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Father & Son Traditional Sharpening said:
Nothing to add here but despite what many here call that knife in error, the name was and is simply, Battle Mistress. This was the simple name that it was given by Busse Combat, the 'Straight Handle' part was what has been added as a sort of nickname by the shape of the handle in relation to the Ergo Battle Mistress which came next and also the Fusion Battle Mistress which followed the Ergo (that was a mix of the original Battle Mistress handle fused to the Ergo Mistress handle, hence Fusion). Back then, Battle Mistress was enough because it was the first of the lineage and I doubt it had been planned to become an entire lineage of naming large chopping knives from Busse.


Note the comments at around 1:20 on the naming of the knife. Also worth noting as some of you die hard extreme use types may have a heart attack hearing in the video, this knife has been reground to 8 degrees per side at the edge with a very slight 12 degree per side bevel at the very apex and a micro bevel to sharpen, with .020" thickness BEHIND the edge bevel where it turns into the primary grind. This knife was used HEAVILY for wood processing exclusively. Let that sink in for a minute and consider that most knives are 15-20 degrees per side from factory and Busse always exceeds this in my experience. If you're still following me and the numbers haven't completely lost you, how thick do you really need your knives to be?
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Thick. Really thick. Just follow the science.
 
Father & Son Traditional Sharpening said:
Perhaps for a collector but I would say there are far better examples of large Busse if you're inclined to use it heavily. If you dig through the comments on the YT video I referenced you'll see Cliff Stamp did not have favorable comments on this handle and found both the Ergo and Fusion handle designs to be much more functional in most all ways. His words were along the lines of 'can barely call it a handle', which after owning a Steel Heart II (which is roughly the same dimensionally) I'd have to basically agree with. That said, the ASHBM did a great deal to improve the ergonomics and I am fond of this model for the given style/shape overall.

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Not trying to badmouth Busse here but simply share my thoughts overall because if it were me and my father passed that on to me I'd find myself in a bit of a pickle. Do you keep it as received or put it to use? I guess this is my way of saying with everything I've experienced with Busse I can share a point of view that would be hard to even begin to understand if the OP is completely new to Busse. So personally I'd keep it as a collector's piece (which it is no doubt regardless of condition) and find another Busse to scratch up. If you like the looks of it and want something similar, the Anniversary Straight Handle Battle Mistress would be the knife to find and it should outperform the original Battle Mistress in just about every way.
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YouTube comments. That is where knife knowledge comes from. I am heading there now to learn how to sharpen my knives. Thanks for the heads up.
 
I've had and used extensively both Fusion handled knives and straight handled Busse.

My opinion stands. The straigh handled Mistresses and Steel Hearts and badgers are the most iconic Busse.

I look at a new Ferrari and say "wow, that is a fast, high tech performance car"

I look at old Ferrari and other early sports cars and say "those were beautiful lines"

I don't care that the brand new all wheel drive 1000 hp car is the fastest, or highest speed. I can still look at a classic and appreciate the lines.
 
Blueoak said:
Thick. Really thick. Just follow the science.
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Thanks for your comments, my friend! I can certainly sense they are..... Thick. Really thick. With the sarcasm. With knives and many other pursuits, if you're not following the science... then you're probably stuck on the hype train. I guess the world needs unpaid shills as well that will make strong comments based on little but feelings too, so if this is you then carry on.

You sound like someone who's got a lot of money invested in crusty old Busse knives from the early days. I knew my comments would have a knee jerk reaction OR TWO, so I apologize if I've offended your sensibilities by sharing an opposing view to the 'no school like the old school' camp you seem to be in. As I've said, these are my personal views that I wish to share with others as data points.... not as gospel. Feel free to disagree, nobody is going to crucify you for speaking out against me.

I have to ask, why bother posting when you seem to have nothing to say? I mean, I'm all for sarcasm when that's all you have left behind an oppressive wall of censorship that won't let you say what you truly need to say. This is the sad state on many public communication platforms on earth these days but I don't recall being stripped of those rights here. I'm all for disagreements and articulating why you feel somebody has it wrong but you're posts can only be seen taken as bitter and lazy.

Speaking of thick, I find it really difficult that you have trouble believing that the early Battle Mistress handle is anything less than perfection. Usually when a company hits on something that they think is perfection and cannot be improved upon they keep producing it that way. It seems Jerry had not felt that way and history certainly tells that tale. The Battle Mistress was reissued in 2013 with plenty of subtle but remarkable changes to the handle and blade, again done for very specific reasons.

