Ageless Mistress

[Will York]

GIVEN: Jerry Busse and INFI have bestowed on us the ability to fight and finally win ancient compromises…be it the age-old battle to hold a razor edge and still stand up to round-house impacts on unforgiving hard stuff…or between the toughness required never to chip or fracture against the strength it takes to withstand the heaviest lateral load a man can muster, even when life itself may hang in the balance.

But when you take a big knife like the original Battle Mistress and beat it like a red-headed stepchild for ten years; when you put it in the hands of men like Cobalt, who has a well-documented and notorious penchant for throwing knives at trees and missing—only to watch his blade go bouncing and skittering across rocks in a dry creek bed; when you chop with it and baton with it and pry with it and abuse it and make it unrecognizably, pitifully filthy and then rely on it to take care of you, without ever worrying about taking care of it…

You don’t REALLY expect, in the end, to be able to put it in a box, paste a stamp on it, write a rural Ohio address on it, hand it to your friendly neighborhood Postmaster, and within a week receive back something that looks like this:

 

[HAKnPocket]

Sexy, sexy, sexy. I'll take it.


HAK

 

[trukreltrog]

Mmmmmmm, thats a Beauty! :thumbup::thumbup:

 

[Tom Kanik]

That is one sweet and classic knife!!! :thumbup::thumbup:

 

[J. Oeser]

Nice going Will. Are those the original handles just darkened with age and time?

 

[d762nato]

That's one Awesome SHBM you've got there Will. Any man would be proud to own her. She also cleans up real well. Congratulations Will, :thumbup: :thumbup:

 

[Coupchoux]

Superb!

Does Busse can make them on special order?

 

[Will York]

Nice going Will. Are those the original handles just darkened with age and time?

Yeah, absolutely--it's just a stock satin SHBM. The light in the photo above makes the handles look a little more solid black than they are. This one has always seemed to me to have the most comfortable handles of any SH I've tried. The top rear corners of the micarta are smoothed--almost "melted" it seems--into the contour of the spine there, and the absence of any hot spots is a joy to experience. Here are a couple of shots of the handles in different light, and showing one tiny flaw--an old, smoothed, pinhead size dent on the tang.

 

[resinguy]

Ah yes... one of Cobalt's throwing knives...fortune smiled upon me one day and I was able to score one of those. :thumbup:

I trust, Will, that you will continue to beat your once-again beautiful Mistress in the manner to which she has become accustomed?

 

[Barbarossa]

Sweet!

 

[J. Oeser]

Yeah, absolutely--it's just a stock satin SHBM. The light in the photo above makes the handles look a little more solid black than they are. This one has always seemed to me to have the most comfortable handles of any SH I've tried. The top rear corners of the micarta are smoothed--almost "melted" it seems--into the contour of the spine there, and the absence of any hot spots is a joy to experience. Here are a couple of shots of the handles in different light, and showing one tiny flaw--an old, smoothed, pinhead size dent on the tang.

Very nice, definitely improved with age.:thumbup:


.

 

[d762nato]

If that little pin head size ding ever gets to be to much Will, let me know I'd be more than happy to help you out and take it off your hands.

 

[Jack Shen]

what did it look like before you sent it off?

 

[Will York]

Superb!

Does Busse can make them on special order?

Uh, no...at least not to my knowledge.

This one is a good 10 years old, as stated in my original post. I bought it in "user" condition a couple of years ago from Cobalt and have used it ever since. For chopping, I find I've gone to either a NMFBM or machete, though, and haven't really used this one in a few months so thought I'd send her to Garth and see how she cleaned up. I was amazed--just thought I'd share the result.

 

[Will York]

what did it look like before you sent it off?

I should have taken a picture. The edge and handles were pretty good, and as I said it was a factory satin job to begin with, but there were scuffs and scratches all over the blade flats from years of use.

 

[Greg45]

You don’t REALLY expect, in the end, to be able to put it in a box, paste a stamp on it, write a rural Ohio address on it, hand it to your friendly neighborhood Postmaster, and within a week receive back something that looks like this...

I wouldn't expect it. I'd think it would take at least 3 stamps for that sucker!!

Seriously, Jerry and the Busse gang are pretty cool that way. Their customer service levels are just the best.

The question is, does Jerry do it for his customers, or do it for the knives? Maybe he feels like the knives are his children, out in the abusive world, coming back home for a little loving care once in a while.

 

[d762nato]

Garth really did a fine job on her, so she was originally satin to start with. Do you know Will, if Garth can take a black coated SHBM and make it look like yours or not.

 

[Jack Shen]

@ will york
You've been able to maintain that blade shape extremely well for 10 years of use and sharpening.

I may be doing something wrong, I tend to start loosing the up swept portion of the blade, after like 2 years of daily use. What did you use to sharpen it?

I promise that my last question in this thread

 

[Will York]

Garth really did a fine job on her, so she was originally satin to start with. Do you know Will, if Garth can take a black coated SHBM and make it look like yours or not.

Actually, I think this one may have started out with a coated blade. I believe I recall Cobalt saying it was satin finished by the shop early on in its life. He did make a point of saying the finish hadn't been touched by anyone outside the shop, though.

 

[Will York]

@ will york
You've been able to maintain that blade shape extremely well for 10 years of use and sharpening.

I may be doing something wrong, I tend to start loosing the up swept portion of the blade, after like 2 years of daily use. What did you use to sharpen it?

I promise that my last question in this thread

All I've done is strop it occasionally with a CrO-loaded belt. It had a convex edge when I got it--don't know when that was applied. By the looks of it, it had seen a lot of use before I received it, about two years ago.