Having my first Busse made! ...need a sheath and sharpening info.

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emt1581

Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
910
At first I wasn't overly attracted to the Combat Boss Jack. Then when I came around they changed the knife on their site. I've been told they actually offer knives here on BF.com with greater frequency than on their website but I've yet to see it.

Anyway, I called up Busse and Lexi arranged to have one made for me. It'll be here in 3-6 weeks. It's a Combat Boss Jack...full choil, black finish, Black G10 laminate...that is exactly what I wanted. $307 shipped.

I do have to find a good sheath in the mean time. I want kydex and possibly a modular/removable snap. I'm thinking a simple kydex design with eyelets for 550 cord would be good although I'll probably end up using a Tek-Lok if I carry it around when working outside. Any idea on which one or two makers would be worth looking at?

However, with a $300 knife I'll probably opt for my CS knives for heavy use rather than this blade.

Also, I plan on buying a Sharpmaker to I can put a nice edge on my Kukri/Folders/etc. Will this work for the INFI steel or is there a specific sharpener I need?

Thanks! :)

-Emt1581
 
Welcome to the Busse Forum! and congrats on your first Busse knife.

For kydex sheath, we have a number of good plastic benders here. In alphabetic order:

azwelke
Buy Brown
Grand Suave /Mashed Cat
okuden
steelnut

You bought a Busse, it's born for heavy duty use. Don't be shy about using it, it can take far more abuse than your CS knives, and come out smiling. You can't hardly hurt it, and there is that great warranty if by some miracle you do actually damage it.

Sharpmaker should work fine, INFI is not hard to sharpen. You might find that the factory edge is a little obtuse, and may not match the angle on your sticks, so it will take a little time to knock down the shoulder to set the new edge angle.
 
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emt1581 said:
At first I wasn't overly attracted to the Combat Boss Jack.
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I'm glad you changed your mind. It's the most sexy knife ever. Fact, not just my humble opinion :cool:

There are three forum members here do lots of Kydex for Busses. I'm sure they'll chime in soon, but they're Azwelke, Buy Brown, and Mashed Cat. Trying to remain unbiased here so I listed them in alphabetical order... but Mashed Cat does have its own site with optional bells and whistles, since that's kind of what you're looking for.

The Sharpmaker works on INFI. It's just a regular, magical steel :)
 
resinguy said:
Welcome to the Busse Forum! and congrats on your first Busse knife.

For kydex sheath, we have a number of good plastic benders here. In alphabetic order:

azwelke
Buy Brown
Grand Suave
okuden
steelnut

You bought a Busse, it's born for heavy duty use. Don't be shy about using it, it can take far more abuse than your CS knives, and come out smiling. You can't hardly hurt it, and there is that great warranty if by some miracle you do actually damage it.

Sharpmaker should work fine, INFI is not hard to sharpen. You might find that the factory edge is a little obtuse, and may not match the angle on your sticks, so it will take a little time to knock down the shoulder to set the new edge angle.
Click to expand...


I don't want to say I bought this knife just to abuse it but I would like to find out what INFI has on SK5, AUS-8, VG-1...and some of the other mediocre steels that work well for knives.

The one thing I worry about is scratching that black coating...will it cause rust? Any specific care these knives need?

Thanks

-Emt1581
 
The coating will get smoothed just from use and the kydex sheath. Don't worry about it.

Even without the coating rust isn't an issue- assuming you don't dive in salt water.

Specific care: Use the darn thing! You'll be glad you did. :)
 
A well made kydex sheath should not scratch the coating.
Unless the user gets some grit embedded in the kydex, by putting a dirty knife in the sheath.
This will happen with leather or nylon as well.

It may smooth it out over time.

I use tape to create a little room to keep this to a minimum.

IMG_6674.jpg


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IMG_6673.jpg


IMG_5185.jpg
 
I really like that satin finish and blood groove/KABAR look you have there. I almost asked for it (the finish). I just think the Black finish is slightly more useful especially for not grabbing attention.

Can I strip off the finish and polish it myself if I wanted to? How do you do it? Again, I don't plan on it, I just like to know my options.

EDIT: Nice gun as well. I have the MSAR on duty next to my bed.

Thanks

-Emt1581
 
Although INFI is not a stainless steel, it is the most stain & rust resistant non-stainless steel I've yet to personally encounter. And, although I have seen rust on one or 2 of mine from time to time (mainly due to my carelessness), it has always been just light surface oxidation/rust, and never has pitted the steel. I wouldn't worry about scratching the coating, but if you do, then just use a but of mineral oil in those areas between uses and you'll probably never see any at all...unless you dive with it in salt water and forget to rinse it down. :)

Here's what I mean by my carelessness... A satin finished Busse not cleaned well, and put back into its cardboard sheath still wet...for amost a year! (most cardboard does have a bit of acidic properties, which doesn't help when wet objects are in contact.) A little TLC with 'Mother', and back to new looking!!!

Before:
NMFBMLE-27_Dirty-Side.jpg


After:
NMFBMLE-27_after-Mothers-polish.jpg



...INFI is very forgiving! :) Enjoy that BOSS Jack and don't spend your time worrying about the little things (scratches, etc.). :thumbup:
 
Wow, that did clean up nice!

Thanks for all the info everyone! :)

as far as stripping off the coating and polishing it if I wanted to...?

