Busse Heavy Duty Thickness To Blade Length Ratio

Agith

Agith

Joined
Nov 29, 2010
Messages
345
So I just scored a Busse Heavy Duty in the exchange yesterday. I am extremely excited for it to arrive, as it'll be my first Busse blade. But obviously that means I have no experience with INFI and how it reacts to varying thickness of blade. So I was wondering if anyone had any idea how the 5 mm thick blade on the Heavy Duty gels with the 3.5 inch length. It's in a weird mid range between 3/16th and 1/4th, so it's particularly tricky to find any form of analogue in other blade steels to see how it would perform.

So that's exactly what I am asking. Does anyone have experience with a similar combination of blade length and thickness (or even better, WITH a Heavy Duty), and what is your opinion on it.

(Also posted this in general knife discussion, but I figure that it is probably also equally as applicable here).
 
Hello friend! Welcome the the Busse Forum. Congrats on your score!

5mm is ~0.20". So, IMHO, it is rather stout for a short blade. YMMV. Many folk here like thicker blades; I may be in the minority.

The Heavy Duty is an older model; you may not find many current active folks who have direct experience with this model.

At that thickness, in a short blade, you can't hardly hurt it. Hammer it into a tree and stand on it ... you are good to go.

Now, in terms of cutting ability, you will want to adjust the edge thickness and angle to your own personal preferences.
 
resinguy said:
5mm is ~0.20". So, IMHO, it is rather stout for a short blade.
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My thoughts also, too stout for me. AD looks like a good one at .15". But don't think I'll ever have an HD. Everybodys got different tastes though, why anyone would need a 3.5" blade that thick idk.
 
Anyone using a MilGanza AD @ .19" could pretty much tell you with the difference being so slight. I like my Milganza thickness AD. Good stout working blade on a comfortable handle.
 
resinguy said:
Hello friend! Welcome the the Busse Forum. Congrats on your score!

5mm is ~0.20". So, IMHO, it is rather stout for a short blade. YMMV. Many folk here like thicker blades; I may be in the minority.

The Heavy Duty is an older model; you may not find many current active folks who have direct experience with this model.

At that thickness, in a short blade, you can't hardly hurt it. Hammer it into a tree and stand on it ... you are good to go.

Now, in terms of cutting ability, you will want to adjust the edge thickness and angle to your own personal preferences.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the congrats!

If my memory serves me correctly, this knife was released (in an extremely small batch?) when I was 10 years old (setting me at 20 now), and it was in that time that I started getting deeper into the knife word. So it was one of the first Busse knives I ever saw, and wanted (what 10 year old doesn't want a bad ass knife?). So to have that knife now is one of the most gratifying purchases I have ever made.

It's mint right now, but I think I am going to do this knife justice and EDC it. Even the old deserve to be used. And given that it's my first? I don't plan on selling it, so resale value isn't even a factor here.
 
Congrats mate! I got my first only a couple of weeks ago and was blown away. I found pictures just didnt do busse/kin justice and you will be thoroughly impressed, more than you can anticipate, once you have it in hand. I was anyway.
 
As someone who loves carrying smaller fat blades I will give you my 100% honest opinion..

In a blade this size you are never going to be able to use it hard enough to damage it, and as an EDC you would probably be better served by carrying something thinner. But what's the fun in that? We are after all knife enthusiasts, so I say carry something a little or a lot over the top and learn how to work around its weaknesses.

My EDC rotation includes a .27 Game Warden with magnum scales and a Key Lardo that is a 4" blade that's .32 thick. I also have 8-10 more in the 4.5" or less range that are .19 or thicker and more often than not something that size and thickness is on my belt. If I know I am going to be doing some more delicate cutting that day, or around someone a little weak in the knees, I'll drop a slip joint in my pocket as a companion.

If you want to really see some cool fatties check out the O2W offerings that were toward the end, can't wait until they start dropping. The Urban Fudge and Fatback Defender haunt my dreams :)

Okay, all that said, there's certainly a place for thinner blades, and I do appreciate their cutting performance. In the sub 4.5" blade I think anything over 1/8" thick is over kill. If I lived a life where literally the only cutting tool I had access to was on my belt I would opt for something thinner, but I have the luxury of picking whatever strikes my fancy and dealing with the rare occasion where the thick blade is inconvenient, or like I said toss a small sensible knife in my pocket.

The most important part of all of it is that you enjoy what you carry, in whatever form that takes. You're young and have plenty of time to learn what works for you and what doesn't.


fatWarden.jpg



Lardo_Spine.jpg
 
Those two are beautiful beasts!

I think time will tell for me. But there is an appeal to hauling around a big slab of Infi. Knife arrives on Monday, and I am just anxiously waiting.

Sheathing the thing is gonna be tricky, my dad and I may just do it in house as a chance to learn how thermoplastics are molded. It'll be fun
 
Agith said:
If my memory serves me correctly, this knife was released (in an extremely small batch?) when I was 10 years old (setting me at 20 now), and it was in that time that I started getting deeper into the knife word. So it was one of the first Busse knives I ever saw, and wanted (what 10 year old doesn't want a bad ass knife?). So to have that knife now is one of the most gratifying purchases I have ever made.
Click to expand...


That's a great story, youngin.
 
Ive got a cs ad at .22 i edc. Its great for most everything once i thinned the edge and convexed the bevel. But it does not do fine work at all. I cant use it for kitchen work and cutting through anything thick is a pain. For any heavy use though its perfect. Ive also got a .19 ad and its better. But not so much that i really use it. Id say the difference between the two is little if you get the secondary bevel where you like it. However if your used to folders its not a slicer like they are at all. My elmax ad is a great slicer. But its really thin. If i did not carry a folder with my .22 ad i think i would opt for a thinner ad for my edc. But the thick 3.5 makes a great companion to a thinner grind folder. Hope that helps. Just dont expect to cut soft stuff and not damage it if its higher than the blade. Just spreads whatever media your cutting too much. Great for boxes, wood, small plants and fire making. And your never gonna hurt it. I use a hammer on mine if needed without worry. And have no issue breaking down pallets and the like with it. But for edc i just highly recommend another thin blade for the fine work.
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Eed
 
Here's one on food prep duty. Stripped and unpolished for now.
Hope you enjoy yours!

4ZK4jwh.jpg
 
The Heavy Duty was essentially the same thickness as the Leprechaun Duty (my Leprechaun here). I love my Lep!!! :cool: It is stout for it's size, but put a good edge on it and thin the shoulders back just a bit, and it will still cut quite well. I doubt that you will be disappointed. :thumbup:
 
Any recommendations on how I should set about thinning the shoulders? I am not quite sure if I want to use the mousepad and sandpaper method, since I don't know if a convex edge would really be ideal for this. Maybe just take a careful whack at it with a belt sander?

* Or is infi okay to do by hand? Up to this point I've always just done that through hours of work with a few stones.

I'd definitely need to ruin a few knives before I'd be willing to touch this one with a belt sander,if that's the case.
 
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I use my 1x30. Only takes me about 5-10 min to completely change the edge and get a shaving edge. But ive got some time on it. If you can id take the time to learn the grinder. It took me less time to learn it pretty well than i did to stone a 4" busse. [emoji12][emoji106]


Eed
 
Agreed, use a belt sander if you can, it will go much quicker and easier. A convex edge is just fine for this knife. I put them on everything these days. HERE is a thread that I started about getting started with a 1x30 sander. Hope it helps.
 
Man USPS is killing me. 2 days late now, it was a city over (about 20 minutes away) and now they've shipped it to a city about an hour away.
 
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