirsty enough I’ll pay $5.00 for a bottle of water, NJ tap water, water nobody in their right mind would even drink for free...

So have I paid $1500+ for a Busse? $1000+ for a pen? Yep, sure have, why? Because to me it was worth the money based on my taste and how deep my pocket was at that point in time.

That said, I’ve been collecting knives for 33 years and have had probably close to 1,000 knives come through my hands and collection, Busse easily being amongst the finest I’ve ever handled. Both the materials and craftsmanship are second to none and I can easily justify my 6 Crab Shack purchases...
 
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