Finally my "Basic Survival Knife" arrived

Bagheera

Bagheera

Joined
Oct 6, 1998
Messages
957
Hi,

Finally, after having been 5 months at a friend in San Diego I received the Busse Basic 9 with "home polished" blade that I traded with a fellow Forumite in March of this year.

Jerry himself gave the knife a good sharpening, so it arrived in hair shaving condition.

It came with a black Kydex sheath with leg strap and a "mountable" snap-on beltloop extender. I had to unscrew 3 'chicago' screws to attach the beltloop extender and now I have a nice low riding tree-chopper at my right thigh.

One thing I noticed the 1/4" thick Basic 9 has a very nice balance, the runner grip fits my hand perfectly and the knife even feels "light" in my hand.

Just a question is sheath that I described above an original Busse one ? I prefer the Cordura with Kydex insert and mounted pouch type myself preferably in sand color but it seems that Busse does not make them anymore?

Anyhow, I'll chop down a few trees in the ccoming week(s) to see if the Basic #9 keeps an edge ;)

Best Scouting wishes from Holland,

Bagheera
 
It was a sad day when Busse had to drop the Basics line, but maybe they have a couple of the cordura/kydex sheaths still in stock? I agree that they are not bad for a factory sheath. I keep a SAK and a lighter (and maybe a firesteel when they arrive) in the pouch.

Good luck finding one.

(By the way, you won't have any problems with the knife holding an edge!)
 
Piet!!

Tell you what my Ditch Jumping, Wooden Shoe Wearing,Windmill Watching, Amstel Drinking friend...

If the BB9 fits in my Battle mistress sheath,,you can have mine...

Drop me a note next week(going out of town for the weekend) and I'll check it out....

Hows that sound ??

ttyle

Eric...
 
Thanks guys,

Eric, I'm gonna drop you an email for shure :D

I'll find something nice to trade for the sheath, how about some Large Military Firesteels as our club will be receiving a new batch shortly and as always we have spares.
We even had some smaller Scout model Firesteels added to our order.

By the way, I drink 'Grolsch' not 'Amstel' beer, the bottles are bigger ;)

I gave the edge of my Basic #9 a slight polishing over last night as I think that Jerry sharpenes it with 300 grit belts or something.
I had a few rough spots were the paper halted when I tried cutting it.

I'm still not satisfied as I like mirror edges and I used a 600? grit ceramic stick (Gatco Tri-ceps) and then I tried stropping it on a leather strop with some polishing paste.

You guys talk about "green" stuff called "simmichrome" or something ?is that solid stuff or a liquid polishing agent that you let @soak@ in the strop?

I then proceeded hacking away at some fireplace wood that I have in the backyard, it is well dried beech wood which is really hard and tuff when dried.
I cut up 4 16" x 4" diameter logs into small 'firestarter' pieces.
At first I first hesitated on hitting the spine of the Basic #9 with a smaller diameter beech log to help splitting up the larger diameter logs, I then thought, "lifetime guarantee" so I hapilly hammered away at the spine without anything happening except starting to get a pile of firestarter wood :).

The rubber grip fits my hand a lot better then the one on the basic #5 and I had no sore spots after I finished cutting op the logs.

To my SURPRISE I could still push cut my left lower "arm-growth" without any problems whatsoever, in short I'm really impressed about the edge holding. I now have a funny looking left lower arm that looks like it was used at some "Tell Sell" hair removal commercial ;) my wife calls it "smoothy" ;)

That's it for the moment, best scouting wishes from Holland,

Bagheera
 
" ;) my wife calls it "smoothy" ;) "


.... Way too much information for me, way too much....

:D

Nobody
 
Hi Nobody,

No "Springer" show here 'smoothy' refers to my left lower arm ;)

Not even a Busse touches my "center piece" :p

Nobody, rests me to say the following words to you "A dirty mind is a joy forever" :D

Best scouting wishes from Holland,

Bagheera
 
Bagheera,
Dont be afraid to pound on the spine of your Busse with a stick or a log. It can take it. I frequently do this with my #7 and the only thing its done to my knife is scratch up the black coating.

Shawn
 
Hi Shawn,

Yep I'll hammer away without hesitation and even won't mar the black coating as one of the previous owners hand polished everything off so I have a nice semi-gloss finish except for the "choil" were you see the original pitted structure of the 1/4" piece of modified infi.

The black epoxy coating remains in the "pits" and gives it a kind of nice contrasting look.

Best Scouting wishes from Holland,

Bagheera
 
The finest polishing abrasive for cutlery is CrO, it is about 0.5 micron, twice as fine as an 8000 grit Japanese waterstone. Lee Valley sells it both in big green bars and Mylar backed sandpaper. The sandpaper cuts faster and will produce a more even finish. However the bar is much cheaper.

-Cliff
 
Piet, Eric,

My BB9 fits fine in my Kydex BBM sheath. :)

The reverse is not true as the BBM blade is a good bit wider than the BB9. It adds weight, which makes the BBM a better chopper, but more to carry.

