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Here's a couple good reviews that Cobalt recently dug up...
06-14-1999, 06:18 PM
Mike Turber vbmenu_register("postmenu_688576", true);
Registered User
Join Date: Oct 1998
Location: Rancho Cucamonga, CA Honolulu & Kona Hawaii
Posts: 5,441
Busse Combat Knives test at the Blade Show!
Jerry and I talked about doing a test at the Blade Show and we did just that. Unfortunately we could not make a big scene about it so we went out back and just whacked away at some 1" hemp rope. The test was a simple rope cutting test. He held the blade against the rope and pushed it through the hemp rope. Jerry wanted to show me that his basic line (Which I just picked up as a distributor) would do everything he claimed.
Up to this point all tests on Busse's knives where done in house without anyone outside of the Busse camp witnessing the results. Well not this time. We did this test right out in the open and many BladeForums members could watch the test. Several people came by and watched at least part of the test which went on for quite a while, nearly 3 hours!
Those who watched at least part of the test were:
Les De Asis, Kit Carson, Rob Simonich, Bob Taylor, Field & Stream magazine and many forum members plus several people I did not know.
The test was simple. We placed a 2X4 on a table and clamped it down. We made guides, to lay the rope down on the 1&1/2" track the rope would lay on, for the cut by simply drilling some screws into the wood. Then Jerry took out a HUGE roll of hemp from his van. Jennifer (Jerry's wife) and I both would count the cuts. We each had a calculator and simply added each cut as it went through.
We used a Basic #9 for the test. We marked the blade with a marker so Jerry would be able to easily see and use the same part of the blade. I was amazed Jerry wanted to do this test even though his hand is still recovering from his accident.
Anyway I will cut to the chase as I am still tired from the show and this very poorly written review is a Testament to that.
Jerry's previous rope cut test with a Basic #9 made it to 1,254 cuts. This is truly amazing but the fact was that he video taped this test and he told me the reason they stopped at that count was because he was running out of video tape. Well for our test he did not need a video tape as I witnessed the entire test from start to finish.
How many cuts did we get?
2,771!
And we only stopped there because we ran out of rope!
After the 2,000th cut I was still able to shave my arm! At the 2,500 mark it lost the ability to shave but still sliced through paper really well. Lori took several pics of me shaving my arm and I will post those soon as well as the pics of the test.
Folks this is the most amazing thing I have ever scene when it comes to knives. During the test I wondered if the knife was actually just getting buffed by the rope. We even had hit the screws on the board at least 6 or so times. I was truly impressed and this has wet my appetite for a more complete test of the Basic line as soon a they ship.
I am tired and must get some sleep so look for more posts later.
------------------
Best Regards,
Mike Turber
BladeForums Site Owner and Administrator
Do it! Do it right! Do it right NOW!
Originally Posted by Cliff Stamp View Post
I finally got around to doing this mainly because I was showing the blades to a few friends and the question arose as to how strong they were. I didn't actually know. I knew they were supposed to be fairly flexible but strength was one of two areas that I figured that the Busse Combat blades might not rate too highly in.
When I first starting hearing about them I figured that the steel must be highly wear resistant with good ductility. You can't really argue with that, well you could but you would be insane as demonstrations have been done live. So basically I took those properties as a given.
However there are usually consequences to that. Make a steel very ductile and it tends to be very weak. Make a steel very abrasion resistant and it tends to be very brittle. So at first it seemed to be that the INFI blades could very well be brittle and or weak. This was not very likely however as it didn't seem to be a commonly reported problem - but then again that isn't 100% proof of anything.
After using the Battle Mistress and Basic for a short length of time it was readily obvious that neither of those problems were present. While the steel may in fact be able to bend a great deal it is very resistant to being bent in the first place.
I had my brother who was about 180 lbs do pull ups off of the Basic with just the edge supporting it and the handle didn't even flex excessively. I also dug with it and the edge didn't readily chip out. It dented up and rolled - but cam back strong after some steeling.
Back to the question at hand. I didn't really know how strong the blades were. I had done some light work with them and didn't see any major bending, but never strained them seriously. They are supposed to take a good deal of flex so I figured that this would be a safety net as I knew both could go beyond 45 degrees.
So off we go to have a look at the strength of the blades. I passed both blades around and they get lodged in some stumps and pulled on hard. No problems and a lot of wood is being ripped apart. After things settle down I take the basic and stick it halfway in a piece of spruce about 6-7 " across. I mark out 45 degrees and have a few friends watch the mark. I intended to stop if I passed this and look up the angles before going beyond it.