Blueoak said:
YouTube comments. That is where knife knowledge comes from. I am heading there now to learn how to sharpen my knives. Thanks for the heads up.
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Actually, in my experience, you aren't likely to find much better knowledge elsewhere on sharpening knives. To most people, knife sharpening comes with it a mythical sort of voodoo that one must attain to get results because the person making the recommendations doesn't typically have a deep enough understanding of what needs to happen. Many knives can be sharpened in just a few minutes from completely blunt to hair popping sharp on a basic stone with a process that comes from the same man that you snark (Cliff Stamp) and it's unwise to ignore someone who held a degree in physics AND has contributed more unbiased data/information to the knife community than virtually anyone else because knives are bound to physics.

Since my only pursuit in life at this point is to be of service to others, I will help you with an excellent sharpening video so you can be more informed and save yourself a whole lot of trouble and expensive equipment that you don't need to get the skill learned to satisfaction. Cliff taught this method to literal children, where he can hand them a knife that has had the edge blunted and then reshaped to the proper shape/thickness and the children can get really sharp knives in just a minute from that point. It's really as simple as separating the steps down to : shaping : sharpening. Many people leave out the critical prep of shaping and just want to skip ahead to sharp, which causes problems and really ramps up the time required and frustration.


Further reading on the technique : http://www.cliffstamp.com/knives/forum/read.php?7,6571
 
Father & Son Traditional Sharpening said:
Nothing to add here but despite what many here call that knife in error, the name was and is simply, Battle Mistress. This was the simple name that it was given by Busse Combat, the 'Straight Handle' part was what has been added as a sort of nickname by the shape of the handle in relation to the Ergo Battle Mistress which came next and also the Fusion Battle Mistress which followed the Ergo (that was a mix of the original Battle Mistress handle fused to the Ergo Mistress handle, hence Fusion). Back then, Battle Mistress was enough because it was the first of the lineage and I doubt it had been planned to become an entire lineage of naming large chopping knives from Busse.


Note the comments at around 1:20 on the naming of the knife. Also worth noting as some of you die hard extreme use types may have a heart attack hearing in the video, this knife has been reground to 8 degrees per side at the edge with a very slight 12 degree per side bevel at the very apex and a micro bevel to sharpen, with .020" thickness BEHIND the edge bevel where it turns into the primary grind. This knife was used HEAVILY for wood processing exclusively. Let that sink in for a minute and consider that most knives are 15-20 degrees per side from factory and Busse always exceeds this in my experience. If you're still following me and the numbers haven't completely lost you, how thick do you really need your knives to be?
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Classic Cliff Stamp. Miss that guy. The knife community that chose to listen learned a lot from that man. Geometry cuts. Geometry cuts. Geometry cuts.

Also worth noting is that blade was the original INFI alloy, hardened to a higher degree. That alloy at that hardness has not been offered in years.
 
If Blueoak does not know that Cliff Stamp was a veritable gold mine of useful knife information, then it means that all the newbies since then may not know either.

Re the handle shapes. For many people the OG BM would cause 'pinky bite' under heavy use. I have two, love them, but honestly have not used them hard. The Ergo and the Fusion handles were intended as evolutionary improvements. I hated the Ergo, love the Fusion. YMMV. Finally, the ASHBM had subtle design elements to address the pinky bite. I have one, haven't used it much.

I think that a CG FBM with CBT in the OG INFI might be the one blade to rule them all.
 
resinguy said:
If Blueoak does not know that Cliff Stamp was a veritable gold mine of useful knife information, then it means that all the newbies since then may not know either.

Re the handle shapes. For many people the OG BM would cause 'pinky bite' under heavy use. I have two, love them, but honestly have not used them hard. The Ergo and the Fusion handles were intended as evolutionary improvements. I hated the Ergo, love the Fusion. YMMV. Finally, the ASHBM had subtle design elements to address the pinky bite. I have one, haven't used it much.

I think that a CG FBM with CBT in the OG INFI might be the one blade to rule them all.
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That is true, he may not know much of Cliff but he made a comment about science which made me feel that he was aware but sort of disregarding his work as irrelevant. Handle shapes are subjective to some degree but there are definitely poor designs out there which could use improvements. I've owned the Battle Grade Fusion Battle Mistress and it was quite a big heavy knife, if that's similar feeling then I'd say it might be a little too much of a good thing. Lean up the grind and remove the unnecessary weight from the full tang handle and I'd agree that you have a winner... :)
 
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