Confessions of a Rookie INFI Addict

zmbhntr

zmbhntr

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Jul 28, 2014
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I created this thread almost exactly a year ago, and quite a bit has happened in my Busse collecting since then, so I thought I would update it. My collection has continued to grow, and I am now an official HOG, which is something I am proud of. The updates to the thread I make today will be in this red color, and the original text will stay in the normal black color. I can say now that I have collected enough Busse's that I have a pretty good idea of what I like. The knife that is on my person most of the time when I'm walking through the woods is my TGLB. In my opinion the most fun knife you can have for chopping stuff around camp is a MOAB. My overall favorite is the NMFBM.

I was just sitting here getting ready to pay for my 20th Busse, and I realized that tomorrow will be the one year anniversary from ordering my first Busse (Blade Show Ganzaaa 2014, 9:16 pm EST to be exact). It’s been fun both using and collecting the blades, so I thought I’d share the lessons learned during my rookie year of INFI addiction. Before I get to that, here are the Busse and kin that I have amassed so far:

  1. TGLB - Garth Edition
  2. Infidu – Black canvas, satin
  3. SOB – Comp finish, green/black G10
  4. SAR-8 - Custom, mammoth
  5. Mofo Crusader
  6. Mountainmandu – black/black
  7. SOB – Custom, wood slabs
  8. Infidu – Custom, mammoth
  9. Elmax steak knife – bronze Cerakote
  10. Lil Smokey – Bruiser
  11. Moabolo CBT
  12. CGFBM – bronze
  13. AMS – Custom, wood scales
  14. Fat ASH-1 – Custom, hand shaped black canvas, solid pins
  15. Fat Game Warden
  16. MOABM – Black canvas
  17. Team Gemini – Custom, Buckeye burl
  18. Hack Warden Variant
  19. Fat ASH-1 – Flying tiger
  20. HHFSH (at the Busse spa currently)
    [*]Infidu, giraffe bone
    [*]SAR-6 LE
    [*]TG Satin, tigerhide
    [*]ASH-1, battle grade
    [*]BGAD, black, grey
    [*]NMFSH, knob creek
    [*]FBMLE
    [*]Battle Saw
    [*]BGAD, muddy, tan
    [*]Mountainmandu
    [*]BGTG
    [*]NMFSH, REK
    [*]BGDTBM
    [*]BGAK47
    [*]Sarsquatch
    [*]SAR-3 LE
    [*]SAR-4 LE
    [*]SAR-6 LE
    [*]SAR-8 LE
    [*]NMFBM CG
    [*]Gentleman's steak knife
    [*]BGTG g10
    [*]NMFSH, red/black
    [*]Infidu w/Chuddy
    [*]MOAB, Garth
    [*]Swamp Rat Rat Trap
    [*]Basic 6 LE
    [*]Nuclear EDC
    [*]Rat Trap
    [*]TGLB Black / Tanker
    [*]NMSFNO Garth
    [*]Infidu Custom
    [*]Boss Jack
    [*]TGM Comp
    [*]AK47
    [*]ASH-2 Comp Blk
    [*]ASH-2
    [*]SFNO
    [*]NMFBM Snakeskin
    [*]Infidu, CS grn/blk g10
    [*]BG ASH-1
    [*]BGWTF
    [*]WTF Custom Shop


