Proof Of Busse (and Kin) Superiority

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Apr 25, 2010
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Here's a review done long ago with the Battle Mistress:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080618001602/www.cutleryscience.com/reviews/busse_bm.html

An amazing review of an SRKW blade:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080602075849/www.cutleryscience.com/reviews/howling_rat.html

Note that the car door hinges were cut with the knife!

From Bad Mojo.com:

STORY OF INFI

This is from August 6, 1998: an email Jerry wrote, talking about his new steel.......

Interesting facts about INFI:

Although the hardened INFI knives are 60 - 62 Rc we have yet been able to chip an edge. The edge can be dented or disalligned but its high level of malleability at such high hardness has never been duplicated by any other steel that we are aware of or have tested. We have bent INFI 35 degrees in a vise and it springs back to true. Why? What is the benefit to the customer? Not only does this test demonstrate the enormous toughness and lateral strength of an INFI blade but because our hardness is homogenous and not differential it demonstrates the amount of lateral strength and "spring" that the edge has as well. Many knives, which are differentially tempered, are done so because the steel being used does not possess great levels of inherent lateral strength at high hardness. In other words, if the entire knife were left at the same hardness as the edge the knife would be brittle in comparison to the same knife when differentially tempered. Carrying this thought even further, it tells us that if the knife is brittle or possesses low levels of lateral strength at high hardness then the edge must possess these same characteristics even when differentially treated because the edge is at the higher and more brittle hardness. The other question that arises is which hardness will the point be at on a differentially treated blade? There are only two choices; it is either the high brittle hardness, like the edge, or the softer spring temper, like the spine. Neither one offers optimal performance for the tip of the knife, which is often the most, used portion of the blade. INFI does not suffer from this malady because it is the only knife steel ever tested that has achieved such high levels of lateral strength with a homogenous hardness of 60 Ð 62 Rc. No other steel has even neared this performance level.

INFI's high level of chip resistance makes this the easiest steel to resharpen by hand that I have ever encountered. I personally fall into the category of the "hand sharpening challenged". I've heard tales of those who can sharpen ball peen hammers to a razor's edge on an Arkansas stone in less than 5 seconds flat. My experiences have always been to the contrary. The spine of the knife is usually sharper than the edge when I'm finished applying my magic stone sharpening technique. One of the great beauties of INFI is that simply stropping away from the edge (the way a barber strops a straight-edged razor) on a ceramic stick is basically all that is required for INFI. Since you're not chipping steel off the edge there is no need to grind any steel away. This feature of INFI will, likewise, allow you to keep the same overall profile of the knife for a much greater period of time. Cool, huh?

Stainless? Not supposed to be. However, INFI has demonstrated very high levels of stain resistance in many different climates. Uncoated blades have been tested for more than a year in Alaska and have made their way into the wilds of British Columbia, the High Sierras and the tropical rainforest. No rust in Alaska or British Columbia! No rust in the High Sierras, even when exposed to great quantities of blood and left in the wet grass overnight. The tropical rain forest, which has been known to rust plastic (just kidding), did offer the toughest of the environmental exposures and a light speckling of oxidation did occur but was easily removed in the field with a hand rubbing of sand and water. No pitting was reported. Now I'm sure that salt-water exposure would offer some different results. The point is that although INFI is not a stainless it is certainly not a rust-aggressive steel as many of the high carbon steels have proven to be. Couple this with our coating and you've got yourself a fairly maintenance-free knife.

How does it compare to other steels? Simple question, complex answer. INFI represents what I have always dreamed of in a knife steel. Tougher, by an enormous margin, than any other steel I've ever tested. Unparalleled edge holding under high impact and in cutting tests. Shock resistance that begs you to "bring it on". An ease of resharpening that you have to see to believe. Higher levels of lateral strength at high hardness than have ever been achieved by any other steel. We have published our test results and our testing methodology. We have videotaped all of these tests and play the video at the knife shows we attend. We encourage all knifemakers to duplicate our tests. We also encourage other knifemakers to supply us with their testing criteria and videotape of their test results so that we might perform the same tests on our INFI blades. We love testing knives! We destroy more knives in a year than most custom knifemakers manufacture in the same period of time. The only competitor's performance results that we will publish will be those that have been supplied to the public or to us privately by other makers. We will only publish the name of our competition if they give us permission to do so. If you want to know how another maker's knife will compare to a Busse Combat knife ask the other maker to duplicate our tests. We will gladly duplicate their tests.

