Custom Busses are $100 per inch?

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I was just curious if this is for blade length only or for overall length. Thanks.
 
Overall. It's an estimate really. You could have a knife that was 8 inches overall, Jerry might only charge 700.00 is the design wasn't gonna be a pain in the but to do. However you could also have a 8 inch overall knife with finger grooves and funky grinds and all kinda of twists and turns and he might just nuke your pocket. $100.00 an inch is a good measuring stick though.
 
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If you have an idea in mind, contact Marc, the custom shop director. He can probably give you a better idea of estimated cost.

Marc's forum name is Contender, you can locate his email in his sig. line.

Good luck
 
huh, If my math is correct, that would be $450. If not
a mistake, I bet it isn't made of INFI!!!!;)
 
Very impressive. My wife puts my value at about 0.25 per inch. That makes me worth only about $1.75. I certainly hope that my Busse knife doesn't curve slightly to the left when it arrives.
I am clearly a lost soul.
 
Why are Busses so expensive? i am sure that its not that Jerry is a real greedy guy. Is INFI hard to work in its annelled state, or is the steel itself very expensive?

just curious
 
Originally posted by LizardKing
Why are Busses so expensive? ... is the steel itself very expensive?
Click to expand...
INFI steel, being proprietary, is certainly more expensive than the more common steels (1095, 52100, 440 series, etc). Busse also uses a special transverse wave treating of the steel that is apparently a considerable contributing factor to INFI's toughness. The Busse asymetrical edge takes two different kinds of grind (one flat, one convex) to make.

All these special ingredients and processes add up to what might look like an expensive knife when compared to commercially produced blades. But when the performance & durability differences are factored in, suddenly Busse blades look like a pretty good deal. :)
 
Lizard King-

RokJok did a good job of explaining some of the reason for cost, however there are other reasons as well.

First, I originally came from the world of custom folders and autos. Prices of these knives start at $500 typically and can easily go up to the multiple thousands. When you think that a $800-$1000 custom folder may only 6 to 7 inches long, the cost of these folders is actually alot more. Furthermore, I can assure you that the cost of INFI is much greater than the cost of the steels that you might find in these custom folders and the warranty is not nearly as good !

Anyway, I hope that helps. Customs are typically one of a kind or at a minimum, very, very low volume that negates the ability to use production knife making techniques.

Marc
 
Thanks all for your input here. I wish I could afford a custom Busse, but $100 per inch for the overall length is beyond my means right now. 6 months back I talked to Mr. Andre Dumouchel at a knife show for a long time, and he told me a lot about Busses. It was a real pleasure to talk to him. I've been drooling for a Busse ever since, but I wish that Mr. Busse made something along the lines of a big fighting bowie, with a clip point and at least a 9.5" blade. I'll bet if he ever does, it'll sell like hotcakes. But to order something like that at $100 per inch, have mercy on me. My wife would kick me out of bed and take the kids. Oh well; I guess it'll have to wait for another day. ;)
 
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You sound exactly like me. There might be a lawyer involved if my wife knew that I ordered a $750 knife. I saw the Flying Tiger at the NY Custom Knife Show and immediately discounted it due to the cost. It was really the most perfect fixed blade that I ever saw.
I left and, with the help of my two friend who came along, we determined that it'd be "free" if I sell off almost all of my production knives. Actually came out ahead as I sold off some other things as well that were collecting dust so I actually "made" money by ordering that knife.
She should feel damn lucky to have married someone as intelligent as I.
 
Another thing you have to realize is that there are other important reasons why customs are more than the combat line. You may ask yourself why does an 8" overall knife cost 800.00 when I can pick up a Battle Mistress for 350.00? Jerry has computer driven laser cutters that cut out the combat lines patterns in the infi. I'm not an expert but he can probably make many blanks at a time. When you are dealing with a custom piece and all he has to go one is a blueprint or drawing that his computer will not understand he has to go to the band saw and cut it out by hand. Jerry has to spend a lot more personal time on a Custom and do all the work by hand. And his time is very valuable. He makes a lot more money of the knives that have more automated aspects of their production. But he does customs cause they are fun, a test of skill, and because he likes us. LOL. But we gotta make it worth his time.:D
 
I wonder what kind of cost savings there would be if Jerry would stop using Guinness to quench the blades? :)
 
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