Lessons learned:
  1. The people here have a big part in making this addiction fun. A lot has been said about how the Hogs are good people. That is an easy thing to say, but it’s a hard thing to back up, and this group backs it up. What really hit home for me was going to Blade Show this year and getting the opportunity to meet many of the long-time Hogs. I won’t name names because I’ll probably inadvertently forget a few, but I had the opportunity to meet and drink with a lot of Hogs, and they are truly some good people. This is also true for the Busse employees; I had the opportunity to meet (and drink with) many of the Busse crew, including Jerry. Jerry certainly treats his customers well, and he certainly appears to treat his employees well, which in turn makes for a happy and creative environment for all. Going to Blade was a fantastic experience and I can’t wait to go to Blade 2016. As a take away, if it is at all possible for you to attend Blade 2016, start planning now and make it happen, you will not regret it!
    This is still completely true, the people here are great and make this hobby fun. I was able to attend Blade 2016 and it was again an amazing experience. Start planning now, and do what you can to make it to Blade 2017. The Busse booth is certainly one of the highlights at Blade, but there is a LOT of other things to experience at Blade. I also hosted a camping trip at my land in WV and several hogs were able to come and share their INFI. It was a lot of fun, and I think we all had a great time. I will be hosting another one in a couple months, and hopefully even more people will be able to attend.​
  2. INFI is an addiction. If you have a borderline obsessive personality like me, brace yourself because you are in for a ride. I thought collecting bourbon and military vehicles would be my drugs, but INFI is just as much, if not more, fun. I made the mistake of totaling up my Busse purchases just now, and I’m in the five figures. I know that my collection is very small compared to a lot of Hogs here, but that’s still a lot of moolah in my opinion. Busse is also a bit of a gateway drug, to me at least. Now that I can appreciate a high quality fixed blade, I find myself interested in folders and flippers as well. I now also have a nice small collection of folders from vendors such as Alan Davis and Matt Diskin. Once Busse capitalizes on this market… well like I said, I’m in for a ride. I’m not complaining about the addicting qualities of high quality steel, it’s just a friendly warning. If my wife found out though….
    My addiction has gotten even worse actually. My Busse collection has grown quite a bit, and my collection of folders has grown a lot. There are a lot of great knife makers out there! Busse continues to be, and I'm guessing will always be, ~90% of my fixed blade knives.​
  3. Busse is almost a kind of currency, which significantly lessens the blow of lesson number two. If you are on the fence about buying a Busse, go ahead and pull the trigger. If you don’t end up liking the blade as much as you thought you would, you can sell it and get your money back. There is of course variation here, some blades you may lose a bit of money on, but there are others that you stand a good chance of making a fair amount of money on. I personally have sold 5 of the knives I have purchased, but there some of my blades that I’ll be buried with. Some people buy gold and/or silver, but with those precious metals you need to store them in controlled environments and get them re-certified every so often. With INFI, simply put it in your safe and if a rainy day shows up, remove the INFI from your safe and post it in the classified section.
    This is still somewhat true, but not like it was a year ago. O2W has brought a lot of great knives to the market, and in turn to the secondary market. It is still possible to buy a knife and break even or make a bit of money on it if it turns out to not be exactly what you were looking for, but it's now more likely that you will lose some money on it. I think that especially holds true for Battle Grade offerings. I'm not going to get into the argument here if this is a good or bad thing, but it is something to consider. I'm a bit more picky now about what knives I want to try out, but that is not just because of the secondary market prices, but because I have so many knives already in my possession that I am naturally more picky.​
  4. I recommend that you use your blades hard, at least some of them. When I bought my first 3 Busse from Blade Show Ganzaa 2015 I read that a lot of people are afraid to use their blades because they are so nice and/or collectable. I realized right away that this was an issue that I may personally run into, so I went ahead and bought a mammoth handled Busse as my 4th. I knew from the get go that the mammoth would be a safe queen, but mentally it made me not feel bad about using my TGLB, SOB, and Infidu hard. I’m not saying you need to beat the piss out of your Busse’s, but go chop up some wood, do some batoning, and experience for yourself the capabilities that your blade possesses. Once you really use your knife it becomes a part of you, and you begin to really understand how great of a blade it is and how lucky we are to have them. Perhaps through the process of chopping the INFI is absorbed into your bloodstream, or perhaps it’s some type of black magic, but whatever it is, get out there and use your blade, you will be glad you did.
    This is even more true for me now than it was a year ago. In fact, every Busse I own is now a user. Are many of them great to look at? Yes! That being said, their performance is even greater than their looks, so I say beat them up and enjoy them!​

I did not intend to write a book here, but it appears that I did, so congratulations if you made it this far. I'm sure that there are a lot of other lessons learned that I did not include here, so if you have insight, words of wisdom, or simply comments, please post away.

