... most folks cannot afford to drop big bucks on some of the up-scale knives on the market.
I've got some good news and bad news.
GOOD NEWS:
Busse Knives, by merit of INFI's combining toughness with hardness, are IMHO the best user knives going, whether going to the woods for hunting/camping duty or on-the-job brutality chores.
As your FIL said though and others have noted, for Joe Public spending a few hundred dollars on a hard-use knife (Busse, Strider, Fehrman, Randall, etc, to say nothing of the custom makers) is considered crazy. To pay the price of a Strider folder (or someday a BUSSE FOLDER!!
) is likewise deemed untenable. This is so in their eyes in light of the fact that they can get a Kabar or Ontario fixed blade knife for under $50, or a Kershaw folder in the $25-$30 range. Never mind the difference in performance -- they will never push the knives hard enough to need that difference and the reduced price justifies the purchase as being a "good deal" to them. I used to do that too.
As was noted, different folks have different priorities. My priority these days is quality in tooling (a knife is a tool in my world).
I have found that when I scrimp on price to buy cheap tools, in the long run it costs me a lot more than the good tools would have cost in the first place. I may buy a tool cheap from the store or vendor, but the real cost of that cheap tool is the expense of materials ruined by a tool that was inaccurate, the frustration of having to jury-rig around the inadequacy of the cheaper tool, or the higher cost-over-time of having to repair or replace cheaper tools more often than the higher-cost higher-quality tools, to the point that the long-term cost of cheaper tools is actually a lot higher than getting the better tool initially, working more accurately and efficiently with it, and having its service life extend through several lifetimes of cheaper versions.
Good tools don't cost you money... they *save* you money, as well as your sanity as you work with them. Working with a good tool can bring a smile to your face with the recognition of how much it adds to your work experience. In my world, Bussekin knives are good tools.
BAD NEWS:
In spite of what your FIL and Joe Public may think, Busse knives are not expensive knives. Especially considering the kind of "high bang for your buck" price point they can be bought at and the abuse they can withstand.
If you want expensive knives, check out the world of art knives. Those are the knives encrusted with jewels, gold inlays, fabulously beautiful (and commensurately expensive) etchings or scrimshaw, opening and lock mechanisms machined to NASA tolerances, exotic metals-stones-materials from around the world, etc. We are talking of wares that collectors pay tens-of-thousands of dollars and more for one knife.... and it's a knife that really *is* too pretty to use.
Give me a Busse that has lost much of its coating to wear, gotten all scratched and dinged up, had its handle smoked poking ashes in hundreds of campfires, and moulded its sheath to its own shape over many miles and days of trails-paddling-hiking-wear, and I will deem it a knife that has earned its duty-worn appellation, "A knife like *that* is a beauty to behold..." It may not be pretty, but IMHO it would carry its own beauty.
P.S. All you Hogs can use (for no charge and trademark-free
) the "RokJok says, Busse knives are not expensive knives" on your wives/girlfriends/family to justify buying more INFI when they give you grief about feeding your INFI addiction. I'm sure they'll understand.
