Busse and Ray Laconico

Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
97
I am by no means a photographer of any kind, and this picture does not do these blade justice. My two most recent purchases, a SAR4 LE and an Expedition by Ray Laconico. So a big thank you goes out to the whole Busse crew and Ray for making EXCEPTIONAL knives.

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Nice! I like that blade size.:D The grind lines on that Lanconico are going the opposite direction of what I am accustomed to seeing...
 
Nice! I like that blade size.:D The grind lines on that Lanconico are going the opposite direction of what I am accustomed to seeing...

The Laconico is 3/4" shorter than the SAR4. I'm not exactly sure why Ray grinds horizontally but I guess it really works for him:thumbup:.
 
I'll bet he grinds vertically but puts the final finish on horizontally.
 
Ray's knife has a hand-applied satin finish, the Busse is machine finished. That's why the finish on the Laconico is different:) It takes a lot of hand work to get the finish to Ray's level of refinement!
 
The way you do that finish is to hand sand to one grit above what you want and then go back and SLOWLY draw the sandpaper from ricasso to tip, using a clean section of the paper for each stroke. I back the paper with a hard rubber 3M sanding block. Ray's knife looks like it has a 400 grit or possibly 600 grit final finish. I can usually get it done with about 15-20 strokes on each side of the blade. Some guys can do a "hand rubbed" finish like that using a buffer or belt grinder lengthwise, but it is not that easy with a blade with sharp plunge cuts. The other thing that you may notice is that the edge bevels have the same finish. No sharp transition or shiny/scratchy spots. The trick there is to put the edge on the knife before you do your last couple of fine grit sandings and then go back and strop it to take off any burr that the sanding may have caused.
 
jdm61 and WalterDavis - Thanks for the info. Is there an advantage to finishing horizontally as opposed to vertically? Or is it based purely on asthetics?

I used the Sepia setting in the photo edit mode on my camera because I thought it looked "artsy", haha. Again, I know nothing about photography. The regular picture really shows the attention to detail that was put into these knives. Wasn't my first Busse and definetly wont be my last. The Laconico, on the other hand, was my first... wont be the last either:D
 
The other thing that you may notice is that the edge bevels have the same finish. No sharp transition or shiny/scratchy spots. The trick there is to put the edge on the knife before you do your last couple of fine grit sandings and then go back and strop it to take off any burr that the sanding may have caused.

That's a convex edge Ray puts on 'em
 
No real advantage that I know of, just a sign of a well made hand-made knife:D Sure wish I could make mine look that good:thumbup:
 
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