Thanks

-Emt1581
 
The Boss Jack is a great choice! Also...CONGRATULATIONS on your first Busse. May there be many more to come. :thumbup:
 
Stripping coated knives is easy, there are many threads for you to search that show how it's done. Just use heavy duty stripper, as the factory coating is a baked on powder coating.

Polishing... well that's another matter. The coated blades cost less than satin for a good reason. Busse does not put much time into smoothing the blades that are going to be coated. So when stripped, they can be a little fugly, depending on the knife. Full height flat ground knives generally look better when stripped. Not sure what you might find in your case. It will take some time with sandpaper and a sanding block, or a belt sander, to get to what we refer to as 'ghetto satin'. I did my first by hand, then bought a Harbor Freight 1x30 belt grinder to clean up, regrind, and sharpen some others.
 
Hey Lexi!

Not sure if you're the same one I've been talking to on the phone at Busse or not but thanks for the help/opinion if so. :)

-Emt1581
 
resinguy said:
Stripping coated knives is easy, there are many threads for you to search that show how it's done. Just use heavy duty stripper, as the factory coating is a baked on powder coating.

Polishing... well that's another matter. The coated blades cost less than satin for a good reason. Busse does not put much time into smoothing the blades that are going to be coated. So when stripped, they can be a little fugly, depending on the knife. Full height flat ground knives generally look better when stripped. Not sure what you might find in your case. It will take some time with sandpaper and a sanding block, or a belt sander, to get to what we refer to as 'ghetto satin'. I did my first by hand, then bought a Harbor Freight 1x30 belt grinder to clean up, regrind, and sharpen some others.
Click to expand...

That makes sense. A rough surface is a grippier surface whether it's painting a door or coating a knife. Again, for functionality, which is what I am ALL about, a coated blade is better. However, if I ever start collecting these instead of guns, I'd probably go satin/polished next time.

Thanks

-Emt1581
 
Thought I'd note that they also have a bead-blasted finish they call double cut (it's blasted with two different media). I think that satin-and-blood groove knife you saw above is actually double cut. The blood groove and machined texture on the scales indicate it's a BOSS Jack Proto.
 
emt1581 said:
Wow, that did clean up nice!

Thanks for all the info everyone! :)

as far as stripping off the coating and polishing it if I wanted to...?

Thanks

-Emt1581
Click to expand...


One thing to remember on all this stripping, grinding, polishing, pimping, changing and what not.
It will affect your warranty.
If you do it that part of the knife will not be guaranteed any more.
The heat treat may be effected without the proper training.

What Jaxx did should be fine, but stripping the blade and using power tools on the blade, I would guess is a no go.

Please be careful and aware of that.
 
uyotg said:
Thought I'd note that they also have a bead-blasted finish they call double cut (it's blasted with two different media). I think that satin-and-blood groove knife you saw above is actually double cut. The blood groove and machined texture on the scales indicate it's a BOSS Jack Proto.
Click to expand...

Oh ok. Yeah I'm not a fan of Micarta. I have it on my ESEE-5 and it was too smooth and retained dirt way too easily. Difficult to clean as well.

-Emt1581
 
David Brown said:
One thing to remember on all this stripping, grinding, polishing, pimping, changing and what not.
It will affect your warranty.
If you do it that part of the knife will not be guaranteed any more.
The heat treat may be effected without the proper training.

What Jaxx did should be fine, but stripping the blade and using power tools on the blade, I would guess is a no go.

Please be careful and aware of that.
Click to expand...

Yeah I figured that. I wouldn't expect a warranty if I did it. That's why I said I would probably buy it polished.

If what yall are saying is true and these knives can take a heavy workload, the warranty should never be relied on anyway. I remember watching Noss destroy the FFBM a while ago. While I don't plan on hammering through pipe or busting through concrete...it's nice to know THAT knife handled it just fine...well until the end... Not sure if the CBJ can do the same or handle the same abuse.

-Emt1581
 
I like the sharpmaker for what it is. Guy is right about the HF 1x30, they work. The Kalamazoo 1sm works better, but its a lot more money.

If it were me and I wanted to keep away from power tools, (belt sanders, paper wheels, buffers) I would, and did, order DMT continuous diamond stones. You don't have to worry about a factory edge angle. They cut FAST, leave a great finish and no matter how you sharpen your not really done until you strop the burr off.

If your not afraid of power tools, I highly suggest the 1sm. Even the HF will work well, its just not adjustable tension and it may fall apart.

Good luck and congrats!!
 
richstag said:
I like the sharpmaker for what it is. Guy is right about the HF 1x30, they work. The Kalamazoo 1sm works better, but its a lot more money.

If it were me and I wanted to keep away from power tools, (belt sanders, paper wheels, buffers) I would, and did, order DMT continuous diamond stones. You don't have to worry about a factory edge angle. They cut FAST, leave a great finish and no matter how you sharpen your not really done until you strop the burr off.

If your not afraid of power tools, I highly suggest the 1sm. Even the HF will work well, its just not adjustable tension and it may fall apart.

Good luck and congrats!!
Click to expand...


I'll have to look in to the ones you suggested. However, if the Sharpmaker will let me shave arm hair with all my blades, that's good enough IMHO. So I'll try that first. If it's not doing the job, I'm sure one of the ones you mentioned will.

Thanks

-Emt1581
 
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