How Are Busse Knives Created?

B

bohdisattva

Joined
Jan 13, 2012
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Hello Fellow Busse Lovers-

I've been a long time lurker here and I love me some INFI, but I was wondering how is one produced?

I know INFI is a proprietary steel of Busse Combat and goes through a protocol heat treatment, but is the INFI steel smelted and forged in-house? Are the blanks CNC'd or belt grinded, does Mr. Busse just design these awesome tools and occasionally blesses his touch on only special pieces? Besides Mr. Garth Reckner, are there other employees that we should know about that help create these almost indestructible blades? Also, how many employees are there?

When it comes to customs, Mr. Reckner sounds like the go to person (please forgive my ignorance), but is he the company manager, the main grinder or . . .?

Basically a shout out to all the people who work for great company who makes and standby an awesome product.

Any info on how these blades are created is greatly appreciated.

Cheers

ps. I've done some searching here on BF and it seems the gods have a lot to do with the creations of these blades, but I would love to give some credit to the mortals who has a hand on these knives.
 
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I'm sure Jerry will tell you anything you want to know



resized_creepy-willy-wonka-meme-generator-do-you-have-any-questions-i-d-love-to-hear-them-b96542.jpg
 
bohdisattva said:
I know INFI is a proprietary steel of Busse Combat and goes through a protocol heat treatment, but is the INFI steel smelted and forged in-house? Are the blanks CNC'd or belt grinded
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Not a clue about the smelting or the forging, but most models are CNC'd, it's fairly easy to tell just from looking at them. That doesn't mean they all are, and doesn't mean every part of them are. An example for this is are the 1/300 ASHBM, If I remember right, the swedges on those were all ground by hand. Certain models that are limited run or just don't pop up often or variants it probably would be safe to assume that they have more grinding involved. Possibly a reason why one piece receives the Custom Shop logo is how much hand grinding goes into it. At the same time too, this is all just speculation.

bohdisattva said:
does Mr. Busse just design these awesome tools and occasionally blesses his touch on only special pieces?
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Only Jerry can answer this one.

bohdisattva said:
Besides Mr. Garth Reckner, are there other employees that we should know about that help create these almost indestructible blades? Also, how many employees are there?
Click to expand...

The number of employees is a secret, but some (small number) travel to shows

bohdisattva said:
When it comes to customs, Mr. Reckner sounds like the go to person (please forgive my ignorance), but is he the company manager, the main grinder or . . .?
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Garth is Grand Poobah
 
I think that M pretty much answered it all...... Much is unknown.... Personally I believe that Jerry is an escapee from Area 51 .... But what do I know.;)
 
Not sure about all the rest, but I'm gonna say satin finish is hand applied with a 100 x $1 bill flapdisk. :p
 
Tempered in the fires of hell... While massive wild hogs slow roast on spits for the Bussekin master craftsmen
 
bohdisattva said:
...is the INFI steel smelted and forged in-house?
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No, it is ordered from a mill. To my knowledge Jerry hasn't revealed if he participated in its development or if it was selected from available alloys offered by the mill; also, the name of the mill has not been revealed, to my knowledge.

The elemental makeup of INFI is not a secret:

C .5 carbon
N .11 nitrogen
V .36 vanadium
Cr 8.25 chromium
Co .95 cobalt
Ni .74 nickel
Mo 1.3 molybdenum
Fe 87.79 iron

The unusual use of Nitrogen as an alloying element in INFI improves the steel in many ways, including corrosion resistance, but at least as important is the epic Busse heat treat protocol, which I've seen estimated at over 85 hours. Cryo alone has been reported at more than 68 hours, per the following quote from forum member "Climber" in April, 2002 (have not seen this disputed so I assume it was accurate then; probably improved upon since):

Climber said:
... INFI has as its dynamic ingredient: Nitrogen, in the form of Nitrides, for hardness, toughness, wear resistance, & a special bonding that occurs between the other elements as INFI is formed, making their unique properties enhanced at optimum performance...

the cryogenic heat treat at over 68 hours getting to -312^ F has something to do with it, too! :D i do not know of ANY other knife-maker that performs this kind of stringent treating upon each blade they make & sell; others may use some form of cryo~ but it isn't for as long, nor as gradual of a "pull-down" time (10 hours to GET to -312; then 48 hours DURING that temp~; then 10 hours back OUT from that temp...
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Here is an insider picture of the furnace/forge that makes Busses in the shop, they call it smaug or something:

tumblr_nggy6yirtE1topl6uo1_1280.jpg
 
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