Will you notice the difference between our knives and our competitions? I don't know. Most consumers will never take a knife to its limit. Many of the high-performance knives on the market surpass the abilities of human abuse and cannot be taken past those limits without the assistance of leverage devices and insane behavior. There are some out there, however, who have some real issues, whose primal urges cause them to run screaming through the forests. Who seek therapy in the wilderness and only find some resolve after cleaving down a patch of trees (dead ones of course) large enough to constitute a small rainforest. For those of you who can relate to this sort of behavior and think it beats the heck out of golfing, then we make the knife you've been looking for. If you're the type of person who wants more horsepower than you'll ever be able to use, then here we are waiting for you with a knife and a guarantee,

Are we the only knife you should ever buy? I hope not. There are an enormous number of fine knives and knifemakers in the marketplace. We salute those companies who strive for performance and not cosmetics. Some achieve both. The overall performance of knives has greatly increased over the past 15 years. Some companies and makers achieve better performance through better design, some through better construction, and some through the use of better materials. Some have achieved one or two and, rarely, some have achieved all three. I believe that Busse Combat has achieved all three and we are not the only ones. On the other hand, there are many designs that confuse me, many choices of materials used that seem like a waste, and construction choices from handle construction to blade grind that seem to have been based solely on the cost of manufacture. However, if there is one thing I've learned, it is that the more I learn the more I realize I don't know. Are there absolutes in design, construction, and material choice? You better believe I think so, but these are only based on my personal experiences and therefore are nothing more than opinion. I learned through too many years of graduate school and academic study that even though my opinions are supported heavily by facts they are still nothing more than opinions. I believe that knife manufacturers who strive for performance should keep an open mind.

Are we excited about INFI? Oh yeah! In fact, it is difficult to contain ourselves. We have invested a lot of time and money in this project. We were prepared to invest more until we got it right. Luckily, more than ten years and countless bucks later we hit the jackpot! Lucky us, lucky you. With a steel like INFI, it's easy to understand why we offer the toughest guarantee in the business. We guarantee against any and all major damage, including the handles, including accidental damage forever. We highly encourage gross abuse as it is covered by OUR warranty. The only thing we do not cover is intentional damage. For example, let's say you cut your Busse Combat knife in half with an acetylene torch. We probably wouldn't cover that . . . unless it was accidental, in which case we would send you a new knife. I have rambled for too long here. Thanks for bearing with me and stay tuned to our website for more info in the future on INFI."

Your friend,
Jerry Busse"


*This is a work in progress*
 
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*This is a work in progress*

Busse knife splitting a Bullet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOyyBEjp1tY&feature=related



More info:

Another good read:

from: http://web.archive.org/web/20080517094436/www.cutleryscience.com/reviews/bm_e.html

"Edge durability : user request
The blade was used to for multiple chopping sessions on fresh fir, pine and spruce as well as seasoned drift wood, and various scrap lumber. Knots were cut through frequently during the chopping. The edge was fully sharpened before each session, using waterstones and a CrO loaded strop, to enable the detection of even minor rolling. No damage was induced on the edge during any of the chopping.

The blade was chopped into several sizes of nails resting on a 4x4 pressure treated block. The nails would be driven into the wood from the force of the impacts and cuts made up to about one quarter of the way through a 3.5" common nail, the edge was just blunted from the impacts. A 510 g ball pein hammer was used to enable the knife to chisel cut some 3.5" common nails. As the wood kept collapsing under the nails, the best that could be achieved was a cut about half way through. These various half dozen poundings put small dents in the edge, from one to two mm wide, the damaged region was up to 0.015" thick.