I'm adding a few photo highlights for your viewing pleasure:







































 
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zmbhntr said:
I was just sitting here getting ready to pay for my 20th Busse, and I realized that tomorrow will be the one year anniversary from ordering my first Busse (Blade Show Ganzaaa 2014, 9:16 pm EST to be exact). It’s been fun both using and collecting the blades, so I thought I’d share the lessons learned during my rookie year of INFI addiction. Before I get to that, here are the Busse and kin that I have amassed so far:

  1. TGLB - Garth Edition
  2. Infidu – Black canvas, satin
  3. SOB – Comp finish, green/black G10
  4. SAR-8 - Custom, mammoth
  5. Mofo Crusader
  6. Mountainmandu – black/black
  7. SOB – Custom, wood slabs
  8. Infidu – Custom, mammoth
  9. Elmax steak knife – bronze Cerakote
  10. Lil Smokey – Bruiser
  11. Moabolo CBT
  12. CGFBM – bronze
  13. AMS – Custom, wood scales
  14. Fat ASH-1 – Custom, hand shaped black canvas, solid pins
  15. Fat Game Warden
  16. MOABM – Black canvas
  17. Team Gemini – Custom, Buckeye burl
  18. Hack Warden Variant
  19. Fat ASH-1 – Flying tiger
  20. HHFSH (at the Busse spa currently)

Lessons learned:
  1. The people here have a big part in making this addiction fun. A lot has been said about how the Hogs are good people. That is an easy thing to say, but it’s a hard thing to back up, and this group backs it up. What really hit home for me was going to Blade Show this year and getting the opportunity to meet many of the long-time Hogs. I won’t name names because I’ll probably inadvertently forget a few, but I had the opportunity to meet and drink with a lot of Hogs, and they are truly some good people. This is also true for the Busse employees; I had the opportunity to meet (and drink with) many of the Busse crew, including Jerry. Jerry certainly treats his customers well, and he certainly appears to treat his employees well, which in turn makes for a happy and creative environment for all. Going to Blade was a fantastic experience and I can’t wait to go to Blade 2016. As a take away, if it is at all possible for you to attend Blade 2016, start planning now and make it happen, you will not regret it!
  2. INFI is an addiction. If you have a borderline obsessive personality like me, brace yourself because you are in for a ride. I thought collecting bourbon and military vehicles would be my drugs, but INFI is just as much, if not more, fun. I made the mistake of totaling up my Busse purchases just now, and I’m in the five figures. I know that my collection is very small compared to a lot of Hogs here, but that’s still a lot of moolah in my opinion. Busse is also a bit of a gateway drug, to me at least. Now that I can appreciate a high quality fixed blade, I find myself interested in folders and flippers as well. I now also have a nice small collection of folders from vendors such as Alan Davis and Matt Diskin. Once Busse capitalizes on this market… well like I said, I’m in for a ride. I’m not complaining about the addicting qualities of high quality steel, it’s just a friendly warning. If my wife found out though….
  3. Busse is almost a kind of currency, which significantly lessens the blow of lesson number two. If you are on the fence about buying a Busse, go ahead and pull the trigger. If you don’t end up liking the blade as much as you thought you would, you can sell it and get your money back. There is of course variation here, some blades you may lose a bit of money on, but there are others that you stand a good chance of making a fair amount of money on. I personally have sold 5 of the knives I have purchased, but there some of my blades that I’ll be buried with. Some people buy gold and/or silver, but with those precious metals you need to store them in controlled environments and get them re-certified every so often. With INFI, simply put it in your safe and if a rainy day shows up, remove the INFI from your safe and post it in the classified section.
  4. I recommend that you use your blades hard, at least some of them. When I bought my first 3 Busse from Blade Show Ganzaa 2015 I read that a lot of people are afraid to use their blades because they are so nice and/or collectable. I realized right away that this was an issue that I may personally run into, so I went ahead and bought a mammoth handled Busse as my 4th. I knew from the get go that the mammoth would be a safe queen, but mentally it made me not feel bad about using my TGLB, SOB, and Infidu hard. I’m not saying you need to beat the piss out of your Busse’s, but go chop up some wood, do some batoning, and experience for yourself the capabilities that your blade possesses. Once you really use your knife it becomes a part of you, and you begin to really understand how great of a blade it is and how lucky we are to have them. Perhaps through the process of chopping the INFI is absorbed into your bloodstream, or perhaps it’s some type of black magic, but whatever it is, get out there and use your blade, you will be glad you did.

