Jerry Busse
Moderator
- Joined
- Aug 20, 1999
- Messages
- 11,714
SR-101 has left the building!
We must, for the foreseeable future, bid farewell to SR-101, the legendary steel used by all four of the Busse Kin knife lines over the past 20 years.
SR-101 requires a very advanced oil-hardening heat-treat protocol. This protocol includes a very specialized quench, coupled with a tempering protocol and deep cryogenic treatment. All of these processes were made possible by the use of custom-made furnaces and several other pieces of custom-made equipment designed specifically for the heat-treatment of SR-101 steel. The original manufacturer of this equipment, like so many others, did not survive the pandemic economy and parts and service are no longer available. As of now, key components of this protocol are no longer operable and/or repairable.
We are now left with only one small furnace that was designed for single, one-at-a-time, SR-101 knives or swords. This small furnace that has been used for one-off prototypes throughout the years. Many of you have observed the slow output of the OMG-15 Gladius, which was offered prior to the demise of our high-capacity hardening and tempering furnaces. These OMG-15s have cost us dearly in both time and money. Those of you who scored an OMG-15 have scored a blade that was sold well below our cost of manufacture! I congratulate you and ask that you pass the bottle of scotch to me immediately!!!!!
We have sent test batch SR-101 blades to several outside sources in the hope of keeping this great steel alive. Unfortunately, the results have been less than stellar and "less than stellar" just isn't our game. These blades have been destroyed and are buried in the back-forty!
So, onward, and upward my friends! Luckily, for years, we have been testing multiple heat-treat protocols on many different air-hardening grades of steel. These air-hardening grades, combined with our optimized heat-treat and tempering protocols, will easily maintain Busse Knife Group’s spot in the industry as the world leader in Extreme Performance Knives.
So, to those who have scored any of the tens of thousands of SR-101 blades over the past 20 years I congratulate you. And to those who wish to score the remainder of the SR-101 blades that were already in process before our equipment checked out, I know you will embrace the soon-to-be rarity of these high-performance blades.
Tonight, we salute you, SR-101, for your many years of extreme performance blades and we drink in your honor!
There will be a "One Last Hurrah" offer starting this Sunday night 10-16-2022 at 9:00 PM Eastern
There are a number of Swamp Rat models in SR-101 that are still in process but are a long way from being finished.
There are NO new Scrap Yard models in process in SR-101.
Let's Drink!
Jerry
We must, for the foreseeable future, bid farewell to SR-101, the legendary steel used by all four of the Busse Kin knife lines over the past 20 years.
SR-101 requires a very advanced oil-hardening heat-treat protocol. This protocol includes a very specialized quench, coupled with a tempering protocol and deep cryogenic treatment. All of these processes were made possible by the use of custom-made furnaces and several other pieces of custom-made equipment designed specifically for the heat-treatment of SR-101 steel. The original manufacturer of this equipment, like so many others, did not survive the pandemic economy and parts and service are no longer available. As of now, key components of this protocol are no longer operable and/or repairable.
We are now left with only one small furnace that was designed for single, one-at-a-time, SR-101 knives or swords. This small furnace that has been used for one-off prototypes throughout the years. Many of you have observed the slow output of the OMG-15 Gladius, which was offered prior to the demise of our high-capacity hardening and tempering furnaces. These OMG-15s have cost us dearly in both time and money. Those of you who scored an OMG-15 have scored a blade that was sold well below our cost of manufacture! I congratulate you and ask that you pass the bottle of scotch to me immediately!!!!!
We have sent test batch SR-101 blades to several outside sources in the hope of keeping this great steel alive. Unfortunately, the results have been less than stellar and "less than stellar" just isn't our game. These blades have been destroyed and are buried in the back-forty!
So, onward, and upward my friends! Luckily, for years, we have been testing multiple heat-treat protocols on many different air-hardening grades of steel. These air-hardening grades, combined with our optimized heat-treat and tempering protocols, will easily maintain Busse Knife Group’s spot in the industry as the world leader in Extreme Performance Knives.
So, to those who have scored any of the tens of thousands of SR-101 blades over the past 20 years I congratulate you. And to those who wish to score the remainder of the SR-101 blades that were already in process before our equipment checked out, I know you will embrace the soon-to-be rarity of these high-performance blades.
Tonight, we salute you, SR-101, for your many years of extreme performance blades and we drink in your honor!
There will be a "One Last Hurrah" offer starting this Sunday night 10-16-2022 at 9:00 PM Eastern
There are a number of Swamp Rat models in SR-101 that are still in process but are a long way from being finished.
There are NO new Scrap Yard models in process in SR-101.
Let's Drink!
Jerry