A larger and harder wood block was used to enable get more power on the swings. The cuts were deeper and the damage induced was more bending, but less extensive than the hammer assisted cuts. Some nail chopping was then performed on concrete which didn't give and thus allowed deeper cuts, penetration up to half way through the 3.5" nail. A 4.5 lbs beach rock was then used to pound the knife through the nails. The larger nails took one to two hits to be cut. The edge damage from this was less than the hammer pounding, and the concrete tended to just mash the edge down a little in the impact areas, just blunting.

The blade was then chopped into the head of the hammer. The knife made large cuts into the head, about one millimeter deep, and up to one centimeter long. This did no visible damage to the knife, just blunted it. A piece of a concrete block was then whacked that into bits, the hits were heavy enough to break the concrete apart and produce sparks. The rock contacts mashed the edge down, and produced abrasion lines in the edge. A lot of impaction had taken place, but no direct fracturing. The tip was then stabbed into the pieces a half a dozen times, breaking them. Some tip impaction, nothing significant, less than half a millimeter.

The beach rock was then chopped into a half a dozen times, hitting it hard enough to send it flying feet across the floor and producing visible sparks. This induced more impaction than the concrete, the edge was impacted up to 0.035" across, the blade thickness was a little less than this behind the impacted region, about 0.025"-0.030". Again no fracture, the squashed steel was clearly visible. The blade was then stabbing into the rock, sending sparks flying and the rock shooting across the floor again. A half a dozen stabs impacted the tip about one mm.

At arms length, the regions along the edge which had been contacted into the beach rock were visibly impacted, but overall it didn't look that heavily used. A few pictures showed no visible difference. The blade was then put in a vice at a forty five degree angle and then the edge given a few whacks with the hammer. This bent a piece of the edge enough that the ductility is exceeded and it tears off. This removed a piece of the edge about three mm long and the blade was 0.030" thick behind the damaged region. This damage was visible at arms length.

After the concrete chopping the blade still had the ability to slice cardboard, chop wood, and slice various cords in the regions of heaviest damage. Though you could tell of course it was seriously blunted. After it was whacked it into the beach rock there was no fine cutting ability left in those impact areas. It could still chop wood, but was crushing it a lot, the performance was seriously degraded. There were of course lots of sharp areas left on the blade. The time to sharpen the blade on a small belt sander (1x30"), would be a couple of minutes, just a few passes per side would eliminate 90% of the damage, sharpening by hand, would take less than half an hour."

Tyrkon, if it is ok with you, I would also like to link your site here.


More coolness:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYLKj5AyZuE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF97rcYiwxM&feature=related

Here are some Busse's splitting hairs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk0fjI4Hq4E&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rimes30xctQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U8jDYXABlA
 
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:thumbup: Micro-bevel !:thumbup:


From Bad Mojo.com:

STORY OF INFI

We have video taped all of these tests and play the video at the knife shows we attend. We encourage all knifemakers to duplicate our tests. We also encourage other knifemakers to supply us with their testing criteria and videotape of their test results so that we might perform the same tests on our INFI blades. We love testing knives! Jerry Busse"


Does anyone has this Busse video from the knife shows ?
 
you need the one with jennifer cutting free hanging rope with a b-9.:thumbup:
 
Does anyone has this Busse video from the knife shows ?[/QUOTE]

+3 :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
That stuff used to bother me, but not any more. The fewer mouths at the trough the better... OINK! :eek:

The thing is... until someone owns or uses a busse product they really cannot comprehend it's performance, and therefore its value. :thumbup: Let em talk trash. Just ask one question: Have you ever used one? :confused:

Anyway... here is a review of a Swamp Rat Ratmandu. One of the finest blades to ever come out of da' family. I've nicknamed this particular review... blood on the micarta...!!!!! :cool:



http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=731929&highlight=kdstrick

IMG_0307.jpg


http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=731929&highlight=kdstrick
 
I seldom do anything with my knives that would break them. I don't baby them, though. I really don't do anything hard core enough that I actually need INFI. But I want it! Every real knife lover appreciates the best. And from what I have seen, that's a Busse.
 
Micro-Bevel, you're right.

This thread needs to be sticky.