I did not intend to write a book here, but it appears that I did, so congratulations if you made it this far. I'm sure that there are a lot of other lessons learned that I did not include here, so if you have insight, words of wisdom, or simply comments, please post away.
Click to expand...

+1 brother
 
Spot on ---- excellent write up ---- however I'm very concerned that you don't own a NMFSH nor do you own a NMSFNO --- please address these serious issues before I think of more you MUST own
 
Very cool thread, and a very interesting and well thought out.
Thank you for that.
 
Right there with you. I started a little over a year ago with an Anniversary Battle Mistress ordered from the shop in February (rec'd in April). I currently have 17 blades on hand but I've bought and then sold another 17 on top of that. So that's 34 that I've purchased in 17 months. You could say I lack impulse control!! I have three on the way. One from the exchange that should arrive tomorrow and two from the recent ganzaa so that will get me back up to 20. That's a good number I should probably try to stay at or close to. I'll need to get a family picture soon.
 
After reading your Busse list, that ain't no rookie maneuver. Looks like you went pro already,,,
 
Thanks for the comments guys. I have received several PMs requesting some pics, so I'll post a few here.

Thickness - Infidu vs. Fat ASH-1 vs. MOABM - Not a request, I just thought it was a cool idea :)


TGLB Garth Edition


MOABM


Mammoth Infidu


AMS


Fat ASH-1



Bronze CGFBM
 
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Very nice and enjoyable story. Welcome to the madness and keep up the good work!
 
A very thoughtful and comprehensive write up. Thanks. I will hit my second year of the madness soon, and although I have a wide range of Bussekin, have concentrated on Steel Heart's; ASH1's; DSF's; and SJTAC's. Not a rookie any longer, I would say - with 30 total, including 11 ASH1's. Not to mention other offerings from Chris Reeve, Becker, Winkler, and Murray Carter. See you in the Forums, friend...;-)
 
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Great write-up and lessons learned. I would add one, although you started going this direction already :) After using some INFI I started going into different type of folders. And now I cannot do without a Fatty Hinderer and Demko AD10. You just could not find INFI-type of toughness anywhere below that. I wish we see Busse folder soon :)
 
I know that this thread is a year old, but I decided to update it. It's kind of a record of my Busse journey. Hopefully some of you will appreciate it, or relate to it.
 
Thanks for taking your time to write this, it was a great read.... to the end lol
P.S.
I did expect more pics though lol
Now that i think about it, it be nice if you waited to do this with WTFs in the pics/thread lol
Either way, thanks a bunch
 
Very nice. Thanks for sharing and allowing me to use some of your blades. No mean street or basic 11 :eek:
 
Awesome,
Its funny your first was mine as well, I think we've talked about that before. Bladeshow ganza Infidu..
Your collection is just awesome,, great blades.
Glad to have gotten to share some good times at Blade getting inducted together, and the camping trip with you buddy.
Cheers!
 
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