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- Jan 21, 2000
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I just received this knife from Andre DuMouchel, our own papathud, who was Jerry Busse’s West Coast distributor in the early years of Busse Combat Knife Company. It is a one-off, now commonly called a variant, but in the early days these were called mutants—in keeping with the nuclear-bomb-proof brand association. From Andre, I learned that this particular knife was built at the same time as the original 300 swedged Battle Mistresses. It has the asymmetrical edge grind used on early Battle Mistresses, and Andre explained to me that is one way you can tell it’s not a Steel Heart II variant, even though the blade length is similar at 8”. Apparently Jerry only put asymmetrical edges on INFI blades—the A2 blades were all V or convex ground, and at the time this knife was built the Steel Heart IIs were still being made of A2.
This knife has several unique aspects I thought I’d share. First of all, the blade finish is apparently a bead blast or possibly comparable to an early competition finish—haven’t seen anything else quite like it, including the early double-cuts (seems a little smoother than BBDC to me). (Just ran across a photo I took a few years ago of a Steel Heart 1, which has a very similar finish to this knife except for the INFI dimples, which makes me think the INFI on this knife may have received the original Busse bare-metal finish, something between a competition finish and bead blast.) The INFI dimples are profuse on the ricasso and rear talon, and the blade flats are smooth but not satin. The surface has oxidized to a beautiful smooth/even gray, no doubt making it even more rust resistant than freshly minted INFI.
The tang thickness is right at 5/16”, and the combination of the long clip and full-height flat grind has the effect of giving the blade a pronounced distal taper. The resulting balance makes the knife unusually fast in hand, similar to that of fighter bowies built on the model of Bill Bagwell’s fighter blades, which are thick in the hilt area with radical distal tapers for quick handling to very thin points for penetration. This blade doesn’t get quite that thin in the point area, as befits a nuclear-bomb-proof knife, but the asym point on the narrower-than-normal taper obviously will enhance penetration. This knife also has the most “aggressive” asymmetrical grind I’ve ever seen, meaning that the convex side is wider and the flat side more pronounced than on any blade I’ve seen—obviously there was some experimentation going on here. The edge has the signature dual finish that Busse puts on all its knives, with coarse striations under a highly polished finish. There’s no mistaking it as anything other than a factory edge, and the edge itself is screaming sharp—amazing that there is no apparent edge degradation over so many years (15 plus) since it was made.
The knife came with the standard-construction sheath for that era, which has tie-down slots and holes, with heavy nylon webbing for the belt loop. The sheath obviously was made specifically for this knife, as the point comes right to the end of the kydex and everything fits like a glove:
I think this is a very cool piece of Busse history with an especially wicked, beautifully brutal blade profile and some uniquely interesting design features--just wanted to share the joy a little. I even got to pick the knife up from Andre in person, as we’re temporarily living down the road from each other. Great to meet the man and shake his hand—one of the true Busse cognoscenti and an insider from the early years.
Thanks, Andre!
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Thanks Will!
