Friday night knife argument spawns a new Busse fan :)

Robdude

Robdude

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It was a fun night!! so I'm hanging out with my brother in laws fam when his brother and I start talking about our folders.. then he pull out a 7-8" tops blade an says check this out.. I go on to complement the blade (I really do like some tops blades). He then said I should get one because they are indestructible.. I said I am more of a Busse guy. Then he said an I shit you not "Well I looked into lots of knife makers an if you want a blade you can't break, ya gotta get a tops" I kinda laughed an he instantly got defensive. I proposed that we have our own knife chop through a Steel car door test face off..whoevers blade has a wose edge afterward buys the other a new blade. When he realized I was dead serious he started to backpedal.. but finally agreed to the chop off on sunday. I ran out to my truck an grabbed my Ash1 to show him.. he clearly had never seen or held a 1/3" thick monster blade before.. as he held both blades, it was hard not to giggle as his knife suddenly looked under-endowed.. we sat on the computer for at least 2 hours looking up 1095 an INFI info an tests.. this also led to a long look into sr101 an so on.. by this time I had him sweating bullets an I was rubbing it in by shopping for my next knife (that he would be buying me) :) the destruction test videos an infi facts we had read got to him because he finally backed out of the contest.. lol an as of about 10pm before my wife an I left, he and I were on the Busse website looking at the battle grade sfno ....he is hoping to order one tomorrow.... sorry to be so long winded..but it was a fun night
 
for the record, I do love knives in 1095 an have a few.. an it's nothing against Tops. I just believe Busse an INFI are in a class of their own..
 
Thats a good story..Too bad the "Chop Off" was declined.

What model Tops did he pull out..?

That new SR101 Outlaw is hard to lay off, would be a great intro to Busse and a leap from 1095..Let us know if he pulls the trigger..
 
Woohoo, another convert! Keep preachin' that gospel man! :thumbup:

I turned my brother on to Busse a long, long time ago...

We were out in a heavily wooded area, and I was showing him just how awesome my new (at the time) Basic 9 was. He had my Ontario SP-1.

We chopped a little, limbed a few trees out, etc. Then we switched... He said "holy shit! This thing's like magic!" He was amazed at how well it performed, how sharp it remained after the workout, etc.

He threw it into a few trees. I just let him do it! He got it to stick a few times. He finally "thunked" it into a log and said "I've got to get me one of these. It's awesome. How much are they?"

I told him what they cost (at the time) and he immediately apologized for throwing it and "treating it so rough"!

I said "hell, man I've done much worse, and will continue to do so!" I told him about Busse's awesome warranty, told him I had already used it as a prybar, makeshift jack handle, tent stake, pounded it through wood with a hammer, etc... I told him "Busse Combat guarantees this knife no questions asked. Point blank, if you break it, they replace it. Period. I took that to heart when I read it, and I just use this sumbitch, with wild abandon. For any damn thing I wanna use it for. And it just laughs at me."...

Then the real kicker - I told him I bought it from a website called discountknives.com for $100. They had 3 in stock and I bought one. Two hours later I thought "man, that's such a great deal I should probably buy the other 2"... Tried to do it and they were gone.

Been kicking myself in the ass ever since. DUH DUH DUH!!!
 
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Ya it would have made for some good pics.. oh well, maybe there will be a Ash1 an BG sfno chop off in the near future :) I think his was called a longhorn or something.. I had a Steel Eagle years ago..it was ok.. I bet by tomorrow he has a Busse on order.. after seeing all the tests an info on Busse blades, it's hard to resist owning one..
 
Few other "production" fixed blades inspire the "dayuuuum" feeling one gets when holding a Busse (or kin). :cool:

My brother had a similar epiphany when he first held my CG NMFSH. :D Now he has a BIG finish NMFSH of his own. :thumbup:
 
SpyderPhreak said:
Few other "production" fixed blades inspire the "dayuuuum" feeling one gets when holding a Busse (or kin). :cool:

My brother had a similar epiphany when he first held my CG NMFSH. :D Now he has a BIG finish NMFSH of his own. :thumbup:
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It's true.. holding a Busse is empowering.
 
Haha great story! You did him a favor,, best knives and best people on the planet,, hope to see him on the forums
 
That was a really good story. I'm actually going to be giving my brother an Infidu with a Mark Condos leather sheath for Christmas this year. It will be his first Busse, and I'm sure it will get him hooked.
 
Robdude said:
It's true.. holding a Busse is empowering.
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It sure is :)

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Very cool story :)
 
David Brown said:
It sure is :)

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Very cool story :)
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Cool pic man! I picture one of those cartoon moments when the blade flexes back, launching you across camp..
We spent some time looking at your sheaths last night to.. he's digging that leather style like I am...
 
