Great discussion my friends!
The following was lifted from a sticky I wrote at the top of this forum.
We are the world leader in extreme performance knives. Always have been. . . Always will be. . . That is why we still stand as the only knife manufacturer to have backed up our performance claims with "LIVE" demonstrations at knife and gun shows throughout the years.
Has the analysis of INFI changed over the years? Yes, but the baseline performance that it must live up to, in order to be called INFI, has not. Just like the change in analysis, our heat-treat protocol has also been modified and perfected. When we first introduced INFI in 1998 we made a crazy high claim of being able to cut 1,280 pieces of 1" diameter hemp rope! We did a "LIVE" performance test at the BLADE Show that year with a slightly modified analysis that we called Modified INFI and coupled that with a modified heat-treat protocol. We more than doubled the number of pieces of 1" hemp rope we cut to 2,771 pieces. Later in 1999 we cut over 3,100 pcs of 1" hemp rope in a "LIVE" Demo at a gun show in Tennessee. These same knives were then put in vises and bent past 70 degrees without breaking. We just broke our own world record by cutting over 3,700 pieces of 1" Hemp rope in an unedited video on youtube
Much the same can be said about SR-101. We started with a slightly modified 52100 steel and migrated to a steel with a lower carbon content and greater toughness. Thanks to our ever-evolving heat-treat protocol we were able to maintain our standards for edge retention. This increase in performance left us with a difficult decision. Do we continue to use the tons of 52100 steel that we had already purchased or do we switch over to this tougher grade of SR-101? From a business point of view, it would only make sense to use up the 52100 before switching over, but that is not what we did! We switched over immediately. We shelved the remaining 21,000+ lbs of 52100 and went with the tougher grade. Feel free to check the price of 52100 per lb. and you will see that we are, obviously, addicted to knife performance way more than money!!! If there is a better overall steel than INFI for the attributes that we deem the most important, then we will switch over to that grade of steel. We try nearly every grade of steel that comes out as we continue this quest.
If any manufacturer is willing to prove their performance claims in front of a "LIVE" audience, as we did, then they have earned the right to make those claims. Here's the caveat. The tests that prove these claims must be performed by the manufacturer and not some third party who has nothing to lose.
In more than 28 years, we are the only manufacturer to have done these "LIVE" tests.
So, you, as the customer, can rest assured that we are never satisfied and will continue to push the performance envelope every chance we get.
Let's Drink!
Jerry
