Got dinged for DTBMBG

I use a lanyard around my wrist. When I'm chopping I usually use 2-3 fingers on the handle toward the butt. Gives more reach, plus not as many hotspots.

Sometimes this isn't possible, but it is most of the time I've found.

There's always cushiony stuff to put on the handle.
 
I've been dinged for mine but due to ongoing unemployment I am not able to complete the purchase. If anyone is interested in taking it over I'll tee it up with the good folks at Busse. Black canvas on desert sage. PM me if interested.
 
WOW! FINALLY got notice of this thing shipping! Blue/black G10 on tanker.
 
This did land yesterday as expected.

Special thanks to Busse for always upgrading me to overnight shipping at no additional cost!! :thumbup: :D
(jk, I'm only about 3hrs from Wauseon)

I've gotta say, I almost hoped the DT wouldn't be my cup of tea. My collection of choppers is growing fast with more on the way. Eventually I'll want to get back down to a lean stable of users, but my immediate reaction is that this thing is super cool and feels awesome in hand. I'm pretty sure it won't stay pristine for long.

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This is my first order in Sage. Interesting color and texture, but something about this blade in particular makes me want to strip it and give it a diy satin finish and a ghetto meltdown treatment around the talons, etc.

Don't know too much about the rear talon yet, since swinging the blade around like a mall ninja probably doesn't qualify as "use," but the grip is plenty large for my hand. It may be a little limiting in terms of being able to choke way back for more leverage, but I doubt I'll grind it off or anything unless it turns out there are issues with pinky bite. My initial impression of the aesthetics and liveliness of the blade in hand are so positive that I'd rather not mess with it unless it's driven by need. We'll see after I've had a chance to see how it works for my style of use.
 
Alrighty, to be frank I tried it out, did some chopping, and was not impressed with the performance. I knew it was thick, but hadn't measured the edge.

Very roughly it was ~.06" behind the edge with an asymetric bevel of ~20° on one side and ~25° on the other. My 1111 and 1311 purchased second hand but new off the exchange are both about half as thick at ~.03" and perform very well.

I feel I have some room to vent here as I've made multiple requests for the shop to put thinner edges on my orders and they haven't do so, (even though they said they'd mark the orders and didn't indicate any issue with the request). While I'm disappointed that I found myself regrinding a $300 blade the day after I got it, I am pretty comfortable with my water cooled 1x30 and decided to do it myself.

I didn't get too aggressive, but started by lowering the edge bevel to 15° per side and then went to work on the flats to thin the primary. I took it down to ~.04" at the lower angle and then lightly convexed the edge to blend the transition. HUUUUGE difference. :thumbup:

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I'm disappointed to read about the thick edge. I was doing some hard work with a fat Ratweilers today, and even though the edge was sharp enough to shave, its performance on branches up to about 3/4" inch in diameter was pitiful. I had to make about 4-6 more chops on any given branch (depending on thickness) than I would have had to with my skinny Ratweiler. I wish I had the belt sander like you, Apophis. Because I know that I'm going to have to thin out the edge on both the Ratweiler and the DTBM. Probably to the point you did with your DTBM.

I guess these knives are perfect for their intended "sharpened pry-bar" usage. Too bad that isn't what I need. I still like them, but I'm really regretting my decision to get the fat INFI BB13. :( To the point I might have to cancel that one and hope to pick up a skinny SR-101 on the exchange.
 
Heh, I guess thick is the way to go though really, the elu can always remove material. There's no way to put it back on. :D :confused:

My setup is totally bottom of the barrel, but it was only $120 or so for the HF sander, a bunch of ceramic belts, and a few misc ad-ons. Not bad to be able to do the above.

I would be remiss if I did not note:

Please note that aftermarket modifications done to your knife outside of our shop that cause your knife to fail may void your warranty

Though I don't believe Jerry has ever denied a warranty claim :thumbup:

I just hoped I'd get the DT and HR ground like the SYKCOs. Can't complain about the end result though, I guess it will hurt the resale value, but it turned out pretty sick. Look forward to trying it on some green stuff soon.
 
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The contrasting combination of coating and bare steel on your blade looks awesome, Apophis. I thought the same thing about the edge on mine. I don't have a sander but I slapped mine on a diamond steel until I had a convexed edge with the shoulders knocked way back. It made a very noticeable improvement in how deep it bit into an old dry 2" x 4".
 
I've got plenty of stones and other sharpening stuff. I'll probably just spend an inordinate amount of time knocking the shoulders down and re-doing the edge with the stones I have. But if I keep getting Busse blades, I might have to look into your setup, Apophis.
 
It'd be nice if in the handle material and blade color options area, they had an edge option.

□ Slicing meat
□ Chopping brush and wood
□ Chopping cars in half
 
clampdaddy said:
The contrasting combination of coating and bare steel on your blade looks awesome, Apophis.
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Thanks man. I liked the look a lot too from seeing a few here and there on the forum, but this is the first one I've done myself like that.

I like your idea for putting a grind option on the order. I know Busse hangs their hat on making the toughest knives on the planet, but I'm not going to chop any cars, just wood.

One thing I find interesting about knife geometry is the non-linear nature of a couple of the important properties. If I'm remembering Cliff correctly, stiffness is cubed and strength is quadratic as thickness increases. So while any blade could fail if ground too thin for given work, edges get much stonger quickly as you beef them up.

As a basic example, if an edge is taking damage at 0.02", moving it up to 0.025" wouldn't just be 25% stronger, but should actually be twice as strong. On that basis, 0.06" should basically be bomb-proof. I have knives with stock thickness not much wider than that.
 
Think as far as Busses go, these came with "descent" edges and grinds are nice. Have seen much worse and on thinner blades! Ones with fullers mostly. Really wanted to keep the dguard but couldnt. Gotta quit lying to myself thinking I can afford to keep up with op2 way things are for me at moment. Especially since it's common to take a loss on a Busse now cause of flooded market and guessing since many are waiting on mystery bags nobody wants to buy anything until they see what they get.

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I have yet to get a Busse kin that thought could be used for more than a butter knife new out of the box. Bit of exaggeration but sure 90% of buyers have to sharpen out of box before can use, well. Know I do. That just shows how nice they are. Any other company I would say this is unacceptable, but just can't cause willing to overlook things cause the overall knife is so awesome.

I thought these BG Mistresses were good. Really liked dguard. Covered all features I want in a knife. Might get one again when can actually afford to keep it.
 
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I'm glad to hear yours was good to go. I assume since these are hand ground they can vary a fair amount from blade to blade. It could be that ours were just on different ends of the spectrum.

Ulf Krogstad said:
Any other company I would say this is unacceptable, but just can't cause willing to overlook things cause the overall knife is so awesome.
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My orders have all come pretty sharp, but this still captures my general sentiment. I couldn't be much more enthusiatic about the overall designs. My gripes here are simply meant as constructive criticism.
 
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Dinged first week of June, got it this past week. Sharpened by Beef, good to go, here in the company of another time-tested SR-101 chopper.
 
Here's another pic, got some good work in with all three of these today. (I was also carrying a machete, lol.)

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Beat on my DT some more today. Haven't quite made up my mind, but the rear talon may have to go. I feel like it adds some security and it looks awesome, but in hard chopping I've now slammed my pinky against it many times and it limits the ability to choke back for more reach/leverage. Still really like the feel of the knife overall, the size and contours on the scales are pretty much perfect for my hands.
 
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