Last summer I took along my BB9 and used it to split wood. I used a baton to beat it through chunks of wood to make kindling. The only problem I had that I did not have a durable enough baton. I went through a few. Not much effect on the finish from the baton, but the finish on the sides is scarred.

One last comment, I have the Kydex sheaths that came with a leg strap. I am much happier now that I replaced the one on the BBM with a Blackhawk strap. (see www.tacticalnylon.com ) I did have to enlarge the slit as the strap is much wider.

Scouting firesteels? Are they like the HotSpark sold here with Boy Scout equipment?

Donald.
 
Hi Donald,

Thanks for the info about the BBM sheath fitting the BB9.
It looks like Eric is getting some Firesteels send to him ;).

Donald, the Firesteels that our Scouting group sometimes buys a batch off are not the small kind that you mention but are the original Large Military Firesteels from Light-My-Fire Sweden ( http://www.light-my-fire.se ). These are solid 3/8" diameter by almosr 2.8" long Ferrocium stcks together with a nice thumpiece (plastic) and lanyard + striker.
We always carry a piece of Maya-wood as a keychain attachement with the Firesteel as the 80% resin content of the Maya-wood always ignites readilly when you cut some slivers from it.
You can go swim with the Maya-wood as it does not lose its firestarting properties.

In the past our scouting group sold a bunch of the extra Firesteels to Jeff Randall to go together with his laserstrike knife and he liked them that much that he now sells them in survival kits etc.
Still our $10 including postage was (and still is) an unbeatable price.

Donald we used them as a fundraiser and so far we invested the Dollars in the complete Hoods Woods Woodmasters video series (used from a fellow Forumite) a Brunton Eclipse compass,LED lights, Sliver Grippers, Polar Pure etc.

I hope that's enough info and thanks for the BBM sheath fitting the BB9.

Best Scouting wishes from Holland,

Bagheera
 
Originally posted by Bagheera

...the Firesteels that our Scouting group sometimes buys a batch off are not the small kind that you mention but are the original Large Military Firesteels from Light-My-Fire Sweden ( http://www.light-my-fire.se ). These are solid 3/8" diameter by almosr 2.8" long Ferrocium stcks together with a nice thumpiece (plastic) and lanyard + striker.
We always carry a piece of Maya-wood as a keychain attachement with the Firesteel as the 80% resin content of the Maya-wood always ignites readilly when you cut some slivers from it.
You can go swim with the Maya-wood as it does not lose its firestarting properties.

<snipped>
Still our $10 including postage was (and still is) an unbeatable price.
Click to expand...

Bagheera,
Are you still selling these firestarters? I may be interested in a few. Also, I wondered if you had had experience with the Trangia alcohol stoves. I've read good things about them, but they are difficult to get here in the States. Anyone who knows a source for Trangia 27's (or has a 27-2 they'd like to sell) feel free to reply!

Patrick
 
Hi Patrick,

Yep, we'll have a batch on its way to our Scouting group, our new Scouting season has started and even thow the Firesteels should last a lifetime our kids always seem to need new ones.

I wondered :confused: why they needed them but discovered that they often trade a Firesteel with fellow scouts while they are on (summer) camp weekends for badges and other stuff :) .

They also hold competitions of how fast and/or how many fires they can start in a certain time frame, using a Firesteel + the Maya-wood keychain attachement that they make from Maya-wood slabs ( 8" by 1") that we also buy for them.

Best Scouting wishes from Holland,

Bagheera
 
Hi DancesWithKnives,

I have no clue as to were you can get larger amounts of the Maya-wood in the US.
I know that Jeff Randall now also carries the Firesteels and include Maya-wood pieces in his Survival kits but the kids carry a price.

Just let me hear how many pieces you would like and I'll let you know how much postage will be.
If you want Firesteels, these come with a Maya-wood Key-chain attachement ;) just let me know.

Best Scouting wishes from Holland,

Bagheera
 
DancesWithKnives,

You may want to do a search. A similar topic has come up before. I believe that Maya wood is essentially a wood that is very high in resin content. Fatwood, another name, i.e. high resin wood (pine?), is a similar item, as I recall from a previous discussions. These are also sold and in packages for fire starting. I thought you could order Maya wood, for a price, but if not, perhaps someplace like L.L.Bean would sell it as fatwood for fire starting. In one of the threads someone was coveting a stump that had become resin soaked.....
 
This is what we called "Lighter Pine" when I was in Scouts. I'd like to think you could go walking thru your nearby woods (provided you don't live in a desert), and hunt down an old pine stump and chop off a handful or two of the most pine-resin-filled wood. It's easily identified as the stuff that hasn't rotted away after several years. I've found it doesn't keep the resin in it after it's been cut, but instead evaporates away. It keeps a little better if it's a big chunk instead of little shavings. I guess I'm lucky to live in SE Texas, where the pine trees grow like weeds, then we cut them down for lumber. Beaumont's economy (and history) began with harvesting the pine trees.
 
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