What do you find appealing about the finish?
A lot of it is basically what Petey said, but I'd add a few points...
Firstly, I subscribe to the Murray Carter school of thought when it comes to blade maintenance. Which basically says that every time you sharpen the primary edge (here it is called secondary bevel), you should also be grinding & thinning out the secondary edge (or primary bevel commonly) by hand using waterstones.
This tends to ruin a pretty satin finish immediately, in that you'll never truly match the way the knife was finished from the factory. Of course you can polish with stones of higher grit ratings to smooth out the finish, but it will still always kinda look off somehow.
I find a similar problem with BIG Double Cut finishes, as again there's no good way to match that finish at home for most people who don't have blasting equipment. Competition Finish as we see on current Busse's are not really matte finished or high polished but somewhere in between, so I find it also to be good for what I want on a knife.
Now, I know there's virtually nobody here that probably has ever heard of sharpening this way. Many would just thin the edge bevel accordingly by just convexing the edge bevel, which is OK... but again I find the look to be a bit wonky especially as the width of the bevel grows wider as the edge bevel angle is lowered significantly.
Secondly, I find the way the flats of the knife are finished (with that cross hatched surface grinder type look) hides scratches well. The flats are something that are difficult at best to polish with the handles installed, so it should be something that just has a rough look to hide scratches.
The dimpled Comp Finish Busse's of olden days were great at hiding scratches, along with hammered finishes you occasionally see from the Custom Shop. It seems the dimpled INFI comp finish is also a thing of the past now, as the new Comp Finish blades seem to have been surface ground at some stage of manufacturing to get rid of the dimples.
So yeah, that's pretty much why this is my favorite finish... I also just think it looks great in an industrial sort of way. As always, many might not agree with my sentiments so perhaps it's just been something that just hasn't been very popular and is not a common option anymore. Who knows?
I finally got my first taste of the (not) BIG Satin (It’s Competition!) yesterday. I’m in Hog Heaven now!
https://imgur.com/a/flgsj5t
Maggot brain, loving this buckeye burl, too! Thanks, brother!
That buckeye burl sure is Purdy, you got yourself a great set there so far! Love that comp finish FSH, it's perfect!