Let the clouds part, the sun shine, and the Busse reviews and videos flow in! :D
 
I'm gonna post a bunch of info I have in Word document I've complied over the years entitled "INFI Facts." You may have posted some of this info already, so feel free to let me know and I can edit some parts out. I would definitely have a section here on the heat treat of Busse knives. For those "in the know," they know heat treat counts more then steel composition, within limits of course. Few people put more time and energy into their heat treat than Busse knives. Their 3-day process is part of the reason the steel performs as well as it does. Not everyone is employing cryogenics, which makes a difference. Another reason to own Busse knives is the fun and community. If you're into knives, why not enjoy some good company and some fun in the process?

INFI FACTS


INFI has: 0.5% carbon, 8.5% Chromium, 0.74% nickel, 0.36% vanadium 1.3% molybdenum 0.95% cobalt and 0.11% nitrogen.

Heat treated at 950 degrees, the temper is not affected at temperatures below 1050 degrees, whereas most high carbon steels will lose temper at 500-800 degrees.

“As for INFI and temperature extremes, it is amazing. INFI is tempered at nearly 950 degrees. It does not begin to lose any significant hardness until it is held above 1050 degrees for a considerable amount of time. I have to believe that it would need to be extremely mishandled in order to do any noticeable damage.

Most of the simpler high carbon steels (of which INFI is NOT a member) can be drawn down in temper in a matter of seconds if the temperature hits above 500 - 800 degrees. Along the thin edge of a knife, a buffer or dremel can produce this level of heat and can cause serious damage if not executed by a professional. Always check the grade of steel and heat-treat specs. before assassinating it with the dremel tool Uncle Leo gave you for Christmas. Always keep the steel cool to the touch and you should be fine.” –Jerry Busse


Flat of a Busse blade was shot with .357 magnum and the projectile lost

Some guy cut a KABAR in half with his SFNO

Blade flat stops a .40 caliber. Saved an LEO once

The story around here is that the complete HT cycle for INFI is 80 hours

"We do a dry, multi cycle, deep cryo treatment." –Jerry Busse

__________________________________________

Some facts and info about INFI.

Hardness
Although hardened INFI knives are 58-60 Rc we have yet been able to chip an edge. The edge can be dented or misaligned but its high level of malleability at such high hardness has never been duplicated by any other steel that we are aware of or have tested.

Flexibility
In one of our performance tests, we bend a Battle Mistress 35 degrees in a vise and it springs back to true. Why would we do this? What does it prove? What is the benefit to the customer? Not only does this test demonstrate the enormous toughness and lateral strength of an INFI blade but, because our hardness is homogenous and not differential, it demonstrates the amount of lateral strength and "spring" of INFI all the way to the edge. That means that edge of the blade will possess this same toughness. INFI is the only knife steel ever tested that has achieved such high levels of lateral strength with a homogenous hardness of 58 - 60 Rc. No other steel has even neared this performance level.

Edge Retention
Many so-called knife experts have heralded the "wear resistance" of a steel as the key to edge retention. This may very well be true if a knife is designed and intended for the cutting of soft materials ONLY. However, we have never inspected a dull knife and found the edge to be perfectly smoothed away, like a ball bearing. Instead what we find are microscopic chips where the edge has broken or chipped away like glass after having impacted against bone, gravel, or other hard surfaces. This micro chipping dictates that the edge be reground during the resharpening process, which will ultimately lead to a thicker edge and a radical change in overall blade shape. Steels with high wear resistance normally score fairly low in shock resistance, lateral strength, and overall toughness. INFI scores very high in ALL of these categories.

Sharpening
INFI's high level of chip resistance also makes it the easiest steel to resharpen by hand that we have ever encountered. I personally fall into the category of "hand sharpening challenged". I've heard tales of those who can sharpen ball peen hammers to a razor's edge on an Arkansas stone in less than 5 seconds flat. My experiences have always been to the contrary. The spine of the knife is usually sharper than the edge when I'm finished applying my magic stone sharpening technique. One of the great features of INFI is that simply stropping away from the edge (the way a barber strops a straight edged razor) on a ceramic stick is basically all that is required to resharpen INFI. Since you're not chipping steel off the edge there is no need to grind any steel away. This feature of INFI will, likewise, allow you to keep the same overall profile of the knife for a much greater period of time.

