Busse blade design theory?

I believe SAR stands for Search And Rescue. Now I'm just wildly guessing here, but I think that might be why the SAR has a SAR shape to it. As to the others, I have no idea.
 
As I recall, Jerry Busse asked for suggestions from SAR workers, regarding what they wanted in a SAR knife. Then JB made the SAR knives based upon their suggestions, incorporating what they wanted.
 
I was one of the SAR guys posting on the thread mentioned above. The SAR 8 turned out to be a sweet looking knife for what we do in the NW. The SAR 4 is a more compact version, smaller choil but less suited to SAR IMO. To me the handle looks well suited to trail clearing (limbing) because of its shape. Looks like it would rotate well in the hand with a flick of the wrist. The increased size of the handle toward the rear would appear to provide good retention during chopping as well.
 
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The SAR4 (and SAR5) came out of suggestions by the SAR community. AFAIK the SAR8 came out of skunk and Jerry's drunken discussions that the SAR4 would be great with a longer blade.

The Sus Scrofa is a design that Busse had been selling to some military units. Jerry told us that it was popular with helicopter crew members.

Handle designs have evolved over time. In the case of the Battle Mistress and Steel Heart models, they were first introduced with what we now call the Straight Handle. That evolved in the next generation to the Ergo design, then to the current Fusion handle. Now the Bushwacker Battle Mistress has a variant of the Fusion design.

But no, there is no single page or reference that explains the design philosophy.

hope that helps
 
Look up the nuclear seahorse and you will soon learn that Busse designs are put on paper only after finishing at least two bottles of aduly beverage (Scotch or Bourbon preferably).

:-)
 
Evolute said:
As I recall, Jerry Busse asked for suggestions from SAR workers, regarding what they wanted in a SAR knife. Then JB made the SAR knives based upon their suggestions, incorporating what they wanted.
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And as I recall - after all was said and done, there was still complaints about the usefulness of the SAR5, SAR4, and SARSquatch. LOL

Mick and the boys said it best, didn't they? YCAGWYW!

Jraptor said:
I was hoping not to get a "der, youre stupid" response. Why is that shape good for search and rescue?
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OK, part of the SAR design was a big flat-ish butt end to hammer stuff with. Along with stout blade and enough package vs. weight to be worth carrying.

Some SAR guys like a FSH, so they found the SARSquatch too light. Others like a light knife, so ANY Busse SAR knife was too big and bulky. ????

Squatch was good, but I have too many of that blade size. SAR4 was cool, but not practical to me. SAR5, with a handle reduction, is the best of the bunch. Great all-round knife.
 
I was thinking more along the lines of Jerry, drunk, cutting a steel blank and making spaceship noises........zoom, blast, If the steel blank wins the imaginary, drunken spaceship battle, it makes it into production. Now repeat this process several dozen times, only change the spaceship battle, to include Naval ship, submarine, tank, and missile strikes and you get the picture.

It really helps if you make the sounds to, while trying to imagine a Middle Aged man, reeking of alcohol, bleary eyed playing battleship in a giant bubble bath (where the tub is made of infi of course).

Hope that helps.

All that nonsense above about design feed back and suggestions is a bunch of clap trap. (Zoom, zap, boom, swoosh.........as my razor sharp FBMLE flies around defeating enemies.............but it is much safer with blade blanks, trust me).

But in all seriousness, if you look at designs, and then what they were intended for, it becomes clearer. The ss was designed for chopper crews, think cutting flight harnesses. The reverse curve works great for sliding under harness and cutting some one free. The blade shape makes a great safety/rescue blade design. I am surprised it is not more popular with cops and ambulance drivers, or heck even river rafting. The game warden, works for gutting, skinning. Not too long, enough belly for accomplishing those tasks. The Active duty looks like it would make a great edc for Cops or military. Enough point for stabbing, enough belly for slicing. Small, compact, not much room taken up on duty gear etc. Mean street, looks like it would make a great carry for city/bad areas etc. Some of the designs are a bit more fanciful. War Boar, etc. The BM's work great for chopping etc. Ash1, great mid sized combat knife. Great grip retention for stabbing, prying, etc.
 
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Handles are the toughest part.

You get a good handle and you can call that a model.

Then look for maybe six different blades to hang on it and you get a year or two to work up a new handle.

There are only so many blade shapes and functions, how they all fit the hand is where the magic comes in.

Jerry is very good at this, and getting better every year.
 
In defense of the SARSquatch, it is an outstanding SAR knife as well. Near perfect. I was one of those who groaned mightily about the swedge on it because of our emphasis on a tough tip and on batoning (a swedge can chew up your baton). Turns out the SARSquatch is an outstanding knife for the task. The thINFI sliced through logs with little effort without a problem seeking a baton all the time. I think 4 guys on my team got one and I'm pretty sure 2 of them are still carrying one in training and on missions.

Welcome back to Cobalt :thumbup:
 
JRaptor,

Welcome to the forum and great question!

Years of drinking and designing have led to many of the designs you'll see here. . . .

I woke up once after Johnny and I had hit the floor one night and I had a Scotch Tape Dispenser stuck on my hand. . . . I think most of us know what happened after that!!!!!:eek:. . . . . . .

That model became extremely popular with some very specialized 3 letter agencies, including IBM, ATT, and UPS!!!!! :thumbup:

Let's Drink!!!!

Jerry :D

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Jerry Busse said:
JRaptor,

Welcome to the forum and great question!

Years of drinking and designing have led to many of the designs you'll see here. . . .

I woke up once after Johnny and I had hit the floor one night and I had a Scotch Tape Dispenser stuck on my hand. . . . I think most of us know what happened after that!!!!!:eek:. . . . . . .

That model became extremely popular with some very specialized 3 letter agencies, including IBM, ATT, and UPS!!!!! :thumbup:

Let's Drink!!!!

Jerry :D

.
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Jerry, I work at one of those companies. Does that mean I should be getting my company issued SD soon? :-)
 
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