Hello mate, congrats on the 3B2! Probably the best ASH design there has ever been IMO.:thumbup:
The history is that they were offered as a Military over run but IIRC and this is the usual way of these things no details are ever given as to "the unit" which placed the order.
I have a lingering memory that Jerry might have said these were done for a Spec Ops unit and he might have said they were for a Force Recon Marine unit
Memory isn't quite as good as it used to be
Anyway, these knives are great for many reasons. Firstly, the grip. The smooth black paper slabs were by far the most comfortable factory grip I had come across when I bought this. I was so impressed at the comfort on the blade in hand that I smoothed out the black paper grips on my BWM LE to replicate it.
I also gave it a modified sharpened swedge on the spine to enable this to be used with a ferro rod or to open tins etc where you want to preserve the sharpened edge of the main blade for delicate work such as skinning.
For me the knife fell between the Satin Jack and the Ash LE as a perfect balance between the two. Not as much depth to the blade as a standard ASH which helps on a military knife for penetration and being able to avoid certain bones and also giving the benefit of a lighter over-all package without losing anything in performance.
Perfect knife really for an inverted carry blade on your webbing strap or modular vest. If it had been offered with a Nark style serrated spine it would have been perfect for me from the shop.
These were pre the sharpening protocol Jerry introduced and mine needed a little tweak on the sander to take it to a razor sharp edge but once this was done the edge holding was superb. The paint job also holds up really well. Very tough.
When my reserve status with my Regiment ran out I decided I didn't really need a cammo blade and toyed with stripping it to keep or selling it. In the end I had a modified Skinny Ash which had a good ghetto satin finish and more or less did the same job.
This is my very first Busse - so I wasn't going to sell it and decided to let the 3B2 go. As they say ... No Regrets
Editted to add - I am not sure the name was ever explained. I thought it might have something to do with measurements on the knife such as the depth of the blade etc or that it might be something to do with the Unit it was made for.