How does INFI compare to other steels?
Simple question, complex answer. INFI represents what I have always dreamed of in a knife steel. Tougher, by an enormous margin, than any other steel I've ever tested. Unparalleled edge holding under high impact and in cutting tests. Shock resistance that begs you to "bring it on". An ease of re-sharpening that you have to see to believe and higher levels of lateral strength at high hardness than have ever been achieved by any other steel. We have published our test results and our testing methodology. We have video taped all of these tests and play the video at the knife shows we attend. More importantly, we have duplicated these performance tests in "LIVE" demonstrations at many trade shows throughout the United States. We encourage all manufacturers to put their products through our tests and to publish their results. If you want to know how another maker's knife will compare to a Busse Combat knife, ask the other maker to duplicate our tests in a "live" demo.

Is INFI stainless?
Not supposed to be. However, INFI has demonstrated very high levels of stain resistance in many different climates. Uncoated blades have been tested for years in Alaska and have made their way into the wilds of British Columbia, the High Sierras and tropical rain forests. No rust in Alaska or British Columbia! No rust in the High Sierras, even when exposed to great quantities of blood and left in the wet grass overnight. The tropical rain forest, which has been known to rust plastic (just kidding), did offer the toughest of the environmental exposures and a light speckling of surface oxidation did occur but was easily removed in the field with a hand rubbing of sand and water. No deep pitting was reported. When compared to other cutlery steels in salt spray tests, INFI faired better than ATS-34 and D-2. Although all three grades exhibited surface oxidation, the INFI was not deeply pitted as was common in these other two grades. So, although INFI is not technically a stainless steel, it is certainly not a rust aggressive steel. Couple this with a minimal amount of care and you've got a fairly maintenance free knife. –BusseCombat.com

Jerry Busse on his heat treat process:

"Busse has been doing cryo since the early 1980's. Back then it was a very primitive process involving an old cooler, dry ice and about a gallon of acetone. Process: pack the blades in dry ice, pour the acetone over the ice to speed the evaporation process, and hit somewhere around the -190 degree mark. Do a normalizing temper (approx. 350 - 450) and voila! Prehistoric Cryo!

In the late eighties we began the employment of a deep cryo treatment (-300/320 degrees) which was done in a dry, controlled, atmosphere. This process allows us to take our blades down to temp. over the course of 10 hours hold them at temp. (-300 degrees) for approx 50 hours, and then bring them back up to room temp. over the course of the next 10 hours at which point they receive 3 more, individualized, oven tempers. This is the same process that we employ to this day.

Some makers are out there just plunging their blades into liquid nitrogen which can shock the steel so dramatically that microscopic cracks and fissures can form that could cause massive blade failure in the field under heavy and/or light use. That is why it is crucial that the blades be cooled slowly and brought back to room temperature slowly and then normalized with a few oven tempers for stress relief.

Of course there are also some makers that I know of who claim to employ cryogenics because they stick their knives in the freezer over night. Scary! Alway ask the maker to give as much detail of his cryo process as possible.

Knowledge is power! Arm yourself!

Yours in Nuclear Cryogenics,"

--Jerry Busse


Oh, hi, Brian!
i resemble those remarks!
Looks like the guys already posted the links i was thinking of;
My favorite - today anyway - is:
Intermolecular Nitride, Finely Intermingled
Since INFI has as its dynamic ingredient: Nitrogen, in the form of Nitrides, for hardness, toughness, wear resistance, & a special bonding that occurs between the other elements as INFI is formed, making their unique properties enhanced at optimum performance...
the cryogenic heat treat at over 68 hours getting to -312^ F has something to do with it, too! i do not know of ANY other knife-maker that performs this kind of stringent treating upon each blade they make & sell; others may use some form of cryo~ but it isn't for as long, nor as gradual of a "pull-down" time
(10 hours to GET to -312; then 48 hours DURING that temp~; then 10 hours back OUT from that temp; Whew!) Now THAT IS CHILLIN' MAN....! Takes the stress risers right outta there...
it be "Cool Steel" Chillin' cool.
Ain't no wannabe Camillus-knife resell company here, outta Ventura, with that similiar namesake... Nosirree B...
i have here on my desk a wonderful Neil Blackwood custom knife, made in CPM S30V "SuperSteel" Neil cryo'd it overnight, then triple tempered; i trust it to do many things other knives won't do: but it still ain't INFI-cryo'd!!! i wouldn't pry with it like i would my all-INFI Satin Jack.
 