I start pulling and get about 45 with the handle arcing beyond it. This is about as far as I can go so I bounce on it a few times and give up. I repeat this going the other way and it holds fine. I then try a few times to move the blade out so I can get more leverage. However this just tears the wood apart and the stump splits. Nice sound effect.
I move on to the Battle Mistress, and even though it is much longer, I have no luck getting it to reach 45 degrees when it is lodged at the halfway point. It is simply too strong. Againt I try with the point but it just readily breaks the wood apart.
I have also heavily stressed just the edge but since the blades are not differentially tempered it is not overly weak either. Chop the edge stright into a piece of 4x4 and torque down hard and it splits the wood easily. The points will also take very hard stabs and torques into wood as again they are not soft.
So in conclusion Jerry the knives are pretty strong, of course since you made them you probably already knew that.
-Cliff
Originally Posted by salamander View Post
I Just did a little test of my own. The knife is a Busse basic five. We have all heard of the drop test, where the blade is dropped on the tip from a few feet to see how it holds up. Well I did the following:
I dropped the knife from five feet onto a cement floor. No problem here, then I dropped it from seven feet, again no problem as expected. Then I decided to stop playing around and took it to twenty five feet, dropped it, and guess what, No problem. So I did it again. Nothing wrong except very minimal scratches to the tip which I sharpened out in about twenty strokes on the coarse dmt. Next I decided to chop wrought Iron. It held up as I thought it would by only compressing the steel and rolling it to the side. I must add I only chopped about five times and moved on to the well known flex test. As Cliff stated It fared well, no effect. That was it. I'm done testing Busse knives. Now it's time to collect them one by one. The entire combat line and then the variants. Later, Jeff
BTW: The real test was my own personal useage over the last few months, in which it fared very well. These tests were done for fun, but I thought I'd pass them along. Jeff
Originally Posted by Cliff Stamp View Post
In a recent thread on the Camillus forum :
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum21/HTML/000257.html
Will Fennel commented about cutting pop cans half filled with water with the Magnum Camp knife. I have wondered from time to time how difficult this is but never actually attempted it. Yesterday I finally got around to doing it. I took out some pop cans and dragged my brother Pat along as he has more reach and speed that I do.
My first cut was very off, much to Pat's amusement. I slammed the blade into the can and actually hit it below the lip and cut upward throwing the can upward in a nice arc and it landed about 15 feet away. Pat's first cut made a complete show of mine. His cut entered the can just above the 1/2 way point and cut on a slight angle into the water. He sheared nicely through the can and the end just tipped over and rolled off the table (it was not level and it was windy out empty cans will not stay upright).
Determined to reproduce this I took more care and made a controlled cut. i got a similar result, clean cut and the can toppled over and rolled off. Pat duplicated his first cut. it then came to me that if I could cut at a higher angle I would force the can in place. I then took a 4x4 and stood the can on it and cut at about a 30 degree of so angle. The can was neatly sheared in half and the bottom piece stayed on the post.
A couple of notes on the condition of the Battle Mistress. It has 4 rust spots along the edge because a couple of weeks ago I wanted to see if it would rust if I put it away wet with no protectant. It did. I then left the rust on to see if it would increase. it did but very slowly. The edge also has a couple of dents about .2 to .1 mm in depth and about 1-2 mm in length as I was chopping up a coat hanger with it. I have some digging to do with it which is why I have not sharpened it yet. Before the cans were cut it was scraping sharp. This means I could shave with it but my skin would be irritated. The edge was not effected by the pop can's.
After the can cutting was finished I tried to cut a paint can in half. I could dent it up readily and sent it flying about 20 feet but not half it. I need to work on my technique.
-Cliff
[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 04-10-2000).]
Originally Posted by Burke View Post
This Saturday my aunt called from up the road and said that there was smoke coming from the woods a little less than a mile behind my house and she had called the fire department. Well, having just completed my Federal Firefighter Type 2 training, I figured I'd hike up and have a look-see. I brought along a shovel and my Battle Mistress. Sure enough, a campfire had gotten out of control and was burning close to an acre of dry leaves. I used my shovel to smother the back end of the fire, and my BM to cut up several small logs that were smoldering so I could toss the burning ends into the black (burned out area). Once the fire department got there, I helped hump hose around for a few hours. The BM also saw use prying apart hollow logs to check for embers, and digging out hot spots at the base of trees. The damage I mentioned? The coating is worn smooth in one place, I found a tiny nick in the edge, and the sheath kind of smells like smoke.