Any knife can break. Some can bend a great deal before they do. It's part of the mastersmith test. The best knife is the one that will do what you need it to do. If you need it to pretend to be indestructible, there are brands for that too, but only a fool believes a knife is indestructible and only a poseur or a tester needs to destroy a knife.
I'm a big Busse fan and love infi. I think quite a bit of the man and the company too. But there are other knives, custom knives, that are superb and in some respects have superior characteristics.
I first went to busse as a better replacement for my Cold Steel Carbon V Trailmaster with that horrible Kraton handle. Old straight handles. Still have and use them. Well nigh indestructible, but definitely destructible. And, you know, I still love my Trailmaster too.
I have no doubt Topps makes a great knife. But to know why this knife is "better" than another for a particular use or in a particular characteristic, you have to get beyond the mall ninja or brick bashing stage. Someone with that much enthusiasm about a good knife is easy to educate and soon he or she will be lusting after Busses and hiding it from their spouses, just like the rest of us.
The more the merrier
 
HJK said:
Any knife can break. Some can bend a great deal before they do. It's part of the mastersmith test. The best knife is the one that will do what you need it to do. If you need it to pretend to be indestructible, there are brands for that too, but only a fool believes a knife is indestructible and only a poseur or a tester needs to destroy a knife.
I'm a big Busse fan and love infi. I think quite a bit of the man and the company too. But there are other knives, custom knives, that are superb and in some respects have superior characteristics.
I first went to busse as a better replacement for my Cold Steel Carbon V Trailmaster with that horrible Kraton handle. Old straight handles. Still have and use them. Well nigh indestructible, but definitely destructible. And, you know, I still love my Trailmaster too.
I have no doubt Topps makes a great knife. But to know why this knife is "better" than another for a particular use or in a particular characteristic, you have to get beyond the mall ninja or brick bashing stage. Someone with that much enthusiasm about a good knife is easy to educate and soon he or she will be lusting after Busses and hiding it from their spouses, just like the rest of us.
The more the merrier
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Well said. :thumbup:
 
Nice! I am familiar with this breed of brother-in-law... You've defended our honor well--let them tremble before our steel! And David Brown.:D
 
I agree for the most part.. I like 1095 an I actually had a tops steel eagle an liked it.. I agree that knives don't need to pass a concrete chopping test to be a good blade. As a machinist i have always been facinated with metallurgy an although I never plan to use ANY of my knives in the way Noss does in his tests.. I do think many of us find it fascinating to see INFI and other steels pushed to their limit.. Busse and other brands sell their blades on toughness an they ask a premium for it. Other companys aside, Jerry an his INFI steel make some wild claims in regards to toughness, just seeing the steel perform above an beyond its claims turns me on. I don't think it makes you a poser or mall ninja to want your blade to hold up under heavy abuse.. i dont see how that couldnt be attractive.. but it ain't a make or break for all my knife buying decisions.
 
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Good story. I had a Tops Anaconda and it was a good knife. 1095 is a very good steel and often underrated because of crappy inconsistent heat treat by certain companies. But it does not compare to modern steels.
 
Robdude said:
I do think many of us find it fascinating to see INFI and other steels pushed to their limit.. Busse and other brands sell their blades on toughness an they ask a premium for it. Other companys aside, Jerry an his INFI steel make some wild claims in regards to toughness, just seeing the steel perform above an beyond its claims turns me on. I don't think it makes you a poser or mall ninja to want your blade to hold up under heavy abuse.. i dont see how that couldnt be attractive.. but it ain't a make or break for all my knife buying decisions.
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Oh, I completely agree about seeing knives tested to failure. Let me tell you about Cliff Stamp...:)
Right again about charging a premium for toughness etc. Busse aren't cheap, no question.
I don't know what makes you to "want your blade to hold up under heavy abuse" but it doesn't make you reasonable. No knife should be expected to last up under heavy abuse. I never abuse my knives never mind heavily. Well, almost never... Standing up to heavy USE is something else again. Busses will certainly stand up to heavy use.
Consider even the greatest of blades, a Masamune katana. Used properly, incomparable. Five cadavers or more. You could destroy that blade very easily by mishandling it.

I used to do a fair bit of ocean kayaking and whitewater canoeing in the Arctic, Antarctic and patagonia ( I had to stop because the japanese Whalers though I was a new kind of Beluga) and I mostly used my old straight handle Steelheart as my main heavy use knife. I didn't clean it as often as I would have liked ( understatement) and I wasn't too kind sometimes when I used it to dig through rocky ground for tenting and accidently hit rock a few times when chopping. I've chipped mastersmith forged and hardened O1 on less. They worked, and still work, for my needs where I wouldn't dare use a fancier blade.
If you want to see testing to destruction from someone with a very definite point of view, look up Cliff Stamp and some of the more recent metalurgical threads here.

As for Jerry's claims. This is how I look at it. Jerry is a businessman and a salesman. All salesmen advertize and from time to time engage in what is know as "puffery". I don't buy based on that. One thing I can say. Busse has a well deserved reputation for standing behind its warranty. That's what I think counts, as well as the knives themselves being excellent, of course. Not perhaps the greatest cutting and chopping instrument sort of a light sabre, but a helluva knife, and sword ( AK! )
 
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