Great stuff guys. Balislinger had some gems.

I can add that I chopped through a rusty old chain with my ASH1, actually - I beat the shit out of it, maybe 20 swings in all, and I managed to tear a small piece out of the edge in addition to denting it up some. Photos and a great response by Jerry can be seen here.

This is just one crazy and fun example, however unlikely in everyday use. Nevertheless, it's the best steel, knives, warranty, and people I've ever encountered - and I've earned my confidence by first hand experience over the years now. Superiority indeed.
 
Busse prices, from the old site (OVER 86% OF BUSSE CUSTOMERS ARE REPEAT CUSTOMERS!):

"Busse knives seem somewhat expensive, can you explain this?
"We are certain that the high price of INFI, the extensive heat treating, and never cutting corners or compromising on performance is more than worth the price. Over 86% of our customers own more than one Busse Combat. Over 66% own three or more. We stand alone in the industry in not only making performance claims but backing them up with numerous live demonstrations and a lifetime guarantee that will not be rivaled. When you finally get into the field with your Busse Combat blade and all hell breaks loose, you can rest assured that your Busse knife will never fail you. Unsubstantiated hype has yet to save anyone's life in the field. Our knives do so on a daily basis. Most people will never need the extreme performance capabilities of a Busse Combat knife, in which case there are plenty of good knives to be found. But, if you're one of the rare breed of individuals whose knife could someday be called upon to save your life or the lives of others, and you live in a world where compromise almost always means certain failure, then there is no other choice. Busse Combat knives are the only choice." Jerry Busse"


PS: Down town DM, that was one of the threads I was looking for, but could never find! Thanks, man!
 
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Busse COmbat PERFORMANCE VIDEOS (well, kind of):

http://web.archive.org/web/20020204121328/bussecombat.com/videos.html

The site is old, and the videos removed, but you can see what was done in the videos before they were removed, namely,:

1- Blade driven through 3/8" steel, no damage

2- Handle supports over 32,000 pounds AND RETURNS TO TRUE

3- Blade flexes 70 degrees without breaking

4- Cuts through 10 pieces of hemp rope (*TO me, it looks like 1 inch pieces!*)

5- Chops through 15 2x4's and still shaves

6- Cuts 1,254 pices of hemp rope and still shaves

7- Blade flexes 27 degrees and returns to true

There is also another video called "Enormous tip strength"- who knows what that could have been???

AND

In my opinion, judging by the first video "Busse Combat Basics Introduction Highlights", all of the above was done with a Basic, which uses a lower grade M-INFI than does all the newer models, which use full blown INFI- if I am correct, this means that the new INFI models have even better performance that in these vids!!!
 
Well.. As to prices.. some are high.. some are low..

I just paid $200 for a Sar3, which isn't cheap.. but its certainly not off the reservation compared to other companies..

I have to be honest and say that the fact that its made from infi means quite little to me.. if a knife is rated from 1 - 10 and users are rated 1 - 5 then a blade of 6 is always good enough..

I buy busse for the designs. The Sar 3, Sar 8, Sus- Scrofa.. These are timeless designs.. I dont go for the Busses that shrug off cutting potential for concrete bashing.. i dont bash concrete... but the sar* and scrofa are as good a cutters as any blades of similar spec..

What you really have to ask yourself is... Would you still buy Busse if INFI had to go? I think most of you would.. because its the designs that appeal..the actual knives.. the "INFI" is just a bit extra.

Looking forward to my sar3...
 
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